Quotes by George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw was born on July 26, 1856 in Dublin, Ireland. An Irish playwright and critic, Shaw is still the only person that has ever won both the Nobel Prize and an Oscar. Known for his wit and outspoken personality makes him one of the most iconic literary figures of the 20th century.

George Bernard Shaw was an ardent socialist who wrote over sixty plays, mainly dealing with issues such as: government, health care, marriage, religion, education, and other social issues. His outspoken, witty style made his plays interesting, a difficult task when dealing with such serious issues.

Shaw died on November 2, 1950 at the home he once shared with his late wife, Charlotte Payne-Townshend, in the Hertfordshire village of Ayot St. Lawrence. He died of renal failure related to injuries he received after a fall pruning trees on the grounds at Shaw's Corner, he was 94 years old. His ashes, along with those of his wife, were scattered around the statue of Saint Joan in their garden and along the garden footpaths.

 

~ Do not try to live forever. You will not succeed. ~

~ I want to be all used up when I die. ~

~ Life is not meant to be easy, my child; but take courage -- it can be delightful. ~

~ We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing. ~

~ There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart's desire. The other is to gain it. ~

~ A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing. ~

~ Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh. ~

~ Miracles, in the sense of phenomena we cannot explain, surround us on every hand: life itself is the miracle of miracles. ~

~ You can easily find people who are ten times as rich at sixty as they were at twenty; but not one of them will tell you that they are ten times as happy. ~

 

~ The lack of money is the root of all evil. ~

~ Common sense is instinct. Enough of it is genius. ~

~ An asylum for the sane would be empty in America. ~

~ The secret of forgiving everything is to understand nothing. ~

~ Science... never solves a problem without creating ten more. ~

~ It is not disbelief that is dangerous to our society; it is belief. ~

~ The world is populated in the main by people who should not exist. ~

~ No question is so difficult to answer as that to which the answer is obvious. ~

~ Love is a gross exaggeration of the difference between one person and everybody else. ~

~ The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place. ~

 

~ Very few people can afford to be poor. ~

~ Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance. ~

~ Experience fails to teach where there is no desire to learn. ~

~ In this world there is always danger for those who are afraid of it. ~

~ The secret to success is to offend the greatest number of people. ~

~ Build a system that even a fool can use, and only a fool will want to use. ~

~ If there was nothing wrong in the world there wouldn't be anything for us to do. ~

~ When it comes to the point, really bad men are just as rare as really good ones. ~

~ Take care to get what you like or you will be forced to like what you get. ~

~ People become attached to their burdens sometimes more than the burdens are attached to them. ~

~ Do not do unto others as you expect they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same. ~

 

~ Nothing makes a man so selfish as work. ~

~ What really flatters a man is that you think him worth flattering. ~

~ The more things a man is ashamed of, the more respectable he is. ~

~ A gentleman is one who puts more into the world than he takes out. ~

~ A lifetime of happiness? No man could bear it: it would be hell on earth. ~

~ The most tragic thing in the world is a man of genius who is not a man of honor. ~

~ Old men are dangerous it doesn't matter to them what is going to happen to the world. ~

~ One man that has a mind and knows it can always beat ten men who haven't and don't. ~

~ Woman's dearest delight is to wound Man's self-conceit, though Man's dearest delight is to gratify hers. ~

~ It is a woman's business to get married as soon as possible, and a man's to keep unmarried as long as possible.~

~ When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he will always declare that it is his duty. ~

~ If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must man be of learning from experience. ~

 

~ Indifference is the essence of inhumanity. ~

~ Hatred is the coward's revenge for being intimidated. ~

~ The possibilities are numerous once we decide to act and not react. ~

~ Self-sacrifice enables us to sacrifice other people without blushing. ~

~ Every person who has mastered a profession is a skeptic concerning it. ~

~ Statistics show that of those who contract the habit of eating, very few survive. ~

~ A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul. ~

~ I never resist temptation, because I have found that things that are bad for me do not tempt me. ~

~ Be like the sun and meadow, which are not in the least concerned about the coming winter. ~

~ We must always think about things, and we must think about things as they are, not as they are said to be. ~

~ If you must hold yourself up to your children as an object lesson, hold yourself up as a warning and not as an example.~

~ Two percent of the people think; three percent of the people think they think; and ninety-five percent of the people would rather die than think. ~

 

~ I began as a passion and ended as a habit, like all husbands. ~

~ If women were particular about men's characters, they would never get married at all. ~

~ Beauty is all very well at first sight; but who looks at it when it has been in the house three days? ~

~ Marriage is popular because it combines the maximum of temptation with the maximum of opportunity.~

~ Marriage is an alliance entered into by a man who can't sleep with the window shut, and a woman who can't sleep with the window open. ~

 

~ Morality is not respectability.~

~ Youth is wasted on the young.~

~ Success covers a multitude of blunders. ~

~ My reputation grows with every failure. ~

~ It is most unwise for people in love to marry. ~

~ There is no sincerer love than the love of food. ~

~ He who has never hoped can never despair. ~

~ If you injure your neighbor, better not do it by halves. ~

~ We veneer civilization by doing unkind things in a kind way. ~

~ The minority is sometimes right; the majority always wrong.~

~ Everything happens to everybody sooner or later if there is time enough. ~

~ If all the economists in the world were laid end to end, they would still not reach a conclusion. ~

~ Better keep yourself clean and bright. You are the window through which you must see the world. ~

~ We know there is intention and purpose in the universe, because there is intention and purpose in us. ~

~ The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who haven't got it. ~

~ I would like to take you seriously, but to do so would be an affront to your intelligence. ~

~ I never thought much of the courage of a lion tamer. Inside the cage he is at least safe from people. ~

~ You don't learn to hold your own in the world by standing on guard, but by attacking and getting well hammered yourself.~

~ If you leave the smallest corner of your head vacant for a moment, other people's opinions will rush in from all quarters. ~

~ Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable people attempt to adapt the world to themselves. All progress, therefore, depends on unreasonable people. ~

 

~ All great truths begin as blasphemies. ~

~ A perpetual holiday is a good working definition of hell. ~

~ The only secrets are the secrets that keep themselves. ~

~ Reminiscences make one feel so deliciously aged and sad. ~

~ I enjoy convalescence. It is the part that makes the illness worth while.~

~ It's just as unpleasant to get more than you bargain for as to get less.~

~ I like a bit of a mongrel myself, whether it's a man or a dog; they're the best for every day. ~

~ I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it. ~

~ The more I see of the moneyed classes, the more I understand the guillotine. ~

~ The whole world is strewn with snares, traps, gins and pitfalls for the capture of men by women. ~

~ I assume that to prevent illness in later life, you should never have been born at all. ~

~ Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will. ~