George Bernard Shaw in: The Quintessence of Ibsenism: Now Completed to the Death of Ibsen, Wildside Press LLC, 1 January 2009, p. 62

Only by plunging into illusions to which every fact gives the lie can he persuade himself that his will is a force that can overcome all other forces, or that it is less conditioned by circumstances than a wheelbarrow is.

— George Bernard Shaw on Persuasion

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Only by plunging into illusions to which every fact gives the lie can he persuade himself that his will is a force that can overcome all other forces, or that it is less conditioned by circumstances than a wheelbarrow is." in the context of "George Bernard Shaw in: The Quintessence of Ibsenism: Now Completed to the Death of Ibsen, Wildside Press LLC, 1 January 2009, p. 62" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "Persuasion" (Quotes: Quotes are arranged alphabetically by author, S - Z) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
George Bernard Shaw

About George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist with a range incorporating both contemporary satire and historical allegory. He wrote more than sixty plays, including such works as Man and Superman (1902), Pygmalion (1913) and Saint Joan (1923). Shaw was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1925.