Almost every wise saying has an opposite one, no less wise, to balance it.

Santayana makes this remark in the course of reflecting on the limits of proverbial “wisdom” and the way maxims can be marshaled to justify contrary courses of action. Writing as a philosopher attentive to the tensions between reason, habit, and circumstance, he notes that aphorisms tend to be situational rather than universally binding: for nearly any prudent rule of thumb, experience supplies an equally prudent counter-rule. The observation fits his broader skepticism about relying on inherited formulas in place of judgment, and it points to the intellectual climate of late‑19th/early‑20th‑century moral and cultural criticism in which he often wrote—where neat moral certainties were increasingly tested against complexity and pluralism.

Santayana’s remark points to the way proverbial “wisdom” often comes in paired, contradictory forms—each plausible because it captures a real but partial truth. Maxims like “look before you leap” and “he who hesitates is lost” can both be sound depending on circumstances, temperament, and stakes. The quote is thus a warning against treating aphorisms as universal laws: they are compressed observations, not proofs. It also reflects Santayana’s broader philosophical skepticism about one-size-fits-all moral formulas and his preference for contextual judgment, where competing goods (caution vs. boldness, patience vs. speed) must be balanced rather than absolutized.