--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: The irrational in the human has something…" description: "\"The irrational in the human has something about it altogether repulsive and terrible, as we see in the maniac, the miser, the drunkard or the ape.\" — G..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f2d/george-santayana-478_irrational_the-irrational-in-the-human-has-somethin_1379234.png" --- # The irrational in the human has something about it… ![“The irrational in the human has something about it altogether repulsive and terrible, as we see in the maniac, the miser, the drunkard or the ape.” quote by George Santayana](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f2d/george-santayana-478_irrational_the-irrational-in-the-human-has-somethin_1379234.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f2d/george-santayana-478_irrational_the-irrational-in-the-human-has-somethin_1379234.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f2d/george-santayana-478_irrational_the-irrational-in-the-human-has-somethin_1379234.png) > “The irrational in the human has something about it altogether repulsive and terrible, as we see in the maniac, the miser, the drunkard or the ape.” [George Santayana](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-santayana/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Human irrationality is repulsive, seen in extremes like mania, miserliness, drunkenness, or ape-like behavior. **In simple terms:** Irrational human traits are unsettling. Key Takeaway Beware of irrational impulses. Themes irrationality human nature extremes Mood critical analytical Type philosophical psychological When to use this quote - self‑reflection - therapy - leadership training Key Concepts psychology philosophy Questions to Reflect On - What drives irrational behavior? - How can we channel it positively? A Different Perspective Not all irrationality is negative; it can inspire creativity. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Irrational](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/irrational/) ## Related quotes > [“What is love, Mikayel? Isn't it the most irrational of all human emotions? And the one most forbidden?”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christine-fonseca/what-is-love-mikayel-isn-t-it-the-most-irrational-of-all-human/) [Christine Fonseca](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christine-fonseca/) > [“The irrational, the human nostalgia, and the absurd that is born of their encounter - these are the three characters in the drama that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/albert-camus/the-irrational-the-human-nostalgia-and-the-absurd-that-is-born-of/) [Albert Camus](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/albert-camus/) > [“The absurd is born of this confrontation between the human need and the unreasonable silence of the world. This must not be forgotten. This…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/albert-camus/the-absurd-is-born-of-this-confrontation-between-the-human-need-and/) [Albert camus](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/albert-camus/) > [We should have to abandon our vested illusions, our irrational religions and patriotisms.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-santayana/we-should-have-to-abandon-our-vested-illusions-our-irrational/) [George Santayana](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-santayana/) > [During college, I found academics repulsive and forced myself to study subjects I didn't want to pursue.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ishaan-khatter/during-college-i-found-academics-repulsive-and-forced-myself-to-study/) [Ishaan Khatter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ishaan-khatter/) > [Perhaps it's just me, but I am wary of any persons whose belief system is the only thing standing between them and repulsive behavior.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frans-de-waal/perhaps-it-s-just-me-but-i-am-wary-of-any-persons-whose-belief-system/) [Frans de Waal](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frans-de-waal/) > [“Approach what you find repulsive, help the ones you think you cannot help, and go places that scare you. ”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/machik-labdr-n/approach-what-you-find-repulsive-help-the-ones-you-think-you-cannot/) Machik Labdron > [“Alice started to understand why people found her repulsive. In stories, anyone who didn't look quite right, who wasn't a perfect human being, was…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/georgia-byng/alice-started-to-understand-why-people-found-her-repulsive-in-stories/) [Georgia Byng](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/georgia-byng/) > [The idea of fame is repulsive, I want to save the world.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/eleanor-antin/the-idea-of-fame-is-repulsive-i-want-to-save-the-world/) [Eleanor Antin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/eleanor-antin/) > [“both touching and somehow repulsive.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/fyodor-dostoyevsky/both-touching-and-somehow-repulsive/) [Fyodor Dostoyevsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/fyodor-dostoyevsky/) > [“Felicity was horrible and snide, but then Felicity had been a repulsive earwig ever since she first grew a vocabulary.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gail-carriger/felicity-was-horrible-and-snide-but-then-felicity-had-been-a/) [Gail Carriger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gail-carriger/) > [“LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! YOU'VE READ ABOUT IT IN THE NEWSPAPERS! NOW, SHUDDER AS YOU OBSERVE, BEFORE YOUR VERY EYES, THAT MOST RAREAND RAGIC OF…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-moore/ladies-and-gentlemen-you-ve-read-about-it-in-the-newspapers-now/) [Alan Moore](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-moore/) > [“I've noticed while cooking, how ingredients in their individual and naked state and be a bit repulsive but necessary, kind of like people.