乔治·桑塔耶纳(George Santayana)
True love, it used to be said, is love at first sight. Manners have much to do with such incidents, and the race which happens to set at a given time the fashion in literature makes its temperament public and exercises a sort of contagion over all men's fancies. If women are rarely seen and ordinarily not to be spoken to; if all imagination has to build upon is a furtive glance or casual motion, people fall in love at first sight. For they must fall in love somehow, and any stimulus is enough if none more powerful is forthcoming. When society, on the contrary, allows constant and easy intercourse between the sexes, a first impression, if not reinforced, will soon be hidden and obliterated by others. Acquaintance becomes necessary for love when it is necessary for memory. But what makes true love is not the information conveyed by acquaintance, nor any circumstantial charms that may be therein discovered: it is still a deep and dumb instinctive affinity , an inexplicable emotion seizing the heart, an influence organizing the world, like a luminous crystal , about one magic point. So that although love seldom springs up suddenly in these days into anything like a full-blown passion, it is sight, it is presence, that makes in time a conquest over the heart; for all virtues, sympathies, confidences will fail to move a man to tenderness and to worship unless a poignant effluence from the object envelops him, so that he begins to walk, as it were, in a dream.
- contagion [kənˈteɪdʒən] n. 感染
- furtive [ˈfɜːtɪv] a. 秘密的，鬼鬼祟祟的
- obliterate [əˈblɪtəreɪt] v. 消灭；冲刷
- affinity [əˈfɪnɪtɪ] n. 亲和力，心心相印
- inexplicable [ˌɪnɪkˈsplɪkəbl] a. 费解的，无法说明的
luminous crystal 发光晶体
- poignant [ˈpɔɪnənt] a. 强烈的，刻骨铭心的
曾经有个说法，真爱是一见钟情。行为举止能极大地影响人们的一见钟情，人类在一定时间内碰巧推崇的文学时尚，其气质得以广为公众知晓，便会感染所有男人的审美力。如果女子难得和男子见面，一般不与男子交谈，如果想象力得以展开只是基于偷偷地一瞥或一个不经意的动作，那么人们就会一见钟情。因为人们总得恋爱，如果没有什么更强的刺激因素出现，任何一种刺激因素都能奏效。相反，当社会允许两性自由交往时，第一印象如果不进一步强化，就会被别的印象掩盖、消除。当爱需要记忆的时候，熟悉就变得必须了。真情不是熟人之间传递的信息，也不是以后发现的一时的魅力，而是一种深深的、不能言传的本能的亲近感，一种无法表达的攫人心灵的强烈感情，一种影响世界的作用力，就像发光的水晶球接近某个魔法的时刻。因此，在当今时代，虽然爱情很少突然炽热迸发，激情澎湃，但它是眼见为实，是身边共处，待到瓜熟蒂落，自然两心相悦，坠入爱河；因为所有的美德、同情和信心都无法使一个男人的心软化下来进行崇拜，除非包围着他的对象给他刻骨铭心的影响，他才开始步入可以说是梦境的爱河。
乔治·桑塔耶纳(1863—1952)，西班牙裔美国哲学家、诗人、小说家，出生在马德里。作品有《十四行诗和其他诗》(Sonnets and Other Verses ，1894)。主要哲学著作：《理性生活》(The Life of Reason ，1905—1906)，《怀疑主义和动物的信念》(Scepticism and Animal Faith ，1923)以及诙谐而很成功的长篇小说《最后的清教徒》(The Last Puritan ，1935)。
桑塔耶纳的思想深受他的哲学背景和他对欧洲和美国文化的深刻理解的影响。他强调历史的重要性，并提出了许多关于人类本质和文化发展的见解，对20世纪的哲学和思想影响深远。