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About this quote

What does it mean?
Modern terms like morality would sound foreign in ancient religious texts.
In plain terms
Old books would not use modern moral terms.
What can you take from it?
Values change language over time.

Where it applies

  • reading old texts
  • comparing eras
  • debate

Putting it to work

  • contextualize terms
  • track cultural shifts

Questions to consider

  • How has language changed values?
  • What is timeless?

Another view

Religious texts might have different concepts for the same ideas.

More from George Bernard Shaw

  1. Why was I born with such contemporaries?

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  2. That proves it's not by Shaw, because all Shaw's characters are himself: mere puppets stuck up to spout Shaw.

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  3. To understand a saint, you must hear the devil's advocate; and the same is true of the artist.

    Permalink to quote #16

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