Quotes by George Bernard Shaw
You'll never have a quiet world till you knock the patriotism out of the human race.
Shaw, George Bernard
Never waste jealousy on a real man: it is the imaginary man that supplants us all in the long run.
Shaw, George Bernard
Love is a gross exaggeration of the difference between one person and everybody else.
Shaw, George Bernard
I dread success. To have succeeded is to have finished one's business on earth, like the male spider, who is killed by the female the moment he has succeeded in courtship. I like a state of continual becoming, with a goal in front and not behind.
Shaw, George Bernard
Martyrdom... is the only way in which a man can become famous without ability.
Shaw, George Bernard
People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them.
Shaw, George Bernard
Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world.
Shaw, George Bernard
Youth is wasted on the young.
Shaw, George Bernard
And so, to the end of history, murder shall breed murder, always in the name of right and honor and peace, until the gods are tired of blood and create a race that can understand.
Shaw, George Bernard
All sorts of bodily diseases are produced by half-used minds.
Shaw, George Bernard
If all the economists were laid end to end, they'd never reach a conclusion.
Shaw, George Bernard
Newspapers are unable, seemingly, to discriminate between a bicycle accident and the collapse of civilisation.
Shaw, George Bernard
A man who has no office to go to - I don't care who he is - is a trial of which you can have no conception.
Shaw, George Bernard
There is no reason why the field should not try to put the batsman off his stroke at the critical moment by neatly timed disparagements of his wife's fidelity and his mother's respectability.
Shaw, George Bernard
While we ourselves are the living graves of murdered beasts, how can we expect any ideal conditions on this earth?
Shaw, George Bernard
The churches must learn humility as well as teach it.
Shaw, George Bernard
When two people are under the influence of the most violent, most insane, most delusive, and most transient of passions, they are required to swear that they will remain in that excited, abnormal, and exhausting condition continuously until death do them part.
Shaw, George Bernard
"Independence"...[is] middle-class blasphemy. We are all dependent on one another, every soul of us on earth.
Shaw, George Bernard
As long as I have a want, I have a reason for living. Satisfaction is death.
Shaw, George Bernard
Use your health, even to the point of wearing it out. That is what it is for. Spend all you have before you die; do not outlive yourself.
Shaw, George Bernard
Few people think more than two or three times a year; I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once a week.
Shaw, George Bernard
Disobedience, the rarest and most courageous of the virtues, is seldom distinguished from neglect, the laziest and commonest of the vices.
Shaw, George Bernard
The more things a man is ashamed of, the more respectable he is.
Shaw, George Bernard
I like a bit of mongrel myself, whether it's a man or a dog; they're the best for everyday.
Shaw, George Bernard
This is the true joy in life - being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; being a force of nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.
Shaw, George Bernard
Youth is a wonderful thing. What a crime to waste it on children.
Shaw, George Bernard
Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.
Shaw, George Bernard
Do not waste your time on Social Questions. What is the matter with the poor is Poverty; what is the matter with the rich is Uselessness.
Shaw, George Bernard
Let me give you one definition of ethics: It is good to maintain life and to further life; it is bad to damage and destroy life. And this ethic, profound, universal, has the significance of a religion. It is religion.
Shaw, George Bernard
I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live.
Shaw, George Bernard
The only man I know who behaves sensibly is my tailor; he takes my measurements anew each time he sees me. The rest go on with their old measurements and expect me to fit them.
Shaw, George Bernard
Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it.
Shaw, George Bernard
My situation is a solemn one. Life is offered to me on condition of eating beefsteaks. But death is better than cannibalism. My will contains directions for my funeral, which will be followed not by mourning coaches, but by oxen, sheep, flocks of poultry, and a small traveling aquarium of live fish, all wearing white scarfs in honor of the man who perished rather than eat his fellow creatures.
Shaw, George Bernard
Chess is a foolish expedient for making idle people believe they are doing something very clever when they are only wasting their time.
Shaw, George Bernard
Our ideals, like the gods of old, are constantly demanding human sacrifices.
Shaw, George Bernard
We should all be obliged to appear before a board every five years, and justify our existence... on pain of liquidation.
Shaw, George Bernard
Common sense is instinct. Enough of it is genius.
Shaw, George Bernard
No sooner had Jesus knocked over the dragon of superstition than Paul boldly set it on its legs again in the name of Jesus.
Shaw, George Bernard
The man with a toothache thinks everyone happy whose teeth are sound.
Shaw, George Bernard
Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.
Shaw, George Bernard
Custom will reconcile people to any atrocity; and fashion will drive them to acquire any custom.
Shaw, George Bernard
A mind of the caliber of mine cannot derive its nutriment from cows.
Shaw, George Bernard
Most people do not pray; they only beg.
Shaw, George Bernard
We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.
Shaw, George Bernard
The trouble with her is that she lacks the power of conversation but not the power of speech.
Shaw, George Bernard
I dislike feeling at home when I am abroad.
Shaw, George Bernard
The only way to avoid being miserable is not to have enough leisure to wonder whether you are happy or not.
Shaw, George Bernard