What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child.
The American Constitution, one of the few modern political documents drawn up by men who were forced by the sternest circumstances to think out what they really had to face, instead of chopping logic in a university classroom.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the practical and urgent context in which the American Constitution was created, emphasizing real-world challenges over theoretical debate.
George Bernard Shaw suggests that the American Constitution was crafted under intense and serious circumstances, compelling its authors to confront the reality of their political situation rather than engage in abstract academic discussions. This reflects the idea that true understanding and significant political decisions emerge from direct experiences and challenges rather than mere theoretical considerations.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of practical experience in governance.
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
For the past several years, I have remained what others would consider underground. I did this in order to build a community of people, like-minded in their desire for freedom and the right to pursue their goals and lives without being manipulated and controlled by a media protected military industrial complex with a completely different agenda.
I can be jubilant one moment and pensive the next, and a cloud could go by and make that happen.
...our eyes locked in one of those looks that sometimes happen between strangers, when both wordlessly agree that reality contains sinkholes whose depths neither can ever hope to fathom.
I find that it isn't wise to attempt to judge people on their public persona, and even on the music they make. Because I've met so many people whose music I cannot stand, and they're very nice. At the same time, I've met people whose music I've loved, and they're not the person you've invested all this emotion in.
If truth were everywhere to be shown, a scarlet letter would blaze forth on many a bosom.
A young man who wishes to remain a sound atheist cannot be too careful of his reading.