George Bernard Shaw, known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Anglo-Irish playwright, critic, and polemicist. He wrote more than sixty plays, including major works such as Man and Superman, Pygmalion, and Saint Joan. With a range incorporating both contemporary satire and historical allegory, Shaw became the leading dramatist of his generation, and in 1925 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. The word “Shavian” has entered the language as encapsulating Shaw’s ideas and his means of expressing them.
Life Isn't About Finding Yourself. Life Is About Creating Yourself.
A Gentleman Is One Who Puts More Into The World Than He Takes Out.
Science Never Solves A Problem Without Creating Ten More.
Patriotism Is Your Conviction That This Country Is Superior To All Others Because You Were Born In It.
There Are No Secrets Better Kept Than The Secrets Everybody Guesses.
There Is No Subject On Which More Dangerous Nonsense Is Talked And Thought Than Marriage.
What A Man Believes May Be Ascertained, Not From His Creed, But From The Assumptions On Which He Habitually Acts.
Marriage Is Popular Because It Combines The Maximum Of Temptation With The Maximum Of Opportunity.
Until The Men Of Action Clear Out The Talkers We Who Have Social Consciences Are At The Mercy Of Those Who Have None.
I Am Afraid We Must Make The World Honest Before We Can Honestly Say To Our Children That Honesty Is The Best Policy.
The Old Testament God Is A Person With Body Parts And Passions. The Church Of England God Has Neither Body, Parts Nor Passions, And Is Therefore Not A Person.
Socialism Never Arises In The Earlier Phases Of Capitalism, As, For Instance, Among The Pioneers Of Civilisation In A Country Where There Is Plenty Of Land Available For Private Appropriation By The Last Comer.
Democracy Substitutes Election By The Incompetent Many For Appointment By The Corrupt Few.
All Genuinely Intellectual Work Is Humorous.
If You're Not Producing As Much As You Consume, Or Perhaps A Little More, Then Clearly We Cannot Use The Big Organization Of Our Society For The Purpose Of Keeping You Alive, Because Your Life Does Not Benefit Us, And It Can't Be Of Very Much Use To Yourself.
If I Own A Large Part Of Scotland, I Can Turn The People Off The Land Practically Into The Sea Or Across The Sea. I Can Take Women In Child-bearing And Throw Them Into The Snow And Leave Them There. That Has Been Done. I Can Do It For No Better Reason Than I Think It Is Better To Shoot Deer On The Land Than Allow People To Live On It.
Self-sacrifice Enables Us To Sacrifice Other People Without Blushing.
Love Is A Gross Exaggeration Of The Difference Between One Person And Everybody Else.
He Knows Nothing And Thinks He Knows Everything. That Points Clearly To A Political Career.
Beware Of The Man Who Does Not Return Your Blow: He Neither Forgives You Nor Allows You To Forgive Yourself.
You Are Going To Let The Fear Of Poverty Govern You Life And Your Reward Will Be That You Will Eat, But You Will Not Live.
It Is A Curious Sensation: The Sort Of Pain That Goes Mercifully Beyond Our Powers Of Feeling. When Your Heart Is Broken, Your Boats Are Burned: Nothing Matters Any More. It Is The End Of Happiness And The Beginning Of Peace.
I Have To Live For Others And Not For Myself: That's Middle-class Morality.
I Want To Be Thoroughly Used Up When I Die, For The Harder I Work The More I Live. I Rejoice In Life For Its Own Sake.
What Englishman Will Give His Mind To Politics As Long As He Can Afford To Keep A Motor Car?
It Is Dangerous To Be Sincere Unless You Are Also Stupid.
Few Of Us Have Vitality Enough To Make Any Of Our Instincts Imperious.
General Consultant To Mankind.
Virtue Is Insufficient Temptation.
The Things Most People Want To Know About Are Usually None Of Their Business.
The Truth Is, Hardly Any Of Us Have Ethical Energy Enough For More Than One Really Inflexible Point Of Honor.
What Is Virtue But The Trade Unionism Of The Married?
Find Enough Clever Things To Say, And You're A Prime Minister; Write Them Down And You're A Shakespeare.
Old Men Are Dangerous: It Doesn't Matter To Them What Is Going To Happen To The World.
Creation Is A Miracle Of Daily Recurrence. 'A Miracle A Minute' Would Not Be A Bad Slogan For God.
The Worst Sin Toward Our Fellow Creatures Is Not To Hate Them, But To Be Indifferent To Them: That's The Essence Of Inhumanity.
A Fashion Is Nothing But An Induced Epidemic.
Use Your Health, Even To The Point Of Wearing It Out. That Is What It Is For. Spend All You Have Before You Die; Do Not Outlive Yourself.
The Fact That A Believer Is Happier Than A Skeptic Is No More To The Point Than The Fact That A Drunken Man Is Happier Than A Sober One.
What We Want Is To See The Child In Pursuit Of Knowledge, And Not Knowledge In Pursuit Of The Child.
You'll Never Have A Quiet World Till You Knock The Patriotism Out Of The Human Race.
Do Not Waste Your Time On Social Questions. What Is The Matter With The Poor Is Poverty; What Is The Matter With The Rich Is Uselessness.
The Trouble With Her Is That She Lacks The Power Of Conversation But Not The Power Of Speech.
I Never Resist Temptation, Because I Have Found That Things That Are Bad For Me Do Not Tempt Me.
I Learned Long Ago, Never To Wrestle With A Pig. You Get Dirty, And Besides, The Pig Likes It.
The Only Secrets Are The Secrets That Keep Themselves.
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.
Capitalism Has Destroyed Our Belief In Any Effective Power But That Of Self Interest Backed By Force.
Choose Silence Of All Virtues, For By It You Hear Other Men's Imperfections, And Conceal Your Own.
Silence Is The Most Perfect Expression Of Scorn.