A Native American elder once described his own inner struggles in this manner: Inside of me there are two dogs. One of the dogs is mean and evil. The other dog is good. The mean dog fights the good dog all the time. When asked which dog wins, he reflected for a moment and replied, The one I feed the most.
About this passage
- Attributed to
- George Bernard Shaw
- Published in
- Whispering Sages: From Their Mouths To Your Ears
- Attribution status
- ! Commonly misattributed
Parable commonly credited to a Native American elder or Billy Graham; not written by Shaw.
Photo: Diliff · CC BY-SA 3.0 · source · Portrait: Central News (Agence photographique). Agence photographique pour le document reproduit (commanditaire) Agence Rol. Agence photographique (commanditaire) (Public domain)
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More from George Bernard Shaw & related wisdom
True love is like ghosts, which everyone talks about and few have seen.
Since it is every man's interest to be happy through the whole of life, it is the wisdom of every one to employ philosophy in the search of felicity without delay; and there cannot be a greater folly, than to be always beginning to live.
The good life, as I conceive it, is a happy life. I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy; I mean that if you are happy you will be good.
