THE SERPENT: You see things; and you say, “Why?” But I dream things that never were; and I say, “Why not?”

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic

Back to Methuselah, 1.1 (1921)

The Serpent speaking to Eve. President John Kennedy quoted this addressing the Irish Parliament, Dublin (28 Jun. 1963). Sen. Robert Kennedy modified it for his campaign, as used by Sen. Edward Kennedy in his eulogy (1968): "Some men see things as they are and say, why; I dream things that never were and say, why not.”