What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child.
The only person who acts sensibly is my tailor. He takes my measure anew every time he sees me. Everyone else goes by their old measurements.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of adaptability and personal growth, highlighting that true understanding comes from recognizing change over time.
George Bernard Shaw's quote reflects on the need for continual reassessment in our lives and relationships. While others may rely on outdated perceptions of us, the tailor represents the ideal approach of constantly evaluating our current state and adjusting to the changes that come with time. It suggests that understanding oneself and others requires flexibility and an open mindset, rather than clinging to past judgments or assumptions.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about personal development, one might use this quote to encourage continuous self-reflection and evolution.
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.
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.
Similar quotes
Integrity is the factor that determines which one will prevail. We struggle daily with situations that demand decisions between what we want to do and what we ought to do. Integrity establishes the ground rules for resolving these tensions. it determines who we are and how we will respond before the conflict even appears. Integrity welds what we say, think, and do, into a whole person so that permission is never granted for one of these to be out of sync.
You should be convinced of the authenticity of what you have, but you must also be humble enough to say that we don't know everything. And since we don't know everything, we must accept that another person may believe something else.
The purpose of today's training is to defeat yesterday's understanding.
People don't realize what they had till it's gone. Like President Kennedy, there was no one like him, the Beatles, and my man Elvis Presley. I was the Elvis of boxing.
The power of doing anything with quickness is always prized much by the possessor, and often without any attention to the imperfection of the performance.
A miracle is nothing more nor less than this One who has come into a knowledge of his true identity, of his oneness with the allpervading Wisdom and Power, thus makes it possible for laws higher than the ordinary mind knows of to be revealed to him.