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/roxane-gay/i-ve-noticed-while-cooking-how-ingredients-in-their-individual-and/) [Roxane Gay](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/roxane-gay/) > [“Yet there must be something repulsive about her somewhere, something more repelling than just a pair of eyes that couldn't see, for she'd been…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/beverly-butler/yet-there-must-be-something-repulsive-about-her-somewhere-something/) Beverly Butler > [Repulsive, humiliating advice usually comes from bad intentions.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/repulsive-humiliating-advice-usually-comes-from-bad-intentions/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) ## More by George Santayana > [Perhaps the universe is nothing but an equilibrium of idiocies.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-santayana/perhaps-the-universe-is-nothing-but-an-equilibrium-of-idiocies/) [George Santayana](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-santayana/) > [The combative instinct is a savage prompting by which one man's good is found in another's evil.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-santayana/the-combative-instinct-is-a-savage-prompting-by-which-one-man-s-good/) [George Santayana](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-santayana/) > [Sanctity and genius are as rebellious as vice.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-santayana/sanctity-and-genius-are-as-rebellious-as-vice/) [George Santayana](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-santayana/) > [To attempt to be religious without practicing a specific religion is as possible as attempting to speak without a specific language.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-santayana/to-attempt-to-be-religious-without-practicing-a-specific-religion-is/) [George Santayana](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-santayana/) > [“The contemporary world has turned its back on the attempt and even on the desire to live reasonably.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-santayana/the-contemporary-world-has-turned-its-back-on-the-attempt-and-even-on/) [George Santayana](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-santayana/) > [The pride of the artisan in his art and its uses is pride in himself...It is in his skill and ability to make things…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-santayana/the-pride-of-the-artisan-in-his-art-and-its-uses-is-pride-in-himself/) [George Santayana](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-santayana/) > [If pain could have cured us we should long ago have been saved.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-santayana/if-pain-could-have-cured-us-we-should-long-ago-have-been-saved/) [George Santayana](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-santayana/) > [Towers in a modern town are a frill and a survival; they seem like the raised hands of the various churches, afraid of being…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-santayana/towers-in-a-modern-town-are-a-frill-and-a-survival-they-seem-like-the/) [George Santayana](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-santayana/) > [Wealth, religion, military victory have more rhetorical than efficacious worth.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-santayana/wealth-religion-military-victory-have-more-rhetorical-than/) [George Santayana](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-santayana/) > [Whoever it was who searched the heavens with a telescope and found no God would not have found the human mind if he had…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-santayana/whoever-it-was-who-searched-the-heavens-with-a-telescope-and-found-no/) [George Santayana](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-santayana/) > [It is easier to make a saint out of a libertine than out of a prig.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-santayana/it-is-easier-to-make-a-saint-out-of-a-libertine-than-out-of-a-prig/) [George Santayana](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-santayana/) > [Experience is a mere whiff or rumble, produced by enormously complex and ill-deciphered causes of experience; and in the other direction, experience is a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-santayana/experience-is-a-mere-whiff-or-rumble-produced-by-enormously-complex/) [George Santayana](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-santayana/) > [Miracles are propitious accidents, the natural causes of which are too complicated to be readily understood.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-santayana/miracles-are-propitious-accidents-the-natural-causes-of-which-are-too/) [George Santayana](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-santayana/) > [Memory itself is an internal rumour; and when to this hearsay within the mind we add the falsified echoes that reach us from others,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-santayana/memory-itself-is-an-internal-rumour-and-when-to-this-hearsay-within/) [George Santayana](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-santayana/) > [Familiarity breeds contempt only when it breeds inattention.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-santayana/familiarity-breeds-contempt-only-when-it-breeds-inattention/) [George Santayana](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-santayana/) [Explore all 530 George Santayana quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-santayana/) ## More Irrational quotes > [It is true that from a behavioral economics perspective we are fallible, easily confused, not that smart, and often irrational. We are more like…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dan-ariely/it-is-true-that-from-a-behavioral-economics-perspective-we-are/) [Dan Ariely](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dan-ariely/) > [“...the irrational will have its say, perhaps because 'irrational' is the wrong word for it.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robertson-davies/the-irrational-will-have-its-say-perhaps-because-irrational-is-the/) [Robertson Davies](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robertson-davies/) > [To be against rationalization is not the same as to be opposed to reasoning.