George Bernard Shaw Quotes (675 Quotes)

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

Every doctor will allow a colleague to decimate a whole countryside sooner than violate the bond of professional etiquet by giving him away.

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

It was from Handel that I learned that style consists in force of assertion.

It is well to be off with the Old Woman before youre on with the new.

Is the devil to have all the passions as well as all the good tunes.

The British soldier can stand up to anything except the British War Office.

You see things and say Why But I dream things that never where and I say Why not

A man who never missed an occasion to let slip an opportunity.

He who has never hoped can never despair.

O Lord I don't know which is the worst of the country, the walking or the sitting at home with nothing to do.

A drama critic is a man who leaves no turn unstoned.

I want to be all used up when I die.

Animals are my friends... and I don't eat my friends.

The joy in life is to be used for a purpose. I want to be used up when I die.

Never fret for an only son, the idea of failure will never occur to him.

Of all the anti-social vested interests the worst is the vested interest in ill-health.

The only secrets are the secrets that keep themselves.

I wish all Americans were as blind as you.

No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says: He is always convinced that it says what he means.

Life at its noblest leaves mere happiness far behind and indeed cannnot endure it. . . . Happiness is not the object of life life has no object it is an end in itself. . .

Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got a hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.

Give women the vote, and in five years there will be a crushing tax on bachelors.

Remember, our conduct is influenced not by our experience but by our expectations.

A lifetime of happiness no man alive could bear it it would be hell on earth.

A mind of the caliber of mine cannot derive its nutriment from cows.

All sorts of bodily diseases are produced by half used minds.

Do not unto others as you would that they would do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same.

The golden rule is that there is not golden rule.

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

Men are not governed by justice, but by law or persuasion. When they refuse to be governed by law or persuasion, they have to be governed by force or fraud, or both.

When people shake their heads because we are living in a restless age, ask them how they would like to live in a stationary one and do without change

There are some experiences in life which should not be demanded twice from any man, and one of them is listening to the Brahms Requiem.

No man fully capable of his own language ever masters another

I showed my appreciation of my native land in the usual Irish way by getting out of it as soon as I possibly could.

We are a nation of governesses.

The surest way to ruin a man who doesn't know how to handle money is to give him some.

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

Marriage is good enough for the lower classes: they have facilities for desertion that are denied to us.

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

We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.

The Jews generally give value. They make you pay but they deliver the goods. In my experience the men who want something for nothing are invariably Christians.

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

You can always tell an old soldier by the inside of his holsters and cartridge boxes. The young ones carry pistols and cartridges; the old ones, grub.

Of all the damnable waste of human life that ever was invented, clerking is the worst.

There is a disease to which plays as well as men become liable with advancing years,

Clever and attractive women do not want to vote; they are willing to let men govern as long as they govern men.

What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child.

You dont expect me to know what to say about a play when I dont know who the author is, do you ... If its by a good author, its a good play, naturally. That stands to reason.

Give a man health and a course to steer, and he'll never stop to trouble about whether he's happy or not.