Question: "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world"

[JanMichael]

"the unreasonable one persists to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."
George Bernard Shaw

Do you agree with this quote?

On a side note I think I'm becoming unreasonable...

[Mikimouse]

1. I agree with Shaw, but that's just me...

by adapting to the world, we make adjustments that do far less harm than the other option. In addition, by making reasonable choices, we learn about the potential pitfalls and perhaps avoid some of them. Being reasonable requires patience, while the other is characterized impatience. Reminds me of the old quote from Dune: "...the slow blade penetrates the shield".

[dweller]

2. I believe it's a fine line

balanced by an even exchange of energy.

but tha's just me.

dp

The most decisive actions of our life -- I mean those that are most likely to decide
the whole course of our future -- are, more often than not, unconsidered.
Andre Gide

[camero]

3. Two things

Full speed ahead
Godspeed

[kentuck]

4. I have thought of this in the sense of the Iraq War...

It was a very unreasonable and reckless act. Will it also lead to progress? Will it become a better nation, a democracy?

[lostnfound]

5. Yes; and it goes hand-in-hand with this one by Flaubert:

To be stupid, selfish, and have good health are three requirements for happiness, though if stupidity is lacking, all is lost.

Gustave Flaubert

[fabius]

6. Totally!

I agree with GBS on a lot of other things too.

[TexasMexican]

7. Is it reasonable to kill unreasonable men.

J/K

[buckeye1]

8. Sounds like ...

Corporatism,communism or any other me first deal. When you get it count me in.

[Rabrrrrrr]

9. Only unreasonable people move us forward

Hammurabi, Moses, DaVinci, Beethoven, Debbusy, Edison, the Wright Brothers, the founding fathers of the USA, Gandhi, Martin Luther, Martin Luther King Jr., Einstein, Philip Glass, Les Paul, etc. etc. etc.

Reasonable people don't push humanity around - they might still do amazing things, or be wildly famous, or just be welders at a mobile home factory in Sun Prairie Wisconsin who goes home at the end of the day and has a beer and a plate of roast beef with potatoes then watches 4 hours of TV and goes to bed.

Its the unreasonables that do the real work of pushing us into new - and hopefully better - horizons (though not always - Hitler wasn't very helpful, though he was unreasonable, and same with a lot of Popes, Reagan, Peron, Idi Amin, the guy who came up with Muzak, etc.)

[are_we_united_yet]

10. Hmmmmm

Do you consider W and Cheney unreasonable people?

[sendero]

12. I don't take the quote...

... to mean all unreasonable men engender progress, and hence I agree with the quote 100%.

Not all change is "progress". And the the sad truth is that it is hard to tell the difference sometimes until time has passed.

[laruemtt]

11. a definition of reason

would be helpful ;)

[sweetheart]

13. what is the world?

Is it the freeway in southern california, across the tracks in marietta georgia?, A lovers bed in minnesota? a university campus in up state new york or the oval office?

Methinks the unreasonable person picks a world in their heart where they live, and then casts the outer world against it... were that more of such folks picked their lover's bed.

Reason is merely a construction to justify, given hindsight.

What makes a great person is which world they call home in their heart. Everything else comes of that.

BTW JM... a favorite poem in your sigline. because it is my heart... I think the poem similarly indicates this point.