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/to-be-against-rationalization-is-not-the-same-as-to-be-opposed-to/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) > [There are big, extremely irrational parts of the society, and they have now been mobilized politically by the Republican establishment, hoping that these people…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/noam-chomsky/there-are-big-extremely-irrational-parts-of-the-society-and-they-have/) [Noam Chomsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/noam-chomsky/) > [The advance of science spares us from irrational dread.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/martin-rees/the-advance-of-science-spares-us-from-irrational-dread/) [Martin Rees](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/martin-rees/) > [But jealousy... it's a strange thing. So much more powerful then I would have thought. And irrational!](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edward-cullen/but-jealousy-it-s-a-strange-thing-so-much-more-powerful-then-i-would/) [Edward Cullen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edward-cullen/) > [For people of color - especially African Americans - the idea that racist cops might frame members of their community is no abstract notion,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tim-wise/for-people-of-color-especially-african-americans-the-idea-that-racist/) [Tim Wise](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tim-wise/) > [America must deal once and for all with an utterly irrational health care financing system that allows private interests to make billions in profits…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/suzanne-gordon/america-must-deal-once-and-for-all-with-an-utterly-irrational-health/) [Suzanne Gordon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/suzanne-gordon/) > [My greatest personal mistake is ever to allow a word or moment that “doesn’t count,” i.e., that I do not refer to my own…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ayn-rand/my-greatest-personal-mistake-is-ever-to-allow-a-word-or-moment-that/) [Ayn Rand](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ayn-rand/) > [At that moment, she cannot think of a more reckless, irrational thing than choosing to become a parent.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/khaled-hosseini/at-that-moment-she-cannot-think-of-a-more-reckless-irrational-thing/) [Khaled Hosseini](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/khaled-hosseini/) > [“steam-tactics saga illustrates that (4) Rationalism, unlike empiricism, tends to assume an accretion of vested interests.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gilbert-andrew-hugh-gordon/steam-tactics-saga-illustrates-that-4-rationalism-unlike-empiricism/) [Gilbert Andrew Hugh Gordon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gilbert-andrew-hugh-gordon/) > [“Many people do simply awful things out of sincere religious belief, not using religion as a cover the way that Saddam Hussein may have…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/steven-weinberg/many-people-do-simply-awful-things-out-of-sincere-religious-belief/) [Steven Weinberg](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/steven-weinberg/) > [Remember that failure is part of the process of successful running. Performance is a roller coaster; to think otherwise is irrational and will cause…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jerry-lynch/remember-that-failure-is-part-of-the-process-of-successful-running/) Jerry Lynch > [ In \[the soul\] one part naturally rules, and the other is subject, and the virtue of the ruler we maintain to be different from… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aristotle/in-the-soul-one-part-naturally-rules-and-the-other-is-subject-and-the/) [Aristotle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aristotle/) > [Advancing bourgeois society liquidates memory, time, recollection as irrational leftovers of the past.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/theodor-adorno/advancing-bourgeois-society-liquidates-memory-time-recollection-as/) [Theodor Adorno](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/theodor-adorno/) [Browse all 785 Irrational quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/irrational/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "The irrational in the human has something about it altogether repulsive and terrible, as we see in the maniac, the miser, the drunkard or the ape.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "George Santayana" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-santayana/the-irrational-in-the-human-has-something-about-it-altogether/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Irrational" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-santayana/the-irrational-in-the-human-has-something-about-it-altogether/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f2d/george-santayana-478_irrational_the-irrational-in-the-human-has-somethin_1379234.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f2d/george-santayana-478_irrational_the-irrational-in-the-human-has-somethin_1379234.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f2d/george-santayana-478_irrational_the-irrational-in-the-human-has-somethin_1379234.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“The irrational in the human has something about it altogether repulsive and terrible, as we see in the…” — George Santayana", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "George Santayana", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-santayana/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "The irrational in the human has...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-santayana/the-irrational-in-the-human-has-something-about-it-altogether/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-santayana/the-irrational-in-the-human-has-something-about-it-altogether/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```