George Bernard Shaw Quotes
A critic recently described me, with deadly acuteness, as having 'a kindly dislike of my fellow-creatures.' Perhaps dread would have been nearer the mark than dislike; for man is the only animal of which I am thoroughly and cravenly afraid.
Shaw, George Bernard. Preface. Plays: Pleasant and Unpleasant, vol. 1. Grant Richards, 1898.
The President later addressed this in his "We have nothing to fear but fear itself" speech – See {636844}.
See Franklin Delano Roosevelt {636844} and Henry David Thoreau {35833} for similar later statements.
According to Burns, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, while drafting his First Inaugural Address, was reading some Thoreau material and was so impressed with this thought relative to the fear that the Great Depression had brought to the American people, that he used it in his speech/ See {636844}. Also, see Queen Elizabeth I {636845}.
Spinoza was one of the most feared intellectuals in human history—feared, that is, by the established power structures. Spinoza’s ideas were considered so radical and dangerous that he was the only man in history who was excommunicated by the Catholics, the Jews and the Muslims.
This is the opposite viewpoint from most sages, wise men and philosophers. They maintain that people’s fears are almost always worse than the reality. However, Thompson was a great pessimist, sometimes an occupational hazard for a muckraker or an investigative journalist. When he really dug down deep enough in politics, there was usually something very unsavory he would find that most people did not expect.
The Netherlands and Belgium then belonged to Spain. However, Protestantism was spreading to the Netherlands. The Duke of Alva was a Catholic fanatic and advised the King to send him and an army into the Lowlands to root out and kill the heretics. In contrast, the Duke of Feria counseled allowing the lowlands tolerance and warned that if the Inquisition and Alva’s army were introduced and would be feared as Alva wanted, the might get desperate and do unexpected things like revolt. The King, a Catholic fanatic himself, sent Alva and the Inquisition. In the next 12 years, fear spread throughout the lowlands. Finally, the people became so desperate that they did revolt and the lowlands gained their independence and Spain lost their most important and European possessions.
George Bernard Shaw, known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 1880s to his death and beyond. He wrote more than sixty plays, including major works such as Man and Superman (1902), Pygmalion (1912) and Saint Joan (1923). With a range incorporating both contemporary satire and historical allegory, Shaw became the leading dramatist of his generation, and in 1925 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
