George Santayana Quotes

I think mankind is overly sensitive, very needy, greedy, and flawed.

I found popularity through self-destruction, and that can be quite addictive.

Insanity is knowing that what you're doing is completely idiotic, but still, somehow, you just can't stop it.

Goering is a morphine addict…a classic megalomaniac.

If one looks with a cold eye at the mess man has made of history, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that he has been afflicted by some built-in mental disorder which drives him towards self-destruction.

For me, addiction exposes all of the brain mechanism under the influence of a profoundly distorted primary motivation. It's such a window into how we function as human beings. And the patient doesn't know that's happening! Doesn't believe that's happening! That's the fascinating part.

We're just kind of dark as humans, generally.

The doctor sees all the weakness of mankind; the lawyer all the wickedness, the theologian all the stupidity.

There is something that falls short of perfection in every book, without exception, something influenced by the age, even something ridiculous; just like everyone, without exception, has weaknesses.

There are all kinds of addictions, and I've got every single one. If you set me in front of anything, I will do it until I ram it into the ground and it's done working for me.

A guy who's actually self destructive is quite fun to play.

A monomaniac is a sick person whose mentality is perfectly healthy in all respects but one; he has a single flaw, clearly localized. At times, for example, he has an unreasonable and absurd desire to drink or steal or use abusive language; but all his other acts and all his other thoughts are strictly correct.

The privilege of absurdity; to which no living creature is subject, but man only.

You cannot intellectualize yourself out of obsession. You cannot cure yourself of it.

Human beings can always be relied upon to exert, with vigor, their God-given right to be stupid.

If you asked me what is the basis of all my work, it's the feeling there's something basically wrong with human beings.

Soft addictions are an alluring, seductive aspect of our culture - they are easy to attain and socially acceptable, they are even encouraged in many cases. Yet they are lethal to the spirit.

It (masturbation) is called … ‘beastliness’, and this is about the best name for it…. Should it become a habit, it quickly destroys both health and spirits; he becomes feeble in body and mind, and often ends up in a lunatic asylum.

If an historian were to relate truthfully all the crimes, weakness and disorders of mankind, his readers would take his work for satire rather than history.

Addiction is a neurological disease—a disease of the brain…. No one wakes up in the morning and says today ‘I want to become an addict.’

The thing about addiction is you think you're getting off on people, and you're not, and the only person you're fooling is yourself.

Abnormal stresses and strains tend to accentuate man's animal instincts and provoke irrational and socially disruptive behavior among the less stable individuals in the maddening crowd.

My weakness in life is two men who seduce me all the time - named Ben & Jerry.

Nothing surprises me, particularly men and their propensity to be fools.

Predominantly, crimes and horrible, horrible, horrible judgment don't have to do with sociopaths. It has to do with people who are not capable of maintaining or managing their frailties.