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George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw Quotes

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Famous George Bernard Shaw Quotes

“If women were as fastidious as men, morally or physically, there would be an end of the race.”

IfsMenEndsWould BeWomenRaceFastidious
Book: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
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“A dinner! How horrible! I am to be made the pretext for killing all those wretched animals and birds, and fish! Thank you for nothing. Now if it were to be a fast instead of a feast; say a solemn three days' abstention from corpses in my honour, I could at least pretend to believe that it was disinterested. Blood sacrifices are not in my line”

IfsBelieveMadeThreeLinesAnimalSacrificeBloodBirdKillingFishesDinnerHorribleHonourVeganWretchedCorpsesSolemnPretextDisinterestedAbstentionBlood Sacrifice
Author:George Bernard Shaw
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“We know now that the soul is the body, and the body the soul. They tell us they are different because they want to persuade us that we can keep our souls if we let them make slaves of our bodies.”

IfsKnowsWantDifferentSoulBodyAtheismSlavePositive Atheism
Book: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
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“When you want to put something into your part that is not in the play, you must ask the author-or some other author-to lead up to the interpolation for you. Never forget that the effect of a line may depend not on its delivery, but on something said earlier in the play, either by somebody else or by yourself, and that if you change it, it may be necessary to change the whole first act as well.”

IfsWantFirstsWellsMaySaidPlayWholeAsksLinesForgetEffectsDependsTheatreNever ForgetDelivery
Book:Collected letters: 1926-1950
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“People have pointed out evidences of personal feeling in my notices as if they were accusing me of a misdemeanor, not knowing that criticism written without personal feeling is not worth reading. It is the capacity for making good or bad art a personal matter that makes a man a critic.”

PeopleIfsMenArtMatterFeelingsReadingKnowingWrittenEvidenceCapacityCriticismCriticsTheatreNot KnowingWorth ReadingAccusingPersonal FeelingsMisdemeanorsPersonal MatterAccusing Me
Author:George Bernard Shaw
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“Every man to whom salvation is offered has an inalienable natural right to say 'No, thank you: I prefer to retain my full moral responsibility: it is not good for me to be able to load a scapegoat with my sins: I should be less careful how I committed them if I knew they would cost me nothing.”

IfsMenShouldAbleNaturalSinResponsibilityMoralCostSalvationCommittedCarefulEvery ManLoadScapegoatMoral Responsibility
Book: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
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“I also made it quite clear that Socialism means equality of income or nothing, and that under socialism you would not be allowed to be poor. You would be forcibly feed, clothed, lodged, taught, and employed whether you like it or not. If it were discovered that you had not character enough to be worth all this trouble, you might possibly be executed in a kindly manner; but whilst you were permitted to live you would have to live well.”

IfsWellsMeanMadeEnoughCharacterMightWould BePoorClearTroubleTaughtEqualityIncomeSocialismMade ItEmployedYou Like ItLive Well
Author:George Bernard Shaw
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“If Despotism failed only for want of a capable benevolent despot, what chance has Democracy, which requires a whole population of capable voters.”

IfsWantWholeChanceDemocracyCapablePopulationVotersDespotismBenevolentDespots
Book: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
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“Consciousness of a fact is not knowing it: if it were, the fish would know more of the sea than the geographers and the naturalists.”

IfsKnowsFactsConsciousnessKnowingSeaRiversFishesBoatLakesFishingNot KnowingNaturalistGeographers
Book: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
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“Marriage is tolerable enough in its way if youre easygoing and dont expect too much from it. But it doesnt bear thinking about.”

IfsThinkingWayEnoughMarriageToo MuchBearsTolerable
Book:George Bernard Shaw: The Collected Plays (Illustrated): 60 plays including Caesar and Cleopatra, Pygmalion, Saint Joan, The Apple Cart, Cymbeline, Androcles And The Lion, The Man Of Destiny, The Inca Of Perusalem and Macbeth Skit
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“God help England if she had no Scots to think for her.”

IfsThinkingHelpingEnglandScotlandGod HelpScots
Book:George Bernard Shaw: The Collected Plays (Illustrated): 60 plays including Caesar and Cleopatra, Pygmalion, Saint Joan, The Apple Cart, Cymbeline, Androcles And The Lion, The Man Of Destiny, The Inca Of Perusalem and Macbeth Skit
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“What is really important in Man is the part of him that we do not understand. Of much of it we are not even conscious, just as we are not normally conscious of keeping up our circulation by our heart-pump, though if we neglect it we die.”

IfsMenHeartImportantDiesConsciousNeglectRebelliousPumpsCirculation
Book: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
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“If the wicked flourish and the fittest survive, Nature must be the god of rascals.”

IfsWickedRebelliousRascals
Book: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
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