QuoteProject
We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.
George Bernard Shaw
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

True wisdom comes from our commitment to the future rather than merely reflecting on the past.

George Bernard Shaw implies that wisdom is not solely derived from our memories or experiences, but rather from the active responsibility we take for shaping our future. This shift in focus encourages proactive thinking and accountability, suggesting that it is our intentions and actions moving forward that define our wisdom.

Themes

WisdomFutureResponsibilityGrowthAccountability

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be used in a motivational speech to inspire students to take charge of their future.

More from George Bernard Shaw

What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child.
George Bernard ShawRead
Marriage 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
Treat a friend as a person who may someday become your enemy; an enemy as a person who may someday become your friend.
George Bernard ShawRead
The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality.
George Bernard ShawRead

Similar quotes

Far best is he who is himself all-wise, and he, too, good who listens to wise words; But whoso is not wise or lays to hear another's wisdom is a useless man.
HesiodRead
You have to allow a certain amount of time in which you are doing nothing in order to have things occur to you, to let your mind think.
Mortimer AdlerRead
If you spend too much time worrying about how other people perceive you, you'll never break the rules.
John SculleyRead
An open mind is prerequisite to an open heart.
Robert SapolskyRead
The nobler and more perfect a thing is, the later and slower it is in arriving at maturity. A man reaches the maturity of his reasoning powers and mental faculties hardly before the age of twenty-eight; a woman at eighteen.
Arthur SchopenhauerRead
Honesty is seldom ingratiating and often discomfiting.
Tom StoppardRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.