George Bernard Shaw

Life is no brief candle for me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got to hold up for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.

Source: Man and Superman, George Bernard Shaw, 1903 (Epistle Dedicatory to Arthur Bingham Walkley)

Genuine Shaw, from the Epistle Dedicatory prefacing 'Man and Superman' (1903). The surrounding passage runs: 'This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one... I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.' Wording note for the corpus: the original reads 'which I have got hold of for the moment', not 'which I have got to hold up for the moment'. Recommend correcting the text to match the source.

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I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I love. I rejoice in life for its own sake.

Source: Man and Superman, George Bernard Shaw, 1903 (Epistle Dedicatory to Arthur Bingham Walkley)

Same passage as q_0653 — the two records are adjacent sentences from the Epistle Dedicatory to 'Man and Superman' (1903). Important wording note: Shaw wrote 'for the harder I work, the more I LIVE', not 'the more I love'. The corpus text carries a corrupted variant that inverts the sense of the line (Shaw's point is vitality, not affection). Attribution verified; text should be corrected. Consider also whether q_0653 and q_0654 should be merged into the single passage they came from.

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"You see things; and you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say, 'Why not?'"

Source: Back to Methuselah, George Bernard Shaw, 1921 (Part I, Act I)

Genuine Shaw. Spoken by the Serpent to Eve in Part I ('In the Beginning') of 'Back to Methuselah' (1921). Widely known in Robert F. Kennedy's paraphrase — 'Some men see things as they are and say why; I dream things that never were and say why not' — which RFK used in his 1968 campaign and which is sometimes mistaken for the original; Kennedy credited Shaw. The text as recorded here matches Shaw's wording. Note the corpus text carries stray wrapping double quotes around the whole line that should probably be stripped.

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Al great truths begin as blasphemies.

Source: Annajanska, the Bolshevik Empress, George Bernard Shaw, 1918

Genuine Shaw, from the one-act 'Annajanska, the Bolshevik Empress' (first performed 1918, published shortly after). Correct wording is 'All great truths begin as blasphemies' — the corpus text reads 'Al great truths', a clear typo that should be fixed. Attribution itself is solid and consistently sourced to this play.

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