Democracy, To Maintain Itself, Must Repeatedly Conquer

The Mind Tends To Run Along The Groove Of One's Intention And Overlook The Actual Expression.

I Have Always Been - I Think Any Student Of History Almost Inevitably Is - A Cheerful Pessimist.

Seeing Clearly Within Himself And Always Able To Dodge Around The Ends Of Any Position, Including His Own, Shaw Assumed From The Start The Dual Role Of Prophet And Gadfly. To His Contemporaries It Appeared Frivolous And Contradictory To Perform As Both Superman And Socialist, Sceptic And Believer, Legalist And Heretic, High-brow And Mob-orator. But Feeling The Duty To Teach As Well As To Mirror Mankind, Shaw Did Not Accept Himself As A Contradictory Being.

I Can Only Think That The Book Is Read Because It Deals With The Difficulties Of Schooling, Which Do Not Change. Please Note: The Difficulties, Not The Problems. Problems Are Solved Or Disappear With The Revolving Times. Difficulities Remain. It Will Always Be Difficult To Teach Well, To Learn Accurately; To Read, Write, And Count Readily And Competently; To Acquire A Sense Of History And Start One's Education Or Anothers.

The Eager Or Dutiful Persons Who Subject Themselves To These Tidal Waves Of The Classics And The Moderns Find Everything Wonderful In An Absent-minded Way. The Wonder Washes Over Them Rather Than Into Them, And One Of Its Effects Is To Make Anything Shocking Or Odd Suddenly Interesting Enough To Gain A Month's Celebrity. And So Another By-product Of Our Come-one, Come-all Policy Is The Tendency To Reward Cleverness, Not Art, And To Put One More Hurdle In The Path Of The Truly Original Artist.