Excerpts from
"The Revolutionist's Handbook",
and
"Maxims for Revolutionists",
by
George Bernard Shaw,
Penguin Books, 1903
1. Taken from
"Man and Superman"
(the play)
[In this excerpt, the Devil,
the Statue, and Don Juan
all begin to speak at once,
then suddenly stop,
abashed. And then ...]
DON JUAN:
I beg
your pardon.
THE DEVIL:
Not at all.
I interrupted you.
THE STATUE:
You were going
to say something.
DON JUAN:
After you,
gentlemen.
THE DEVIL:
[to Don Juan]
You have been
so eloquent
on the advantages
of
my dominions
that I leave you
to do equal justice
to the drawbacks
of
the
alternative establishment.
DON JUAN:
In Heaven,
as I picture it,
dear lady,
you live and work
instead of playing
and pretending.
You face things
as they are;
you escape nothing
but glamor;
and
your steadfastness
and
your peril
are
your glory.
If the play
still goes on
here
and on earth,
and
all the world is a stage,
heaven
is
at least
behind the scenes.
But heaven
cannot
be described
by metaphor.
Thither I shall go
presently,
because there
I hope to escape at last
from lies
and
from the tedious,
vulgar
pursuit of happiness,
to
spend my eons
in
contemplation --
THE STATUE:
Ugh!
DON JUAN:
Senor Commander:
I do not blame
your disgust:
a picture gallery
is a dull place
for
a blind man.
But even
as you enjoy
the contemplation
of
such romantic mirages
as beauty
and pleasure;
so would I
enjoy the contemplation
of that
which interests me
above all things:
namely,
Life:
the force
that ever strives
to attain
greater power
of
contemplating itself.
What made
this brain
of mine,
do you think?
Not the need
to move my limbs;
for a rat
with half my brain
moves
as well as I.
Not merely
the need to do,
but
the
need to know
what I do,
lest
in
my blind efforts
to live
I should
be slaying myself.
[p. 143]
Selections from
"The Revolutionist's
Handbook
and Pocket Companion",
by
"John Tanner, M.I.R.C
(Member of the Idle Rich Class)"
[= a pseudonym for Shaw]
A
revolutionist
is one
who desires
to discard
the
existing
social order
and
try another.
[...]
Every man
is a
revolutionist
concerning the thing
he
understands.
For example,
every person
who
has
mastered
a profession
is
a skeptic
concerning it,
and
consequently
a revolutionist.
Every
genuine
religious person
is
a heretic
and
therefore
a
revolutionist.
All who achieve
real distinction
in life
begin
as
revolutionists.
The most
distinguished persons
become
more revolutionary
as they grow older,
though
they are
commonly supposed
to
become
more conservative
owing to
their loss of faith
in
conventional methods
of reform.
who,
having any knowledge
of
the existing social order,
is not
a revolutionist,
is
an inferior.
And Yet
Revolutions
have never
lightened the burden
of tyranny:
they
have only shifted it
to
another shoulder.
[...]
Man does desire
an
ideal Superman
with such energy
as he can spare
from his nutrition,
and has
in every age
magnified
the
best living substitute
for it
he can find.
His
least incompetent
general
is
set up as
an Alexander;
his king
is
the first gentleman
in the world;
his Pope
is
a saint.
He
is never
without an array
of
human idols
who
are
all nothing
but
sham Supermen.
That
the real Superman
will
snap his super-fingers
at all Man's
present
trumpery ideals
of
right,
duty,
honor,
justice,
religion,
even
decency,
and
accept
moral obligations
beyond
present
human endurance,
is a thing
that contemporary Man
does not foresee:
in fact
he does not notice it
when our
casual Supermen
do it
in his very face.
He actually
does it himself
every day
without knowing it.
He will therefore
make no objection
to the production
of a race
of what he calls
Great Men
or
Heroes,
because
he will
imagine them,
not
as true Supermen,
but as
himself
endowed
with
infinite brains,
infinite courage,
and
infinite money.
[...]
Not only
do the bees
and
the ants
satisfy
their reproductive
and
parental instincts
vicariously;
but
marriage itself
successfully
imposes celibacy
on millions
of
unmarried normal men
and women.
