“All my life affection has been showered upon me, and every forward step I have made has been taken in spite of it.”
“Man is the only animals of which I am thoroughly and cravenly afraid.”
“The fickleness of the women I love is only equalled by the infernal constancy of the women who love me.”
“Home life is no more natural to us than a cage is natural to a cockatoo.”
“Do not try to live forever. You will not succeed.”
“I often quote myself. It adds spice to my conversation.”
“A man never tells you anything until you contradict him.”
“It is most unwise for people in love to marry.”
“Better never than late.”
“Peace is not only better than war, but infinitely more arduous.”
Source: The Collected Works of George Bernard Shaw: Plays, Novels, Articles, Letters and Essays: Pygmalion, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Candida, Arms and The Man, Man and Superman, Caesar and Cleopatra, Androcles And The Lion, The New York Times Articles on War, Memories of Oscar Wilde and more
“What a man believes may be ascertained, not from his creed, but from the assumptions on which he habitually acts.”
Source: The Collected Works of George Bernard Shaw: Plays, Novels, Articles, Letters and Essays: Pygmalion, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Candida, Arms and The Man, Man and Superman, Caesar and Cleopatra, Androcles And The Lion, The New York Times Articles on War, Memories of Oscar Wilde and more
“I have to live for others and not for myself: that's middle-class morality.”
“Assassination is the extreme form of censorship.”
“You'll never have a quiet world till you knock the patriotism out of the human race.”
“I enjoy convalescence. It is the part that makes the illness worth while.”
“I want to be all used up when I die.”
“What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child.”
“In this world there is always danger for those who are afraid of it.”
Source: Four Plays by Bernard Shaw
“No question is so difficult to answer as that to which the answer is obvious.”
“Property is organized robbery.”
Source: Major Barbara
“Virtue consists, not in abstaining from vice, but in not desiring it.”
Source: The Collected Works of George Bernard Shaw: Plays, Novels, Articles, Letters and Essays: Pygmalion, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Candida, Arms and The Man, Man and Superman, Caesar and Cleopatra, Androcles And The Lion, The New York Times Articles on War, Memories of Oscar Wilde and more
“An Englishman thinks he is moral when he is only uncomfortable.”
“Self-sacrifice enables us to sacrifice other people without blushing.”
“Until the men of action clear out the talkers we who have social consciences are at the mercy of those who have none.”
Source: Plays Political: The Apple Cart, On the Rocks, Geneva
“When a man says money can do anything, that settles it: he hasn't got any.”
“While we ourselves are the living graves of murdered animals, how can we expect any ideal living conditions on this earth?”
“My reputation grows with every failure.”
“Nothing is ever done in this world until men are prepared to kill one another if it is not done.”
“Americans adore me and will go on adoring me until I say something nice about them.”
“Except during the nine months before he draws his first breath, no man manages his affairs as well as a tree does.”
Source: The Collected Works of George Bernard Shaw: Plays, Novels, Articles, Lectures, Letters and Essays: Pygmalion, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Candida, Arms and The Man, Man and Superman, Caesar and Cleopatra, Androcles And The Lion, The New York Times Articles on War, Memories of Oscar Wilde and more
“Those who do not know how to live must make a merit of dying.”
Source: Heartbreak House
“Life levels all men. Death reveals the eminent.”
“Marriage is good enough for the lower classes: they have facilities for desertion that are denied to us.”
Source: The Collected Plays of George Bernard Shaw (Illustrated): Including Renowned Titles like Pygmalion, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Candida, Arms and The Man, Man and Superman, The Inca Of Perusalem, Macbeth Skit, Caesar and Cleopatra, Androcles And The Lion
“A veteran journalist has never had time to think twice before he writes.”
“Oh, the frontier of hell and heaven is only the difference between two ways of looking at things.”
“Very few people can afford to be poor.”
“We learn from experience that men never learn anything from experience.”
“Man can climb to the highest summits, but he cannot dwell there long.”
Source: The Collected Plays of George Bernard Shaw (Illustrated): Including Renowned Titles like Pygmalion, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Candida, Arms and The Man, Man and Superman, The Inca Of Perusalem, Macbeth Skit, Caesar and Cleopatra, Androcles And The Lion
“The art of government is the organisation of idolatry.”
“The faults of the burglar are the qualities of the financier.”
Source: Major Barbara
“The love of economy is the root of all virtue.”
Source: George Bernard Shaw: Collected Articles, Lectures, Essays and Letters: Thoughts and Studies from the Renowned Dramaturge and Author of Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Pygmalion, Arms and The Man, Saint Joan, Caesar and Cleopatra, Androcles And The Lion
“A man who has no office to go, to I don't care who he is, is a trial of which you can have no conception.”
“Few of us have vitality enough to make any of our instincts imperious.”
“It's easier to replace a dead man than a good picture.”
Source: The Collected Works of George Bernard Shaw: Plays, Novels, Articles, Lectures, Letters and Essays: Pygmalion, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Candida, Arms and The Man, Man and Superman, Caesar and Cleopatra, Androcles And The Lion, The New York Times Articles on War, Memories of Oscar Wilde and more
“Men are wise in proportion, not to their experience, but to their capacity for experience.”
Source: George Bernard Shaw: Collected Articles, Lectures, Essays and Letters: Thoughts and Studies from the Renowned Dramaturge and Author of Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Pygmalion, Arms and The Man, Saint Joan, Caesar and Cleopatra, Androcles And The Lion
“Men have to do some awfully mean things to keep up their respectability.”
Source: Fanny's First Play
“People become attached to their burdens sometimes more than the burdens are attached to them.”
Source: The Collected Works of George Bernard Shaw: Plays, Novels, Articles, Letters and Essays: Pygmalion, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Candida, Arms and The Man, Man and Superman, Caesar and Cleopatra, Androcles And The Lion, The New York Times Articles on War, Memories of Oscar Wilde and more
“The British soldier can stand up to anything except the British War Office.”
“The man who writes about himself and his own time is the only man who writes about all people and about all time.”
“The truth is, hardly any of us have ethical energy enough for more than one really inflexible point of honor.”
Source: The Collected Works of George Bernard Shaw: Plays, Novels, Articles, Lectures, Letters and Essays: Pygmalion, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Candida, Arms and The Man, Man and Superman, Caesar and Cleopatra, Androcles And The Lion, The New York Times Articles on War, Memories of Oscar Wilde and more
