What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child.
George Bernard ShawRead
In order to fully realize how bad a popular play can be, it is necessary to see it twice.
Interpretation
What this quote means
A true understanding of art often requires more than a single experience.
George Bernard Shaw suggests that to grasp the full impact of a play, even if it is poorly received, one must witness it on more than one occasion. This underscores the idea that initial reactions can be misleading and that deeper insights often emerge through repeated exposure, reflecting the complexity of artistic appreciation.
Themes
TheaterArtExperienceUnderstandingPlays
In practice
Example use cases
Introducing this quote when discussing the merits of controversial theater at a film festival.
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.
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Forgive him, for he believes that the customs of his tribe are the laws of nature!
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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?
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Treat a friend as a person who may someday become your enemy; an enemy as a person who may someday become your friend.
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The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality.
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Volume depends precisely on the writer's having been able to sit in a room every day, year after year, alone.
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I would that my photographs might be, not the coverage of a news event, but an indictment of war - the brutal corrupting viciousness of its doing to the minds and bodies of men; and, that my photographs might be a powerful emotional catalyst to the reasoning which would help this vile and criminal stupidity from beginning again.
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