h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi Azara

Gnomon suggested I contact you about this, so here goes:-

There's a well-known quotation attributed to George Bernard Shaw:

'Youth is such a wonderful thing - what a pity to waste it on children.'

Sometimes quoted as simply: 'Youth is wasted on children'.

I have tried looking this up in books of quotations and on various web sites, but though I have seen it quoted here and there I cannot establish for sure a) the precise and definitive original wording of the quotation, b) precise details of where it comes from (ie chapter and verse, date, time, location, whatever).

Are you able to help with precise facts on this?

Thanks a bunch!

Bels

Hi, Bels!

I'm afraid I can't help - I started to write a short entry on Shaw, including quotations, but I found it very hard to track down the origins of even his most famous quotations. He just wrote such an amazing quantity of stuff, on so many topics, for over seventy years, that it seems like looking for a needle in a haystack to track down individual ones.

Sorry I can't help!

Azara

Thanks for trying!

As it happens, I have the Oxford Dict. of Quotations, which gives 108 entries for GBS, with references. Unfortunately not the one I seek! But if you ever need any of these, do ask.



Bels

I'll keep that in mind...

To change the subject, are you thinking of going to the h2g2 London meet on the 20th of July? I've decided to take the plunge this time, so my hotel and plane tickets are now booked. Now I'm starting to wonder just how many of the partygoers I'll actually recognise!

Azara

Unfortunately it doesn't look as though I'll be able to make it to the meet. Pity about that.