--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: There is nothing sacred about convention…" description: "\"There is nothing sacred about convention; there is nothing sacred about primitive passions or whims; but the fact that a convention exists indicates th..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/205/george-santayana-478_capable_there-is-nothing-sacred-about-convention_1490866.jpg" --- # There is nothing sacred about convention; there is nothing… ![“There is nothing sacred about convention; there is nothing sacred about primitive passions or whims; but the fact that a convention exists indicates that a way of living has been devised capable of maintaining itself.” quote by George Santayana](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/205/george-santayana-478_capable_there-is-nothing-sacred-about-convention_1490866.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/205/george-santayana-478_capable_there-is-nothing-sacred-about-convention_1490866.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/205/george-santayana-478_capable_there-is-nothing-sacred-about-convention_1490866.jpg) > “There is nothing sacred about convention; there is nothing sacred about primitive passions or whims; but the fact that a convention exists indicates that a way of living has been devised capable of maintaining itself.” [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. Conventions are not holy, but they show a sustainable way of living exists. **In simple terms:** Conventions show a workable lifestyle. Key Takeaway Respect useful conventions. Themes society tradition practicality Mood reflective analytical Type critical philosophical When to use this quote - building communities - establishing habits - policy making Key Concepts social contract cultural norms Questions to Reflect On - What conventions serve us? - When should we challenge them? A Different Perspective Conventions can stifle innovation. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Capable](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/capable/) [Convention](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/convention/) [Convention Exists](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/convention-exists-5448875/) [Convention Sacred](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/convention-sacred-5448874/) [Conventions](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/conventions/) [Customs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/customs/) [Facts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/facts/) [Has beens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/has-beens/) [Maintaining](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/maintaining/) [Passion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/passion/) [Primitive](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/primitive/) [Sacred](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/sacred/) [Sacred Convention](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/sacred-convention-5448876/) [Sacred Primitive](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/sacred-primitive-5448877/) [Tradition](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/tradition/) [Way](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/way/) [Way of living](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/way-of-living/) [Whim](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/whim/) ## Related quotes > [“Criticism surprises the soul in the arms of convention.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-santayana/criticism-surprises-the-soul-in-the-arms-of-convention/) [George Santayana](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-santayana/) > [I am exceedingly distressed at the proceedings of the Convention-being ... almost sure, they will ... lay the foundation of a Civil War.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elbridge-gerry/i-am-exceedingly-distressed-at-the-proceedings-of-the-convention/) [Elbridge Gerry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elbridge-gerry/) > [The difference between a GOP convention and Comic-Con is that the people at Comic-Con have a much firmer grasp of reality.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-maher/the-difference-between-a-gop-convention-and-comic-con-is-that-the/) [Bill Maher](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bill-maher/) > [A political convention is just not a place where you come away with any trace of faith in human nature.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/murray-kempton/a-political-convention-is-just-not-a-place-where-you-come-away-with/) [Murray Kempton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/murray-kempton/) > [There's a War Crimes Act in the United States passed by a Republican Congress in 1996, which says that grave breaches of the Geneva…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/noam-chomsky/there-s-a-war-crimes-act-in-the-united-states-passed-by-a-republican/) [Noam Chomsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/noam-chomsky/) > [Society's the mother of convention.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carolyn-wells/society-s-the-mother-of-convention/) [Carolyn Wells](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carolyn-wells/) > [“Yielding to convention yields nothing new.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rich-disilvio/yielding-to-convention-yields-nothing-new/) [Rich DiSilvio](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rich-disilvio/) > [A convention is a social pattern we have chosen to prefer over whatever the raw world simply proffers. It is a sign of the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/a-bartlett-giamatti/a-convention-is-a-social-pattern-we-have-chosen-to-prefer-over/) [A. Bartlett Giamatti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/a-bartlett-giamatti/) > [The United States, a signatory to the Chemical Weapons Convention, destroyed the last of its stocks of VX and other chemical agents on the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/barton-gellman/the-united-states-a-signatory-to-the-chemical-weapons-convention/) [Barton Gellman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/barton-gellman/) > [The calendar? A mere convention.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/irina-ratushinskaya/the-calendar-a-mere-convention/) [Irina Ratushinskaya](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/irina-ratushinskaya/) > [Convention was our safeguard: could one have stronger?](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/convention-was-our-safeguard-could-one-have-stronger/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [“We'd been trying so hard to look like our heroes, we'd kinda forgotten what a hero really is. Capes, masks, powers — sure, that's…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mikko/we-d-been-trying-so-hard-to-look-like-our-heroes-we-d-kinda-forgotten/) [Mikko](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mikko/) > [Only in Washington would the Republican operatives get the entire press corps ginned up over the notion that I'm going to be home campaigning…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/claire-mccaskill/only-in-washington-would-the-republican-operatives-get-the-entire/) [Claire McCaskill](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/claire-mccaskill/) > [“He needed the people and the clamour around him. There was no questions and no doubts when he stood on a platform over a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ayn-rand/he-needed-the-people-and-the-clamour-around-him-there-was-no/) [Ayn Rand](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ayn-rand/) > [No one familiar with the common law of England can read the Constitution of the United States without observing the great desire of the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/samuel-freeman-miller/no-one-familiar-with-the-common-law-of-england-can-read-the/) [Samuel Freeman Miller](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/samuel-freeman-miller/) ## 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 Capable quotes > [When we are capable of living in the moment free from the tyranny of "shoulds," free from the nagging sensation that this moment isn't…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-z-borysenko/when-we-are-capable-of-living-in-the-moment-free-from-the-tyranny-of/) [Joan Z. 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And women even more than men.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gabrielle-zevin/people-are-capable-of-great-great-change-during-the-span-of-one/) [Gabrielle Zevin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gabrielle-zevin/) > [When you lived it for years and years and years and seen different characters just get pummeled and squashed because 'I said so,' it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/arn-anderson/when-you-lived-it-for-years-and-years-and-years-and-seen-different/) [Arn Anderson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/arn-anderson/) > [Each man is capable of doing one thing well. If he attempts several, he will fail to achieve distinction in any.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/plato/each-man-is-capable-of-doing-one-thing-well-if-he-attempts-several-he/) [Plato](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/plato/) > [But, outside of being a sweet little girl, she was awfully dumb and capable of doing horrible things.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jack-kerouac/but-outside-of-being-a-sweet-little-girl-she-was-awfully-dumb-and/) [Jack Kerouac](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jack-kerouac/) > [I was terrible student. 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