The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Progress comes from people who refuse to accept the world as it is and try to change it.
- In plain terms
- Reasonable people adapt to the world, but unreasonable people change it, which creates progress.
- What can you take from it?
- Embrace stubbornness when it serves progress.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What makes an idea unreasonable?
- When is adaptation better than resistance?
Another view
Unreasonable persistence can also lead to destructive outcomes.
More from George Bernard Shaw
Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.
Permalink to quote #128 Beware of the man whose god is in the skies.
Permalink to quote #130 What a man believes may be ascertained, not from his creed, but from the assumptions on which he habitually acts.
Permalink to quote #127
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