Two starving men cannot be twice as hungry as one; but two rascals can be ten times as vicious as one.
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Shaw notes that while hunger doesn't multiply with more people, vice does.
- In plain terms
- Starvation stays the same but evil grows with more bad people.
- What can you take from it?
- Human vices scale worse than basic needs.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How do groups act?
- What scales worst?
Another view
It generalizes human behavior without accounting for cooperation.
More from George Bernard Shaw
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