In short,
the individual instinct
in this matter,
overwhelming as it is
thoughtlessly
supposed to be,
is really
a finally
negligible one.
[...]
... survival
of the fittest
means finally
the survival
of the self-controlled,
because
they alone
can adapt
themselves
to
the perpetual shifting
of
conditions
produced
by
industrial progress.
[...]
Progress an Illusion
Unfortunately
the
earnest people
get
drawn off the track
of evolution
by
the illusion
of progress.
Any Socialist
can convince us
easily
that the difference
between
Man as he is
and
Man
as he
might become,
without
further evolution,
under
millennial conditions
of nutrition,
environment,
and training,
is enormous.
He can show
that inequality
and
iniquitous
distribution of wealth
and
allotment of labor
have arisen
through
an
unscientific
economic system,
and that Man,
faulty as he is,
no more intended
to establish
any such
ordered disorder
than a moth
intends
to be burnt
when it flies
into
a candle flame.
He can show
that the difference
between
the grace and strength
of
the acrobat
and
the bent back
of the
rheumatic field laborer
is a difference
produced by conditions,
not
by nature.
He can show
that
many
of the
most detestable
human vices
are
not radical,
but are
mere reactions
of
our institutions
on
our
very virtues.
[...]
Nothing
can save society
then
except
the clear head
and
the wide purpose;
war and competition,
potent instruments
of selection
and
evolution
in one epoch,
become
ruinous instruments
of
degeneration
in
the next.
[...]
We must
therefore
frankly
give up
the notion
that Man
as he exists
is
capable
of
net progress.
There
will always be
an illusion
of
progress,
because
wherever we are
conscious
of
an evil
we remedy it,
and
therefore
always seem
to
ourselves
to
be
progressing,
forgetting
that
most of the evils
we see
are
the effects,
finally become acute,
of
long-unnoticed
retrogressions;
that
our
compromising remedies
seldom
fully recover
the lost ground;
above all,
that
on the lines
along which
we are
degenerating,
good
has become
evil
in our eyes,
and
is being undone
in the name
of progress
precisely
as evil is undone
and replaced
by good
on the lines
along which
we are
evolving.
This is indeed
the
Illusion of Illusions;
for
it gives us
infallible and appalling
assurance
that
if our political ruin
is to come,
it will be effected
by
ardent reformers
and
supported
by enthusiastic patriots
as
a series
of necessary steps
in our progress.
Let the Reformer,
the Progressive,
the Meliorist
then
reconsider himself
and his
eternal 'ifs'
and
'ands'
which never
become
pots and pans.
Whilst Man
remains what he is,
there can be
no progress
beyond the point
already attained
and
fallen headlong from
at
every attempt
at
civilization;
and
since even that point
is
but a pinnacle
to which
a few people cling
in giddy terror
above an abyss
of squalor,
a
mere progress
should
no longer
charm us.
[drawn from pages 213 - 242]
+++
Selections taken from
"Maxims for Revolutionists":
The art
of government
is
the organization
of
idolatry.
The populace
cannot understand
the bureaucracy:
it can
only worship
the
national idols.
The savage
bows down
to idols
of
wood and stone:
the civilized man
to idols
of
flesh and blood.
Vulgarity
in a king
flatters
the majority
of
the nation.
Democracy
substitutes
selection
by
the
incompetent many
for
appointment
by
the
corrupt few.
He
who confuses
political liberty
with
freedom
and
political equality
with
similarity
has
never thought
for
five minutes
about
either.
Nothing can be
unconditional:
consequently
nothing can be
free.
Liberty
means
responsibility.
That is why
most men
dread it.
Where
equality
is
undisputed,
so also
is
subordination.
Equality
is
fundamental
in
every department
of
social organization.
The relation
of
superior
to
inferior
excludes
good manners.
When a man
teaches something
he
does not know
to
somebody else
who
has no aptitude
for it,
and
gives him
a
certificate
of proficiency,
the latter
has completed
the education
of
a gentleman.
A fool's brain
digests
philosophy
into folly,
science
into superstition,
and art
into pedantry.
Hence
University education.
The best brought-up
children
are those
who have seen
their parents
as they are.
Hypocrisy
is not
the parent's
first duty.
