George Bernard Shaw Quotes (675 Quotes)

Hegel was right when he said that we learn from history that man can never learn anything from history.

Beware of the pursuit of the Superhuman it leads to an indiscriminate contempt for the human

My religion Well, my dear, I am a Millionaire. That is my religion.

Democracy is a device that insures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.

Go on writing plays, my boy, One of these days one of these London producers will go into his office and say to his secretary, Is there a play from Shaw this morning and when she says, No, he will say, Well, then we'll have to start on the rub.

Man is unique in that he has plans, purpose and goals which require the need for criteria of choice. The need for ethical value is within man whose future may largely be determined by the choice he make

The natural term of the affection of the human animal for its offspring is six years.

I don't know if there are men on the moon, but if there are they must be using the earth as their lunatic asylum.

It is dangerous to be sincere unless you are also stupid.

Go anywhere in England where there are natural, wholesome, contented, and really nice English people and what do you always find That the stables are the real centre of the household.

The British churchgoer prefers a severe preacher because he thinks a few home truths will do his neighbours no harm.

We are ashamed of everything that is real about us ashamed of ourselves, of our relatives, of our incomes, of our accents, of our opinions,of our experience, just as we are ashamed of our naked skins.

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

The man with a toothache thinks everyone happy whose teeth are sound. The poverty-stricken man makes the same mistake about the rich man.

Christmas is forced upon a reluctant and disgusted nation by the shopkeepers and the press on its own merits it would wither and shrivel in the fiery breath of universal hatred.

My rank is the highest known in Switzerland I'm a free citizen.

Home is the girl's prison and the woman's workhouse.

The nation's morals are like its teeth the more decayed they are the more it hurts to touch them.

He is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature.

In a hospital they throw you out into the street before you are half cured, but in a nursing home they don't let you out till you are dead.

The trouble with her is that she lacks the power of conversation but not the power of speech.

Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.

Cusins is a very nice fellow, certainly nobody would ever guess that he was born in Australia.

Life levels all men. Death reveals the eminent.

Money is indeed the most important thing in the world and all sound and successful personal and national morality should have this fact for its basis.

Baseball has the great advantage over cricket of being sooner ended.

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

Englishmen hate Liberty and Equality too much to understand them. But every Englishman loves a pedigree.

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

I am a sort of collector of religions and the curious thing is that I find I can believe in them all.

One touch of Darwin makes the whole world kin.

A government with the policy to rob Peter to pay Paul can be assured of the support of Paul.

There is only one belief that can rob death of its sting and the grave of its victory.. For without that you cannot be born again.

Science never solves a problem without creating ten more.

Dying is a troublesome business there is pain to be suffered, and it wrings one's heart but death is a splendid thing --a warfare accomplished, a beginning all over again, a triumph. You can always see that in their faces.

The best place to seek God is in a garden. You can dig for Him there.

He's a gentleman look at his boots.

Why, except as a means of livelihood, a man should desire to act on the stage when he has the whole world to act in, is not clear to me.

Whenever you wish to do anything against the law, Cicely, always consult a good solicitor first.

It has taken me nearly twenty years of studied self-restraint, aided by the natural decay of my faculties, to make myself dull enough to be accepted as a serious person by the British public and I am not sure that I am not still regarded as a suspicious.

There is nothing on earth intended for innocent people so horrible as a school. It is in some respects more cruel than a prison. In a prison, for example, you are not forced to read books written by the warders and the governor.

This creative man, who in his own selfish affairs is a coward to the backbone, will fight for an idea like a hero.

You must not suppose, because I am a man of letters, that I never tried to earn an honest living.

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 have not wasted my life trifling with literary fools in taverns, as Johnson did, when he should have been shaking England with the thunder of his spirit

What a man is depends on his character but what he does, and what we think of what he does, depends on his circumstances.

Kings are not born: they are made by artificial hallucination.

No king on earth is as safe in his job as a Trade Union official. There is only one thing that can get him sacked and that is drink. Not even that, as long as he doesn't actually fall down.

The universal regard for money is the one hopeful fact in our civilization. Money is the most important thing in the world. It represents health, strength, honour, generosity and beauty.... Not the least of its virtues is that it destroys base people as certainly as it fortifies and dignifies noble people.

The whole strength of England lies in the fact that the enormous majority of the English people are snobs.