Portable Wisdom

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

Back to top