George Bernard Shaw Quotes
It is courage, courage, courage, that raises the blood of life to crimson splendor.
Shaw, George Bernard. John Bull's Other Island and Major Barbara. Constable and Company, 1907.
This line summarizes a principle of political leadership which demagogues understand intuitively and some other politicians learn. To galvanize or mobilize the public, set lofty, important objectives and goals and not small matters. Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, two of our greatest Presidents, were able to do this very well. Other presidents and many politicians try this with minor issues that they think important and great, but they are often unsuccessful because only a small part of the population—the true believers—agree with the importance and greatness.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835-1910
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.
