An ornate frame containing a glowing violet moth stands on a small table draped with purple fabric against dark green.

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George Bernard Shaw

You see things and you say, "Why?" But I see things that never were; and I say, "Why not?"

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

The speaker contrasts asking why existing things are as they are with asking why imagined things could not exist. The change from why to why not shifts the emphasis from explanation toward possibility. It presents imagination as a way to question limits rather than simply account for the world.

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