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| GEORGE BERNARD SHAW |
| The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. The haughty American nation... makes the Negro clean its boots and then proves the moral and physical inferiority of the Negro by the fact that he is a bootblack. The liar's punishment is not in the least that he is not believed but that he cannot believe anyone else. The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it. 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. The road to ignorance is paved with good editions. The trouble with her is that she lacks the power of conversation but not the power of speech. The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them; that's the essence of inhumanity. There is no sincerer love than the love of food. Those who do not know how to live must make a merit of dying. To the person with a toothache, even if the world is tottering, there is nothing more important than a visit to a dentist. Very few people can afford to be poor. We should have had socialism already, but for the socialists. What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child. When a man wants to murder a tiger, it's called sport; when a tiger wants to murder him, it's called ferocity. When you prevent me from doing anything I want to do, that is persecution; but when I prevent you from doing anything you want to do, that is law, order and morals. Without art, the crudeness of reality would make the world unbearable. You see things; and you ask "Why?" But I dream things that never were, and I say, "Why not?" |
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