The vilest
abortionist
is he
who attempts
to mold
a child's
character.
He who can,
does.
He who cannot,
teaches.
A learned man
is an idler
who kills time
with study.
his
false knowledge:
it is
more dangerous
than
ignorance.
Activity
is the only road
to
knowledge.
Every fool
believes
what
his teachers
tell him,
and
calls his credulity
science
or
morality
as confidently
as his father
called it
divine revelation.
No man
fully capable
of
his own language
ever masters
another.
No man
can be
a pure
specialist
without being
in the
strict sense
an
idiot.
Any
marriage system
which condemns
a majority
of the population
to celibacy
will be
violently wrecked
on the pretext
that it
outrages morality.
Polygamy,
when tried
under modern
democratic conditions,
as by
the Mormons,
is wrecked
by the revolt
of the mass
of inferior men
who are condemned
to celibacy
by it;
for
the maternal instinct
leads a woman
to prefer
a tenth share
in
a first rate man
to
the exclusive possession
of
a third rate one.
Polyandry
has not been tried
under
these conditions.
Imprisonment
is as
irrevocable
as
death.
Assassination
on the scaffold
is
the worst form
of assassination,
because there
it is invested
with
the approval
of society.
Whilst we
have prisons
it
matters little
which of us
occupy
the cells.
Titles
distinguish
the mediocre,
embarrass
the superior,
and are
disgraced by
the inferior.
You cannot
believe
in honor
until you
have
achieved it.
Better
keep yourself clean
and bright:
you
are the window
through which
you
must see
the world.
Property,
said Proudhon,
is theft.
This
is the
only
perfect truism
that
has been uttered
on
the subject.
Ladies and gentlemen
are permitted
to have friends
in the kennel,
but
not
in the kitchen.
Domestic servants,
by
making
spoiled children
of
their masters,
are forced
to
intimidate them
in order
to be able
to live
with them.
If a great man
could
make us
understand him,
we should hang him.
We admit
that when
the divinity
we worshipped
made itself
visible
and
comprehensible
we
crucified it.
In
a stupid nation
the man
of genius
becomes a god:
everybody
worships him
and
nobody
does his will.
The man
with toothache
thinks
everyone happy
whose teeth
are sound.
The
poverty stricken
man
makes
the same mistake
about
the rich
man.
The more
a man
possesses
over and above
what
he uses,
the more
careworn
he becomes.
In an ugly
and
unhappy world
the
richest man
can purchase
nothing
but
ugliness
and
unhappiness.
A gentleman
of our days
is one
who has
money enough
to do
what every fool
would do
if he
could afford it:
that is,
consume
without
producing.
The
true diagnostic
of
modern gentility
is
parasitism.
A modern gentleman
is necessarily
the enemy
of
his country.
Even in war
he does not fight
to
defend it,
but
to prevent his power
of preying on it
from passing
to a foreigner.
Such combatants
are patriots
in the same sense
as
two dogs fighting
for a bone
are
lovers
of animals.
The North American
Indian
was a type
of the sportsman
warrior
gentleman.
of the intellectually
and artistically
cultivated gentleman.
Both
were
political failures.
of the one
or
the culture
of the other,
has
the appetite
of
both put together.
where
they failed.
He
who believes
in Education,
Criminal Law,
and Sport,
needs only Property
to
make him
a
perfect
modern gentleman.
The unconscious self
is
the real genius.
Your breathing
goes wrong
the moment
your conscious self
meddles
with it.
Except
during the nine months
before he draws
his first breath,
no man
manages his affairs
as well
as
a tree does.
The reasonable man
adapts himself
to the world:
the
unreasonable one
persists
in trying to adapt
the world
to himself.
depends
on
the
unreasonable man.
The man
who listens
to Reason
is lost:
Reason
enslaves all
whose minds
are
not strong enough
to
master her.
If we
could learn
from
mere experience,
the stones of London
would be wiser
than
its wisest men.
The thieves
had their revenge
when Marx
convicted
the bourgeoisie
of theft.
No age
or condition
is
without its heroes.
The least
incapable
general
in a nation
is its
Caesar,
the least
imbecilic statesman
its
Solon,
the least
confused thinker
its
Socrates,
the least
commonplace poet
its
Shakespeare.
