What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child.
George Bernard ShawRead
Only on paper has humanity yet achieved glory, beauty, truth, knowledge, virtue, and abiding love.
Interpretation
Humanity's highest achievements exist only as ideals on paper, not in reality.
George Bernard Shaw reflects on the notion that many of humanity's greatest ideals—glory, beauty, truth, knowledge, virtue, and love—are often only realized in theory rather than in practice. This quote suggests a critique of the discrepancy between our aspirations and the current state of reality, highlighting the difficulty of fully achieving these noble ideals in everyday life.
In practice
During a lecture about the human condition and our aspirations towards greatness.
What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child.
Marriage is good enough for the lower classes: they have facilities for desertion that are denied to us.
Forgive him, for he believes that the customs of his tribe are the laws of nature!
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?
Treat a friend as a person who may someday become your enemy; an enemy as a person who may someday become your friend.
The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality.
What is called generosity is usually only the vanity of giving; we enjoy the vanity more than the thing given.
You shall find out how salt is the taste of another man's bread, and how hard is the way up and down another man's stairs.
It's very depressing to live in a time where it's easier to break an atom than a prejudice.
Despite the many iniquities that have found entrance into the practices of image-worship as it is in vogue now, I do not condemn it. Ay, where would I have been if I had not been blessed with the dust of the holy feet of that orthodox, image-worshipping Brahmin!
Live in the present moment. The past and future are nonexistent. Only the present can be grasped or, better, embraced.
Religion is a very scary thing, because a pastor is in a position of power. And if you use that power badly, you ruin people's lives, and you ruin your own life.
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