“We know now that the soul is the body, and the body the soul. They tell us they are different because they want to persuade us that we can keep our souls if we let them make slaves of our bodies.”

—  George Bernard Shaw

Ellie Dunn, Act II
1910s, Heartbreak House (1919)

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 "We know now that the soul is the body, and the body the soul. They tell us they are different because they want to pers…" by George Bernard Shaw?
George Bernard Shaw photo
George Bernard Shaw 413
Irish playwright 1856–1950

Related quotes

Thomas Jefferson photo

“Was the government to prescribe to us our medicine and diet, our bodies would be in such keeping as our souls are now.”

Thomas Jefferson book Notes on the State of Virginia

Thus in France the emetic was once forbidden as a medicine, and the potatoe as an article of food.
1780s, Notes on the State of Virginia

Leo Tolstoy photo

“Saying that what we call our “selves” consist only of our bodies and that reason, soul, and love arise only from the body, is like saying that what we call our body is equivalent to the food that feeds the body. It is true that my body is only made up of digested food and that my body would not exist without food, but my body is not the same as food. Food is what the body needs for life, but it is not the body itself. The same thing is true of my soul. It is true that without my body there would not be that which I call my soul, but my soul is not my body. The soul may need the body, but the body is not the soul.”

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian writer

Source: Path of Life (1909), p. 12

Ramsay MacDonald photo

“If we yield now to the TUC we shall never be able to call our bodies or souls or intelligences our own.”

Ramsay MacDonald (1866–1937) British statesman; prime minister of the United Kingdom

Diary entry (22 August 1931) after the TUC rejected cuts in public spending, quoted in David Marquand, ‘ MacDonald, (James) Ramsay (1866–1937) http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/34704,’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 2009.
1930s

Basil of Caesarea photo

“What, then, shall we do? someone may ask. What else, indeed, than devote ourselves to the care of our souls, keeping all our leisure free from other things. Accordingly, we should not be slaves of the body, except so far as is strictly necessary; but our souls we should supply with all things that are best, through philosophy freeing them, as from a prison, from association with the passions of the body.”

Basil of Caesarea (329–379) Christian Saint

Source: On Greek Literature, p. 415

Manuel Bandeira photo

“If you want to feel the happiness of loving, forget about your soul.
The soul ruins love.
Only in God can the soul meet satisfaction.
Not in another soul.
Only in God — or out of the world.
Souls cannot communicate.
Let your body talk to another body.
Because bodies understand each other, but souls don’t.”

Manuel Bandeira (1886–1968) Brazilian writer

Se queres sentir a felicidade de amar, esquece a tua alma.
A alma é que estraga o amor.
Só em Deus ela pode encontrar satisfação.
Não noutra alma.
Só em Deus - ou fora do mundo.
As almas são incomunicáveis.
Deixa o teu corpo entender — se com outro corpo.
Porque os corpos se entendem, mas as almas não.
Arte de amar (The Art of Loving)

“Having left us with thought (not a soul), and extension (not a body), [Descartes] does not know how to account for the union of soul and body.”

Étienne Gilson (1884–1978) French historian and philosopher

Methodical Realism

Anne Brontë photo

“Never mind our kind friends: if they can part our bodies, it is enough; in God's name, let them not sunder our souls!”

Anne Brontë book The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Source: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848), Ch. XLV : Reconciliation; Gilbert to Helen

John Donne photo

“We then, who are this new soul, know
Of what we are composed and made,
For the' atomies of which we grow
Are souls, whom no change can invade.
But oh alas, so long, so far,
Our bodies why do we forbear?
They're ours, though they're not we; we are
The intelligences, they the spheres.”

John Donne (1572–1631) English poet

The Ecstasy, line 45

Sylvia Plath photo

“How we need another soul to cling to, another body to keep us warm. To rest and trust; to give your soul in confidence: I need this, I need someone to pour myself into.”

Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) American poet, novelist and short story writer

Variant: How we need that security. How we need another soul to cling to, another body to keep us warm. To rest and trust; to give your soul in confidence: I need this. I need someone to pour myself into.
Source: The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

Related topics