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Who really said it

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself

Written by George Bernard Shaw 1856–1950 · Irish playwright, critic & Fabian socialist
Verified Free to reuse

Shaw wrote this as a maxim under the heading “Reason” in “Maxims for Revolutionists,” the aphorism appendix to his 1903 play Man and Superman. The wording is confirmed against the printed text; the widely-quoted form simply drops his concluding line, “Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

Last verified 7 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself” George Bernard Shaw, "Maxims for Revolutionists: Reason," in Man and Superman (1903).

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Provenance

The source

Work
Man and Superman: A Comedy and a Philosophy
Where
“Maxims for Revolutionists” (appendix), under “Reason”
Author
George Bernard Shaw
First published
1903

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. ↑ the popular version stops early and swaps Shaw’s colon for a semicolon

Shaw’s original uses a colon after “the world,” and the maxim doesn’t end where it’s usually quoted — his real point is the third sentence, that “all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

Man and Superman, “Maxims for Revolutionists” (Wikisource full text)

How we verified this

  • Confirmed word-for-word in the “Reason” maxims of Shaw’s “Maxims for Revolutionists” ↗, the appendix to Man and Superman.
  • Sourced to the same work, section and 1903 date by WIST Quotations ↗.
  • Man and Superman was written 1901–1903 and first published in 1903, placing the text firmly in the public domain.
Public domain

The quotation is public domain: Man and Superman was first published in 1903, and George Bernard Shaw died in 1950.

Context

Shaw’s point about progress

Shaw framed the maxim as a defense of the awkward, uncompromising reformer. Its force lives in the sentence usually left off: because the “unreasonable” person refuses to accommodate the world as it is, “all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

Why the wording varies

The circulating version typically replaces Shaw’s colon with a semicolon and stops after “to himself,” turning a three-part argument into a tidy contrast. Quoting the full maxim restores Shaw’s actual thesis about who drives change.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Change Courage Wisdom

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Man and Superman — “Maxims for Revolutionists” (full text)en.wikisource.org

Primary source: the complete maxims, including the “Reason” entry with this exact line.
Shaw, Man and Superman, “Reason” (1903)wist.info

Quotation reference citing the work, section and year for the maxim.
George Bernard Shaw (Oxford Reference)oxfordreference.com

Scholarly quotation dictionary entry for Shaw.
George Bernard Shaw (Wikipedia)en.wikipedia.org

Biography of the author and overview of his works, including Man and Superman.
Quote page for the maximgoodreads.com

Widely-shared reference showing the popular full-length form of the maxim.

About the author

George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw

1856–1950 · Irish playwright, critic & Fabian socialist

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) was an Irish-born playwright, critic and polemicist, and a leading figure in the Fabian socialist movement. Man and Superman (1903) is among his best-known plays, and the “Maxims for Revolutionists” appended to it are a rich source of his aphorisms. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1925.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source — Chicago

George Bernard Shaw, “Maxims for Revolutionists: Reason,” in Man and Superman: A Comedy and a Philosophy (London: Archibald Constable & Co., 1903).

MLA (9th ed.)

Shaw, George Bernard. "Maxims for Revolutionists: Reason." Man and Superman: A Comedy and a Philosophy, Archibald Constable & Co., 1903.

APA (7th ed.)

Shaw, G. B. (1903). Maxims for revolutionists: Reason. In Man and Superman: A comedy and a philosophy. Archibald Constable & Co.

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Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself’?” Last verified 7 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/the-reasonable-man-adapts-himself-to-the-world-the

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