Life
levels
all men:
death
reveals
the eminent.
Civilization
is a disease
produced
by the practice
of
building societies
with
rotten material.
The imagination
cannot conceive
a viler
criminal
than he
who should
build
another London
like
the present one,
nor
a greater
benefactor
than
he
who should
destroy it.
Do not waste
your time
on
Social Questions.
What is the matter
with
the Poor
is Poverty:
what is the matter
with
the Rich
is
Uselessness.
The conversion
of a savage
to Christianity
is
the conversion
of Christianity
to savagery.
No man
dares say so much
of what he thinks
as to appear
to himself
an extremist.
Decadence
can find agents
only
when it
wears the mask
of progress.
Do not mistake
your objection
to defeat
for
an objection
to fighting,
your objection
to
being a slave
for
an objection
to slavery,
your objection
to
not being rich
as your neighbor
for
an objection
to
poverty.
The cowardly,
the insubordinate,
and
the envious
share
your objections.
Take care
to get
what you like
or
you
will be forced
to like
what you get.
fresh air
is declared
unwholesome.
Where there is
no religion
hypocrisy
becomes
good taste.
Where there
is
no knowledge
ignorance
calls itself
science.
Those who
understand
evil
pardon it:
those who
resent it
destroy it.
It is dangerous
to be sincere
unless
you are also
stupid.
The Chinese
tame fowls
by clipping
their wings,
and women
by deforming
their feet.
A petticoat
round the ankles
serves
equally well.
Beware
of the man
who does not
return
your blow:
he neither
forgives you
nor
allows you
to
forgive yourself.
If you
injure
your neighbor,
better not do it
by halves.
Sentimentality
is
the error
of supposing
that
quarter
can be given
or
taken
in
moral conflicts.
Two
starving men
cannot be
twice as hungry
as one;
but
two rascals
can be
ten times
as vicious
as one.
Make
your cross
your crutch;
but
when
you see
another man
do it,
beware
of him.
[Drawn from pages 257 - 272]
+++
"The Revolutionist's Handbook",
and
"Maxims for Revolutionists",
by
George Bernard Shaw,
Penguin Books, 1903
1. Taken from
"Man and Superman"
(the play)
[In this excerpt, the Devil,
the Statue, and Don Juan
all begin to speak at once,
then suddenly stop,
abashed. And then ...]
DON JUAN:
I beg
your pardon.
THE DEVIL:
Not at all.
I interrupted you.
THE STATUE:
You were going
to say something.
DON JUAN:
After you,
gentlemen.
THE DEVIL:
[to Don Juan]
You have been
so eloquent
on the advantages
of
my dominions
that I leave you
to do equal justice
to the drawbacks
of
the
alternative establishment.
DON JUAN:
In Heaven,
as I picture it,
dear lady,
you live and work
instead of playing
and pretending.
You face things
as they are;
you escape nothing
but glamor;
and
your steadfastness
and
your peril
are
your glory.
If the play
still goes on
here
and on earth,
and
all the world is a stage,
heaven
is
at least
behind the scenes.
But heaven
cannot
be described
by metaphor.
Thither I shall go
presently,
because there
I hope to escape at last
from lies
and
from the tedious,
vulgar
pursuit of happiness,
to
spend my eons
in
contemplation --
THE STATUE:
Ugh!
DON JUAN:
Senor Commander:
I do not blame
your disgust:
a picture gallery
is a dull place
for
a blind man.
But even
as you enjoy
the contemplation
of
such romantic mirages
as beauty
and pleasure;
so would I
enjoy the contemplation
of that
which interests me
above all things:
namely,
Life:
the force
that ever strives
to attain
greater power
of
contemplating itself.
What made
this brain
of mine,
do you think?
Not the need
to move my limbs;
for a rat
with half my brain
moves
as well as I.
Not merely
the need to do,
but
the
need to know
what I do,
lest
in
my blind efforts
to live
I should
be slaying myself.
[p. 143]
+++
Selections from
"The Revolutionist's
Handbook
and Pocket Companion",
by
"John Tanner, M.I.R.C
(Member of the Idle Rich Class)"
[= a pseudonym for Shaw]
A
revolutionist
is one
who desires
to discard
the
existing
social order
and
try another.
