“All his life he [the American] jumps into the train after it has started and jumps out before it has stopped; and he never once gets left behind, or breaks a leg.”

"Materialism and Idealism" p. 175 ( Hathi Trust http://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.b3923968?urlappend=%3Bseq=191)
Character and Opinion in the United States (1920)

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Do you have more details about the quote "All his life he [the American] jumps into the train after it has started and jumps out before it has stopped; and he ne…" by George Santayana?
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George Santayana 109
20th-century Spanish-American philosopher associated with P… 1863–1952

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Context: I said that "Patriotism" is a way of saying "Women and children first." And that no one can force a man to feel this way. Instead he must embrace it freely. I want to tell about one such man. He wore no uniform and no one knows his name, or where he came from; all we know is what he did.
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One Sunday afternoon a young married couple were crossing these tracks. She apparently did not watch her step, for she managed to catch her foot in the frog of a switch to a siding and could not pull it free. Her husband stopped to help her.
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