George Santayana (December 16, 1863, Madrid, Spain – September 26, 1952, Rome, Italy), was a philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist. A lifelong Spanish citizen, Santayana was raised and educated in the United States, wrote in English and is generally considered an American man of letters. Of his nearly 89 years, he spent 39 in the U.S. Santayana is perhaps best known as an aphorist, most famously for his oft-misquoted remark "Those who cannot ...
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George Santayana (December 16, 1863, Madrid, Spain – September 26, 1952, Rome, Italy), was a philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist. A lifelong Spanish citizen, Santayana was raised and educated in the United States, wrote in English and is generally considered an American man of letters. Of his nearly 89 years, he spent 39 in the U.S. Santayana is perhaps best known as an aphorist, most famously for his oft-misquoted remark "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it," (sometimes called Santayana's Law of Repetitive Consequences). Similarly, a quote of Santayana's: "Only the dead have seen the end of war." is often falsely attributed to Plato.
Born Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás, 16 December 1863, he spent his early childhood in Ávila, Spain. His mother, Josefina Borrás was the daughter of a Spanish official in the Philippines. He was the only child of his mother's second marriage. She had previously been the widow of George Sturgis, a Boston...
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