[...]
Every man
is a
revolutionist
concerning the thing
he
understands.
For example,
every person
who
has
mastered
a profession
is
a skeptic
concerning it,
and
consequently
a revolutionist.
Every
genuine
religious person
is
a heretic
and
therefore
a
revolutionist.
All who achieve
real distinction
in life
begin
as
revolutionists.
The most
distinguished persons
become
more revolutionary
as they grow older,
though
they are
commonly supposed
to
become
more conservative
owing to
their loss of faith
in
conventional methods
of reform.
Any person
under the age of thirty,who,
having any knowledge
of
the existing social order,
is not
a revolutionist,
is
an inferior.
And Yet
Revolutions
have never
lightened the burden
of tyranny:
they
have only shifted it
to
another shoulder.
[...]
Man does desire
an
ideal Superman
with such energy
as he can spare
from his nutrition,
and has
in every age
magnified
the
best living substitute
for it
he can find.
His
least incompetent
general
is
set up as
an Alexander;
his king
is
the first gentleman
in the world;
his Pope
is
a saint.
He
is never
without an array
of
human idols
who
are
all nothing
but
sham Supermen.
That
the real Superman
will
snap his super-fingers
at all Man's
present
trumpery ideals
of
right,
duty,
honor,
justice,
religion,
even
decency,
and
accept
moral obligations
beyond
present
human endurance,
is a thing
that contemporary Man
does not foresee:
in fact
he does not notice it
when our
casual Supermen
do it
in his very face.
He actually
does it himself
every day
without knowing it.
He will therefore
make no objection
to the production
of a race
of what he calls
Great Men
or
Heroes,
because
he will
imagine them,
not
as true Supermen,
but as
himself
endowed
with
infinite brains,
infinite courage,
and
infinite money.
[...]
Not only
do the bees
and
the ants
satisfy
their reproductive
and
parental instincts
vicariously;
but
marriage itself
successfully
imposes celibacy
on millions
of
unmarried normal men
and women.
In short,
the individual instinct
in this matter,
overwhelming as it is
thoughtlessly
supposed to be,
is really
a finally
negligible one.
[...]
... survival
of the fittest
means finally
the survival
of the self-controlled,
because
they alone
can adapt
themselves
to
the perpetual shifting
of
conditions
produced
by
industrial progress.
[...]
Progress an Illusion
Unfortunately
the
earnest people
get
drawn off the track
of evolution
by
the illusion
of progress.
Any Socialist
can convince us
easily
that the difference
between
Man as he is
and
Man
as he
might become,
without
further evolution,
under
millennial conditions
of nutrition,
environment,
and training,
is enormous.
He can show
that inequality
and
iniquitous
distribution of wealth
and
allotment of labor
have arisen
through
an
unscientific
economic system,
and that Man,
faulty as he is,
no more intended
to establish
any such
ordered disorder
than a moth
intends
to be burnt
when it flies
into
a candle flame.
He can show
that the difference
between
the grace and strength
of
the acrobat
and
the bent back
of the
rheumatic field laborer
is a difference
produced by conditions,
not
by nature.
He can show
that
many
of the
most detestable
human vices
are
not radical,
but are
mere reactions
of
our institutions
on
our
very virtues.
[...]
Nothing
can save society
then
except
the clear head
and
the wide purpose;
war and competition,
potent instruments
of selection
and
evolution
in one epoch,
become
ruinous instruments
of
degeneration
in
the next.
[...]
We must
therefore
frankly
give up
the notion
that Man
as he exists
is
capable
of
net progress.
There
will always be
an illusion
of
progress,
because
wherever we are
conscious
of
an evil
we remedy it,
and
therefore
always seem
to
ourselves
to
be
progressing,
forgetting
that
most of the evils
we see
are
the effects,
finally become acute,
of
long-unnoticed
retrogressions;
that
our
compromising remedies
seldom
fully recover
the lost ground;
above all,
that
on the lines
along which
we are
degenerating,
good
has become
evil
in our eyes,
and
is being undone
in the name
of progress
precisely
as evil is undone
and replaced
by good
on the lines
along which
we are
evolving.
