“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.”
This quote has no known author and is recorded as an anonymous proverb.
About this quote
Shaw states the paradox in his essay on progress, and it works because the reasonable man sounds admirable and turns out to be the obstacle. The sentence is the most quoted argument against consensus, and it is why the essay is still anthologised and still argued about.
Source: Man and Superman