What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child.
George Bernard ShawRead
Treat a friend as a person who may someday become your enemy; an enemy as a person who may someday become your friend.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Value your relationships as they can change over time. Treat people with respect, regardless of their current status in your life.
This quote by George Bernard Shaw emphasizes the fluidity of human relationships and the importance of treating others with dignity and respect. It suggests that friends and enemies are not fixed categories; circumstances can change, and someone you consider an enemy today might become a friend in the future, and vice versa. This perspective encourages us to approach our interactions with kindness and an open mind.
Themes
FriendshipEnemyRelationshipsRespectHuman Interaction
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about teamwork, one might say, 'As George Bernard Shaw said, treat a friend as a person who may someday become your enemy; this reminds us to value our colleagues and nurture good relationships at work.'
More from George Bernard Shaw
All quotes βMarriage is good enough for the lower classes: they have facilities for desertion that are denied to us.
George Bernard ShawRead
Forgive him, for he believes that the customs of his tribe are the laws of nature!
George Bernard ShawRead
Those who talk most about the blessings of marriage and the constancy of its vows are the very people who declare that if the chain were broken and the prisoners left free to choose, the whole social fabric would fly asunder. You cannot have the argument both ways. If the prisoner is happy, why lock him in? If he is not, why pretend that he is?
George Bernard ShawRead
The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality.
George Bernard ShawRead
I feel nothing but the accursed happiness I have dreaded all my life long: the happiness that comes as life goes, the happiness of yielding and dreaming instead of resisting and doing, the sweetness of the fruit that is going rotten.
George Bernard ShawRead
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Christopher HitchensRead
We read not only because we cannot know enough people, but because friendship is so vulnerable, so likely to diminish or disappear, overcome by space, time, imperfect sympathies, and all the sorrows of familial and passional life.
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We cannot always assure the future of our friends; we have a better chance of assuring our future if we remember who our friends are.
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When I turned 40, I invited Johnny Cash to my party, even though I knew there was gonna be 200 people roasting a pig and wild as can be. He didn't come, but the next day, I got a bowl of chili he'd made and a note that said, 'John, I'd love to come to your party, but that would mean I would have to leave my house.'
John PrineRead
Prosperity is full of friends.
EuripidesRead
Friendship is a single soul dwelling in two bodies.
AristotleRead