This is indeed
the
Illusion of Illusions;
for
it gives us
infallible and appalling
assurance
that
if our political ruin
is to come,
it will be effected
by
ardent reformers
and
supported
by enthusiastic patriots
as
a series
of necessary steps
in our progress.
Let the Reformer,
the Progressive,
the Meliorist
then
reconsider himself
and his
eternal 'ifs'
and
'ands'
which never
become
pots and pans.
Whilst Man
remains what he is,
there can be
no progress
beyond the point
already attained
and
fallen headlong from
at
every attempt
at
civilization;
and
since even that point
is
but a pinnacle
to which
a few people cling
in giddy terror
above an abyss
of squalor,
a
mere progress
should
no longer
charm us.
[drawn from pages 213 - 242]
+++
Selections taken from
"Maxims for Revolutionists":
The art
of government
is
the organization
of
idolatry.
The populace
cannot understand
the bureaucracy:
it can
only worship
the
national idols.
The savage
bows down
to idols
of
wood and stone:
the civilized man
to idols
of
flesh and blood.
Vulgarity
in a king
flatters
the majority
of
the nation.
Democracy
substitutes
selection
by
the
incompetent many
for
appointment
by
the
corrupt few.
He
who confuses
political liberty
with
freedom
and
political equality
with
similarity
has
never thought
for
five minutes
about
either.
Nothing can be
unconditional:
consequently
nothing can be
free.
Liberty
means
responsibility.
That is why
most men
dread it.
Where
equality
is
undisputed,
so also
is
subordination.
Equality
is
fundamental
in
every department
of
social organization.
The relation
of
superior
to
inferior
excludes
good manners.
When a man
teaches something
he
does not know
to
somebody else
who
has no aptitude
for it,
and
gives him
a
certificate
of proficiency,
the latter
has completed
the education
of
a gentleman.
A fool's brain
digests
philosophy
into folly,
science
into superstition,
and art
into pedantry.
Hence
University education.
The best brought-up
children
are those
who have seen
their parents
as they are.
Hypocrisy
is not
the parent's
first duty.
The vilest
abortionist
is he
who attempts
to mold
a child's
character.
He who can,
does.
He who cannot,
teaches.
A learned man
is an idler
who kills time
with study.
Beware
ofhis
false knowledge:
it is
more dangerous
than
ignorance.
Activity
is the only road
to
knowledge.
Every fool
believes
what
his teachers
tell him,
and
calls his credulity
science
or
morality
as confidently
as his father
called it
divine revelation.
No man
fully capable
of
his own language
ever masters
another.
No man
can be
a pure
specialist
without being
in the
strict sense
an
idiot.
Any
marriage system
which condemns
a majority
of the population
to celibacy
will be
violently wrecked
on the pretext
that it
outrages morality.
Polygamy,
when tried
under modern
democratic conditions,
as by
the Mormons,
is wrecked
by the revolt
of the mass
of inferior men
who are condemned
to celibacy
by it;
for
the maternal instinct
leads a woman
to prefer
a tenth share
in
a first rate man
to
the exclusive possession
of
a third rate one.
Polyandry
has not been tried
under
these conditions.
Imprisonment
is as
irrevocable
as
death.
Assassination
on the scaffold
is
the worst form
of assassination,
because there
it is invested
with
the approval
of society.
Whilst we
have prisons
it
matters little
which of us
occupy
the cells.
Titles
distinguish
the mediocre,
embarrass
the superior,
and are
disgraced by
the inferior.
You cannot
believe
in honor
until you
have
achieved it.
Better
keep yourself clean
and bright:
you
are the window
through which
you
must see
the world.
Property,
said Proudhon,
is theft.
This
is the
only
perfect truism
that
has been uttered
on
the subject.
Ladies and gentlemen
are permitted
to have friends
in the kennel,
but
not
in the kitchen.
Domestic servants,
by
making
spoiled children
of
their masters,
are forced
to
intimidate them
in order
to be able
to live
with them.
If a great man
could
make us
understand him,
we should hang him.
We admit
that when
the divinity
we worshipped
made itself
visible
and
comprehensible
we
crucified it.
In
a stupid nation
the man
of genius
becomes a god:
everybody
worships him
and
nobody
does his will.
