What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child.
George Bernard ShawRead
When the horrors of anarchy force us to set up laws that forbid us to fight and torture one another for sport, we still snatch at every excuse for declaring individuals outside the protection of law and torturing them to our hearts content.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the paradox of society's laws against violence while still finding ways to justify it against certain individuals.
In this quotation, George Bernard Shaw observes a crucial contradiction in human behavior and societal norms. While laws are implemented to prevent violence and ensure safety, there remains a tendency to seek out marginalized individuals or groups who can be subjected to harm without legal protection. Shaw critiques the moral failings of society, suggesting that even in a structured legal system, there exists a disturbing desire to inflict suffering on others, thus revealing the darker instincts of humanity.
Themes
AnarchyLawViolenceMoralitySociety
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be cited during discussions on the ethics of law and punishment.
More from George Bernard Shaw
All quotes →Marriage 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
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
There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people.
Howard ZinnRead
Armaments, universal debt and planned obsolescence - those are the three pillars of Western prosperity.
Aldous HuxleyRead
Much of what we call evil is due entirely to the way men take the phenomenon. It can so often be converted into a bracing and tonic good by a simple change of the sufferer's inner attitude from one of fear to one of fight; its string can so often depart and turn into a relish when, after vainly seeking to shun it, we agree to face about and bear it.
William JamesRead
The gratification which affluence of wealth, extent of power, and eminence of reputation confer, must be always, by their own nature, confined to a very small number; and the life of the greater part of mankind must be lost in empty wishes and painful comparisons, were not the balm of philosophy shed upon us, and our discontent at the appearances of unequal distribution soothed and appeased.
Samuel JohnsonRead
How big are souls anyway?" asked Coraline. The other mother sat down at the kitchen table and leaned against the back wall, saying nothing. She picked at her teeth with a long crimson-varnished fingernail, then she tapped the finger, gently, tap-tap-tap against the polished black surface of her black button eyes.
Neil GaimanRead
Death is not the opposite of life. Life has no opposite. Death is the opposite of birth.
Eckhart TolleRead