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George Bernard Shaw
242 quotes
“I can't talk religion to a man with bodily hunger in his eyes.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You cannot have power for good without having power for evil too. Even mother's milk nourishes murderers as well as heroes.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Undershaft: You have made for yourself something that you call a morality or a religion or what not. It doesn't fit the facts. Well, scrap it. Scrap it and get one that does fit. That is what is wrong with the world at present. It scraps its obsolete steam engines and dynamos; but it wont scrap its old prejudices and its old moralities and its old religions and its old political constitutions. Whats the result? In machinery it does very well; but in morals and religion and politics it is working at a loss that brings it nearer bankruptcy every year.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Undershaft: My religion? Well, my dear, I am a Millionaire. That is my religion.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You have learnt something. That always feels at first as if you had lost something.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is not the sale of my soul that troubles me: I have sold it too often to care about that. I have sold it for a professorship. I have sold it for an income. ... What is all human conduct but the daily and hourly sale of our souls for trifles?”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He knows nothing; and he thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A healthy nation is as unconscious of its nationality as a healthy man of his bones. But if you break a nation's nationality it will think of nothing else but getting it set again.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You cannot be a hero without being a coward.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What really flatters a man is that you think him worth flattering.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My way of joking is to tell the truth. It's the funniest joke in the world.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Home life as we understand it is no more natural to us than a cage is natural to a cockatoo.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Plato long ago pointed out the importance of being governed by men with sufficient sense of responsibility and comprehension of public duties to be very reluctant to undertake the work of governing.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Love is an appetite which, like all other appetites, is destroyed for the moment by its gratification.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Never forget that if you leave your law to judges and your religion to bishops, you will presently find yourself without either law or religion.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Journalists are too poorly paid in this country to know anything that is fit for publication.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The secret of forgiving everything is to understand nothing.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nothing is more dreadful than a husband who keeps telling you everything he thinks, and always wants to know what you think.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All progress means war with Society.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The whole strength of England lies in the fact that the enormous majority of the English people are snobs.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You don't learn to hold your own in the world by standing on guard, but by attacking, and getting well hammered yourself.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I happen, like Napoleon, to prefer Mohammedanism. [Mrs George, associating Mohammedanism with polygamy, looks at him with quick suspicion]. I believe the whole British Empire will adopt a reformed Mohammedanism before the end of the century. The character of Mahomet is congenial to me. I admire him, and share his views of life to a considerable extent.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Why was I born with such contemporaries?”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) first seen 1910 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: George Bernard Shaw Preface to The Dark Lady of the Sonnets (1910)
Also quoted by: Oscar Wilde (misattributed)
“A part of eugenic politics would finally land us in an extensive use of the lethal chamber. A great many people would have to be put out of existence simply because it wastes other people's time to look after them.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) first seen 1910 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Lecture to the London's Eugenics Education Society, printed in The Daily Express (March 4, 1910), and quoted in Evelyn Cobley, Modernism and the Culture of Efficiency: Ideology and Fiction (University of Toronto Press, …
“A critic recently described me, with deadly acuteness, as having 'a kindly dislike of my fellow-creatures.' Perhaps dread would have been nearer the mark than dislike; for man is the only animal of which I am thoroughly and cravenly afraid.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) first seen 1911 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in George Bernard Shaw, His Life and Works: a critical biography (authorised), Archibald Henderson, Stewart & Kidd (1911), Chapter VII (The Art Critic), pp. 201-202
“The word morality, if we met it in the Bible, would surprise us as much as the word telephone or motor car.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) first seen 1911 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Fanny's First Play, Preface (1911)
“That proves it's not by Shaw, because all Shaw's characters are himself: mere puppets stuck up to spout Shaw.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As long as I have a want, I have a reason for living. Satisfaction is death.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) first seen 1912 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Overruled (1912)
“Well, I tell you again to get rid of your Constitution. But I suppose you won't do it. You have a good president and you have a bad Constitution, and the bad Constitution gets the better of the good President all the time. The end of it will be is that you might as well have an English Prime Minister.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) first seen 1933 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Newsreel interview by George Bernard Shaw entitled "Various Scenes with George Bernard Shaw," Fox Movietone Newsreel (1933), referring to Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency
“Custom will reconcile people to any atrocity; and fashion will drive them to acquire any custom.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) first seen 1914 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Killing For Sport, Preface (1914)
“All great truths begin as blasphemies.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) first seen 1919 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Annajanska (1919)
“You'll never have a quiet world till you knock the patriotism out of the human race.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) first seen 1919 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: O'Flaherty V.C. (1919)
“It is more dangerous to be a great prophet or poet than to promote twenty companies for swindling simple folk out of their savings.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Optimistic lies have such immense therapeutic value that a doctor who cannot tell them convincingly has mistaken his profession.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A perpetual holiday is a good working definition of Hell.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I like a bit of a mongrel myself, whether it's a man or a dog; they're the best for every day.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If parents would only realize how they bore their children!”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When will we realize that the fact that we can become accustomed to anything, however disgusting at first, makes it necessary to examine carefully everything we have become accustomed to.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Death is for many of us the gate of hell; but we are inside on the way out, not outside on the way in.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The secret of being miserable is to have leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not. The cure for it is occupation, because occupation means pre-occupation; and the pre-occupied person is neither happy nor unhappy, but simply alive and active, which is pleasanter than any happiness until you are tired of it.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Do not try to live for ever. You will not succeed.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No man who is occupied in doing a very difficult thing, and doing it well, ever loses his self-respect.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Attention and activity lead to mistakes as well as to successes; but a life spent in making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All professions are conspiracies against the laity.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I don't believe in morality. I'm a disciple of Bernard Shaw.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Chloroform has done a lot of mischief. It's enabled every fool to be a surgeon.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Use your health, even to the point of wearing it out. That is what it is for. Spend all you have before you die; and do not outlive yourself.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is impossible for an Englishman to open his mouth without making some other Englishman hate or despise him.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source