The man
with toothache
thinks
everyone happy
whose teeth
are sound.
The
poverty stricken
man
makes
the same mistake
about
the rich
man.
The more
a man
possesses
over and above
what
he uses,
the more
careworn
he becomes.
In an ugly
and
unhappy world
the
richest man
can purchase
nothing
but
ugliness
and
unhappiness.
A gentleman
of our days
is one
who has
money enough
to do
what every fool
would do
if he
could afford it:
that is,
consume
without
producing.
The
true diagnostic
of
modern gentility
is
parasitism.
A modern gentleman
is necessarily
the enemy
of
his country.
Even in war
he does not fight
to
defend it,
but
to prevent his power
of preying on it
from passing
to a foreigner.
Such combatants
are patriots
in the same sense
as
two dogs fighting
for a bone
are
lovers
of animals.
The North American
Indian
was a type
of the sportsman
warrior
gentleman.
The Periclean Athenian
was a typeof the intellectually
and artistically
cultivated gentleman.
Both
were
political failures.
The modern gentleman,
without the hardihoodof the one
or
the culture
of the other,
has
the appetite
of
both put together.
He
will not succeedwhere
they failed.
He
who believes
in Education,
Criminal Law,
and Sport,
needs only Property
to
make him
a
perfect
modern gentleman.
The unconscious self
is
the real genius.
Your breathing
goes wrong
the moment
your conscious self
meddles
with it.
Except
during the nine months
before he draws
his first breath,
no man
manages his affairs
as well
as
a tree does.
The reasonable man
adapts himself
to the world:
the
unreasonable one
persists
in trying to adapt
the world
to himself.
Therefore
all progressdepends
on
the
unreasonable man.
The man
who listens
to Reason
is lost:
Reason
enslaves all
whose minds
are
not strong enough
to
master her.
If we
could learn
from
mere experience,
the stones of London
would be wiser
than
its wisest men.
The thieves
had their revenge
when Marx
convicted
the bourgeoisie
of theft.
No age
or condition
is
without its heroes.
The least
incapable
general
in a nation
is its
Caesar,
the least
imbecilic statesman
its
Solon,
the least
confused thinker
its
Socrates,
the least
commonplace poet
its
Shakespeare.
Life
levels
all men:
death
reveals
the eminent.
Civilization
is a disease
produced
by the practice
of
building societies
with
rotten material.
The imagination
cannot conceive
a viler
criminal
than he
who should
build
another London
like
the present one,
nor
a greater
benefactor
than
he
who should
destroy it.
Do not waste
your time
on
Social Questions.
What is the matter
with
the Poor
is Poverty:
what is the matter
with
the Rich
is
Uselessness.
The conversion
of a savage
to Christianity
is
the conversion
of Christianity
to savagery.
No man
dares say so much
of what he thinks
as to appear
to himself
an extremist.
Decadence
can find agents
only
when it
wears the mask
of progress.
Do not mistake
your objection
to defeat
for
an objection
to fighting,
your objection
to
being a slave
for
an objection
to slavery,
your objection
to
not being rich
as your neighbor
for
an objection
to
poverty.
The cowardly,
the insubordinate,
and
the envious
share
your objections.
Take care
to get
what you like
or
you
will be forced
to like
what you get.
Where there is no
ventilationfresh air
is declared
unwholesome.
Where there is
no religion
hypocrisy
becomes
good taste.
Where there
is
no knowledge
ignorance
calls itself
science.
Those who
understand
evil
pardon it:
those who
resent it
destroy it.
It is dangerous
to be sincere
unless
you are also
stupid.
The Chinese
tame fowls
by clipping
their wings,
and women
by deforming
their feet.
A petticoat
round the ankles
serves
equally well.
Beware
of the man
who does not
return
your blow:
he neither
forgives you
nor
allows you
to
forgive yourself.
If you
injure
your neighbor,
better not do it
by halves.
Sentimentality
is
the error
of supposing
that
quarter
can be given
or
taken
in
moral conflicts.
Two
starving men
cannot be
twice as hungry
as one;
but
two rascals
can be
ten times
as vicious
as one.
Make
your cross
your crutch;
but
when
you see
another man
do it,
beware
of him.
[Drawn from pages 257 - 272]
+++
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