Category: LETTERS Page 155 of 274

To Otto Kyllmann
Hotel Bristol
Rome. March 14, 1939.

All my life I have read French books when I wished to be merely entertained or introduced to interesting objects or ideas, apart from their truth or value. In French, they do that sort of thing admirably, but in English—and much more in “American”—the medium is more refractory, and I seem to require genuine feeling and genuine thought.

From The Letters of George Santayana:  Book Six, 1937-1940.  Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2004.
Location of manuscript: Temple University Libraries, Philadelphia PA

To Daniel MacGhie Cory
Hotel Bristol
Rome. March 13, 1934

Your letter of a fortnight ago, in which you said that Oliver was “getting under your skin”, gave me a good deal of pleasure and encouragement, because in the novel I haven’t the sort of conviction and assurance that supports me in writing about philosophy, even if no one seems to take notice; and it is easier to go ahead if there are indications that one’s labour may not be all wasted.

[T.S.] Eliot is honest and brave, but limited.

From The Letters of George Santayana:  Book Five, 1933-1936.  Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2003.
Location of manuscript: Butler Library, Columbia University, New York NY

To Nancy Saunders Toy
Rome. March 12, 1932

I have just read Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, on top of Benda’s disparaging view of all worlds, old and new. There seems to be a general change of tone, among the modern school, from the optimism of our time. It is not our old pessimism, either, but a sort of horror of mechanism, which I don’t feel, perhaps because I have always believed that the universe is mechanical, and that nevertheless the spirit can be, I won’t say at home in it, but supported by it.

From The Letters of George Santayana:  Book Four, 1928–1932.  Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2003.
Location of manuscript: The Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge MA

To Curt John Ducasse
OPERE DEL REGIME
ROMA VILLA CELIMONTANA
Rome. March 11, 1932

Thank you very much for your pamphlet, with which I am in general agreement. Especially at the end, I think you hit the nail on the head about the “social” intention of the artist. When he is pleased with his work he cries, Oh, look! like a child pointing at a donkey.—You can’t tell what you want to say till (at least mentally) you have said it.

From The Letters of George Santayana:  Book Four, 1928–1932.  Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2003.
Location of manuscript: The John Hay Library, Brown University, Providence RI

To Charles P. Davis
Rome. March 10, 1938

Time is all little taps. Why mind the 75th?

From The Letters of George Santayana:  Book Six, 1937-1940.  Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2004.
Location of manuscript: Butler Library, Columbia University, New York NY