What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child.
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Value your relationships as they can change over time. Treat people with respect, regardless of their current status in your life.
This quote by George Bernard Shaw emphasizes the fluidity of human relationships and the importance of treating others with dignity and respect. It suggests that friends and enemies are not fixed categories; circumstances can change, and someone you consider an enemy today might become a friend in the future, and vice versa. This perspective encourages us to approach our interactions with kindness and an open mind.
Themes
FriendshipEnemyRelationshipsRespectHuman Interaction
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about teamwork, one might say, 'As George Bernard Shaw said, treat a friend as a person who may someday become your enemy; this reminds us to value our colleagues and nurture good relationships at work.'
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.
George Bernard ShawRead
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
The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality.
George Bernard ShawRead
I feel nothing but the accursed happiness I have dreaded all my life long: the happiness that comes as life goes, the happiness of yielding and dreaming instead of resisting and doing, the sweetness of the fruit that is going rotten.
George Bernard ShawRead
Similar quotes
As a matter of self-preservation, a man needs good friends or ardent enemies, for the former instruct him and the latter take him to task.
DiogenesRead
There is no surer foundation for a beautiful friendship than a mutual taste in literature.
P. G. WodehouseRead
Is that the basis of friendship? Is it as reactive as that? Do we respond only to people who seem to find us interesting?... Do we all buzz or ring or light up when people press our vanity buttons, and only then? Can I think of anyone in my whole life whom I have liked without his first showing signs of liking me?
Wallace StegnerRead
As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.
SolomonRead
Whoever understands how to do a kindness when he fares well would be a friend better than any possession.
SophoclesRead
Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit.
AristotleRead