Author: George Bernard Shaw
Quotations
My Life Belongs to the Whole Community
This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.
I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community, and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.
I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no “brief candle” for me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.
I Dream Things That Never Were
You see things; and you say, ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say, ‘Why not?’
From the play Back to Methuselah
— 1921
Progress Depends on the Unreasonable Man
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
From the play Maxims for Revolutionists
— 1903