Quotes by George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw

Irish-English writer and critic

Lived from: 1856 - 1950

Category: Media | Writers (Contemporary) Country: FlagUnited Kingdom

Born: 26 july 1856 Died: 2 november 1950

  • Build a system that even a fool can use, and only a fool will want to use it.
  • The American Constitution, one of the few modern political documents drawn up by men who were forced by the sternest circumstances to think out what they really had to face, instead of chopping logic in a university classroom.
  • Suppose the world were only one of God's jokes, would you work any the less to make it a good joke instead of a bad one?
  • Beware of the man who does not return your blow: he neither forgives you nor allows you to forgive yourself.
  • How can you dare teach a man to read until you've taught him everything else first?
  • The seven deadly sins... food, clothing, firing, rent, taxes, respectability and children. Nothing can lift those seven millstones from Man's neck but money; and the spirit cannot soar until the millstones are lifted.
  • Time enough to think of the future when you haven't any future to think of.
  • Man gives every reason for his conduct save one, every excuse for his crimes save one, every plea for his safety save one; and that one is his cowardice.
  • He didn't dare to, because his father had a weak heart and habitually threatened to drop dead if anybody hurt his feelings. You may have noticed that people with weak hearts are the tyrants of English married life.
  • Everything I eat has been proved by some doctor or other to be a deadly poison, and everything I don't eat has been proved to be indispensable for life. But I go marching on.
  • Money is the most important thing in the world. It represents health, strength, honor, generosity, and beauty as conspicuously as the want of it represents illness, weakness, disgrace, meanness, and ugliness.
  • I never thought much of the courage of a lion tamer. Inside the cage he is at least safe from people.
  • You have nothing to do but mention the quantum theory, and people will take your voice for the voice of science, and believe anything.
  • A lifetime of happiness! No man alive could bear it: it would be hell on earth.
  • It is all that the young can do for the old, to shock them and keep them up to date.
  • All young women begin by believing they can change and reform the men they marry. They can't.
  • Everybody who does not live in a prostitute's bed and on a diet of cocaine snow is called an ascetic nowadays.
  • The British are apt to make merits of their stupidities, and to represent their various incapacities as points of good breeding.
  • Opera is when a tenor and soprano want to make love, but are prevented from doing so by a baritone.
  • Man is the only animal of which I am thoroughly and cravenly afraid... There is no harm in a well-fed lion. It has no ideals, no sect, no party.
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  • Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.
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  • A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.
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  • A man of my spiritual intensity does not eat corpses.
    ― George Bernard Shaw
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  • A pessimist is a man who thinks everybody is as nasty as himself.
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  • A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.
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  • The greatest evils and the worst of crimes is poverty; our first duty, a duty to which every other consideration should be sacrificed, is not to be poor.
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  • Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.
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  • Every man over forty is a scoundrel.
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  • As long as I have a want, I have a reason for living. Satisfaction is death.
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  • The more I see of the moneyed classes, the more I understand the guillotine.
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  • A broken heart is a very pleasant complaint for a man in London if he has a comfortable income.
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  • A lifetime of happiness? No man alive could bear it; it would be hell on earth.
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  • Clever and attractive women do not want to vote; they are willing to let men govern as long as they govern men.
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  • When you read a biography remember that the truth is never fit for publication.
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  • A gentleman is one who puts more into the world than he takes out.
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  • A miracle is an event which creates faith. That is the purpose and nature of miracles. Frauds deceive. An event which creates faith does not deceive: therefore it is not a fraud, but a miracle.
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  • Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.
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  • Build a system that even a fool can use, and only a fool will want to use it.
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  • A cigarette is a pinch of tobacco rolled in paper with fire at one end and a fool at the other.
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  • A socialist is somebody who doesn't have anything, and is ready to divide it up equally among everybody.
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What are the most famous quotes from George Bernard Shaw?

The two most famous quotes from George Bernard Shaw are:

  • "Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself."
  • "A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing."

When did George Bernard Shaw live?

George Bernard Shaw was born in 1856 and died in the year 1950.