“No public man in these islands ever believes that the Bible means what it says: he is always convinced that it says what he means.”

—  George Bernard Shaw

Our Theatres In The Nineties (1930)
1930s

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "No public man in these islands ever believes that the Bible means what it says: he is always convinced that it says wha…" by George Bernard Shaw?
George Bernard Shaw photo
George Bernard Shaw 413
Irish playwright 1856–1950

Related quotes

George Bernard Shaw photo

“But no public man in these islands ever believes that the Bible means what it says: he is always convinced that it says what he means; and I have no reason to hope that Mr Coote may be an exception to the rule.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

"The Living Pictures", The Saturday Review, LXXIX (April 6, 1895), 443, reprinted in Our Theatres in the Nineties (1932). Vol. 1. London: Constable & Co. 79-86
1890s

Diana Gabaldon photo

“You are beautiful,” he whispered to me. “If you say so.” “Do ye not believe me? Have I ever lied to you?” “That’s not what I mean. I mean—if you say it, then it’s true. You make it true.”

Diana Gabaldon book The Fiery Cross

Source: The Fiery Cross

James Hudson Taylor photo

“There are three great truths, 1st, That there is a God; 2nd, That He has spoken to us in the Bible; 3rd, That He means what He says. Oh, the joy of trusting Him!”

James Hudson Taylor (1832–1905) Missionary in China

(A.J. Broomhall. Hudson Taylor and China’s Open Century, Book Six: Assault on the Nine. London: Hodder and Stoughton and Overseas Missionary Fellowship, 1988, 322).

Abraham Lincoln photo

“Did Stanton say I was a damned fool? Then I dare say I must be one, for Stanton is generally right and he always says what he means.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

As quoted in Lincoln; An Account of his Personal Life, Especially of its Springs of Action as Revealed and Deepened by the Ordeal of War (1922) by Nathaniel Wright Stephenson.
1860s

Philip K. Dick photo

“If the last to know he’s an addict is the addict, then maybe the last to know when a man means what he says is the man himself, he reflected.”

Philip K. Dick book A Scanner Darkly

Source: A Scanner Darkly

Norman Cousins photo

“What a man really says when he says that someone else can be persuaded by force, is that he himself is incapable of more rational means of communication.”

Norman Cousins (1915–1990) American journalist

Quoted in Peter's Quotations : Ideas for Our Time (1977) by Laurence J. Peter.

Ken Ham photo

“Christians should take a stand on six literal days, a young earth, and global flood even if it causes division. Either God means what He says, or we may as well not believe any of the Bible.”

Ken Ham (1951) Australian young Earth creationist

Did Eve really have an Extra Rib?: And other tough questions about the Bible (2002)

Ludwig Wittgenstein photo

“But if you say: "How am I to know what he means, when I see nothing but the signs he gives?" then I say: "How is he to know what he means, when he has nothing but the signs either?"”

Ludwig Wittgenstein book Philosophical Investigations

§ 504
Philosophical Investigations (1953)

“It will say just about everything I have ever had to say, or will ever have to say, on the human condition of war and what it means to us, as against what we claim it means to us.”

James Jones book Whistle

Introduction for his unfinished novel, Whistle (1978) the third part of his war trilogy (which was completed by Willie Morris); quoted in TIME magazine (13 March 1978) http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,919437,00.html

Related topics