George Bernard Shaw quotes
1856 – 1950 · Late 19th–early 20th century · Playwright, critic, polemicist and social reformer
About George Bernard Shaw
Born in Dublin in 1856, died in 1950, Shaw was a prolific playwright, critic and polemicist. A socialist humanist, he combined satire and philosophical argument in large, idea‑driven plays. His five‑play cycle Back to Methuselah argues for expanded human possibilities through a notion of creative evolution.
Works: Pygmalion; Man and Superman; Saint Joan; Back to Methuselah
Quotes
“You see things, and you say, ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were, and I say, ‘Why not?’”
Source: Back to Methuselah, Part I, Act I (1921) · Check the source
Verified attributionWhat we know
- What is documented
- The wording appears in Shaw’s Back to Methuselah (1921), spoken by the Serpent in Part I, Act I.
- What remains uncertain
- The widely quoted Kennedy wording is a later paraphrase; many popular versions alter Shaw’s original dramatic phrasing.
Shaw sets ordinary doubt against bold imagination: instead of accepting things as they are, the line urges inventing what doesn't yet exist. It appears in Back to Methuselah (1921) as a dramatic command to embrace possibility and action.