Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by George Bernard Shaw

Quote by George Bernard Shaw

“Eliza has no use for the foolish romantic tradition that all women love to be mastered, if not actually bullied and beaten. "When you go to women," says Nietzsche, "take your whip with you." Sensible despots have never confined that precaution to women: they have taken their whips with them when they have dealt with men, and been slavishly idealized by the men over whom they have flourished the whip much more than by women. No doubt there are slavish women as well as slavish men; and women, like men, admire those that are stronger than themselves. But to admire a strong person and to live under that strong person's thumb are two different things. The weak may not be admired and hero-worshipped; but they are by no means disliked or shunned; and they never seem to have the least difficulty in marrying people who are too good for them. They may fail in emergencies; but life is not one long emergency: it is mostly a string of situations for which no exceptional strength is needed, and with which even rather weak people can cope if they have a stronger partner to help them out. Accordingly, it is a truth everywhere in evidence that strong people, masculine or feminine, not only do not marry stronger people, but do not show any preference for them in selecting their friends. When a lion meets another with a louder roar "the first lion thinks the last a bore." The man or woman who feels strong enough for two, seeks for every other quality in a partner than strength. The converse is also true. Weak people want to marry strong people who do not frighten them too much; and this often leads them to make the mistake we describe metaphorically as "biting off more than they can chew." They want too much for too little; and when the bargain is unreasonable beyond all bearing, the union becomes impossible: it ends in the weaker party being either discarded or borne as a cross, which is worse. People who are not only weak, but silly or obtuse as well, are often in these difficulties”

Quote by George Bernard Shaw

Work

Pygmalion

Written by George Bernard Shaw, this play is renowned for its wit and social commentary. It follows the journey of Eliza Doolittle, a young woman from the East End of London, who is taken under the wing of Henry Higgins, a professor of phonetics. Higgins bets he can teach Eliza to speak and behave like a lady, thus transforming her into a different social class. The narrative delves into the complexities of language, social status, and the human condition. more

Author

George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw (July 26, 1856 - November 2, 1950) was an Irish-British playwright, critic, and socialist. He is renowned for his satirical and witty dramatic works. more

You May Also Like

“Life is a closed loop control system. You take inputs from your environment, from what you read, from your social interactions and from your family and it goes as a feedback into your system, modifying you a little every day. Those who are obstinate are like an open loop control system where nothing affects them. It isn’t really good to remain in an open loop for not only will you be isolated, but also miss out important things in life. It isn’t too wise either to let that feedback system be so strong that you forget your own ideals and principles. A balance is necessary.”

“This is the essence of mindsight: We must look inward to know our own internal world before we can map clearly the internal state, the mind, of the other. As we grow in our ability to know ourselves we become receptive to knowing each other. And as a "we" is woven into the neurons of our mirroring brains, even our sense of self is illuminated by the light or our connection. With internal awareness and empathy, self-empowerment and joining, differentiation and linkage, we create harmony within the resonating circuits of our social brains.”