What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child.
George Bernard ShawRead
Only in books has mankind known perfect truth, love and beauty.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Books encapsulate the ideals of truth, love, and beauty as understood by humanity.
George Bernard Shaw suggests that literature is the only realm where humans have consistently encountered and expressed the perfect forms of truth, love, and beauty. In reality, these concepts often elude everyday life; however, within the pages of books, they are immortalized and explored in their purest forms, offering readers a glimpse into the ideals that resonate deeply with the human experience.
Themes
BooksTruthLoveBeautyLiterature
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of reading, one might quote Shaw to emphasize literature's role in appreciating lifeβs ideals.
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.
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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
She doesn't do the things heroines are supposed to. Which is rather Jane Austen's point - Fanny is her subversive heroine. She is gentle and self-doubting and utterly feminine; and given the right circumstances, she would defy an army.
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What I've always tried to find in my books are points at which the private lives of the characters, and also my own, intersect with the public life of the culture.
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I found literary idols in Adrienne Kennedy, Nella Larsen, and Ntozake Shange, writers who'd dared to locate a sanctioned, forbidden space between white vulnerability and black invincibility.
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The land of literature is a fairy land to those who view it at a distance, but, like all other landscapes, the charm fades on a nearer approach, and the thorns and briars become visible.
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Writers are often the worst judges of what they have written.
Stephen KingRead