George Bernard Shaw Quotes

This is the true joy in life: Being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one, being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it what I can. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.

~ George Bernard Shaw

- attributed as from a "speech at Brighton"

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

~ George Bernard Shaw

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent in doing nothing.

~ George Bernard Shaw

If you can't get rid of the skeleton in your closet, you'd best teach it to dance.

~ George Bernard Shaw

All great truths begin as blasphemies.

~ George Bernard Shaw

I often quote myself; it adds spice to my converstation.

~ George Bernard Shaw

My method is to take the utmost trouble to find the right thing to say, and then to say it with the utmost levity.

~ George Bernard Shaw

Martyrdom is the only way in which a man can become famous without ability.

~ George Bernard Shaw

He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches.

~ George Bernard Shaw

You don't learn to hold your own in the world by standing on guard, but by attacking and getting well hammered yourself.

~ George Bernard Shaw

I do not want actors and actresses to understand my plays. that is not necessary. If they will only pronounce the correct sounds I can guarantee the results.

~ George Bernard Shaw

You see things; and you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say, "Why not?"

~ George Bernard Shaw

- "Back to Methuselah" (1921), part 1, act 1

Life would be tolerable but for its amusements.

~ George Bernard Shaw

Assassination: the extreme form of censorship.

~ George Bernard Shaw

Find enough clever things to say, and you're a Prime Minister; write them down and you're a Shakespeare.

~ George Bernard Shaw

All my life, affection has been showered upon me, and every forward step I have made has been taken in spite of it.

~ George Bernard Shaw

In this world there is always danger for those who are afraid of it.

~ George Bernard Shaw

... government that "substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few."

~ George Bernard Shaw

There are two tragedies in life. One is not to get your heart's desire. The other is to get it.

~ George Bernard Shaw

No man who is occupied in doing a very difficult thing, and doing it very well, ever loses his self-respect.

~ George Bernard Shaw

When I was young I observed that nine out of every ten things I did were failures, so I did ten times more work.

~ George Bernard Shaw

If a woman rebels against high-heeled shoes, she should take care to do it in a very smart hat.

~ George Bernard Shaw

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.

~ George Bernard Shaw

If all economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion.

~ George Bernard Shaw

My father must have had some elementary education for he could read and write and keep accounts inaccurately.

~ George Bernard Shaw

Men are wise in proportion, not to their experience, but to their capacity for experience.

~ George Bernard Shaw

If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience!

~ George Bernard Shaw

We have not lost faith, but we have transferred it from God to the medical profession.

~ George Bernard Shaw

Always let your flattery be seen through for what really flatters a man is that you think him worth flattering.

~ George Bernard Shaw

The secret of forgiving everything is to understand nothing.

~ George Bernard Shaw

When we know what God is, we shall be gods ourselves.

~ George Bernard Shaw

The biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has been accomplished.

~ George Bernard Shaw

The only way to avoid being miserable is not to have enough leisure to wonder whether you are happy or not.

~ George Bernard Shaw

A lifetime of happiness? No man could bear it: it would be hell on earth.

~ George Bernard Shaw

Hatred is the coward's revenge for being intimidated.

~ George Bernard Shaw

To be in hell is to drift; to be in heaven is to steer.

~ George Bernard Shaw

A perpetual holiday is a good working definition of hell.

~ George Bernard Shaw

The savage bows down to idols of wood and stone, the civilized man to idols of flesh and blood.

~ George Bernard Shaw

Home life is no more natural to us than a cage is to a cockatoo.

~ George Bernard Shaw

The great advantage of a hotel is that it's a great refuge from home life.

~ George Bernard Shaw

We must make the world honest before we can honestly say to our children that honesty is the best policy.

~ George Bernard Shaw

Where there is no religion, hypocrisy becomes good taste.

~ George Bernard Shaw

Life is a flame that is always burning itself out, but it catches fire again every time a child is born.

~ George Bernard Shaw

I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play, bring a friend... if you have one.

(to Winston Churchill)

Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second... if there is one.
- Winston Churchill, in reply

~ George Bernard Shaw

As long as I can conceive something better than myself I cannot be easy unless I am striving to bring it into existence or clearing the way for it.

~ George Bernard Shaw

Forgive him, Theodotus: he is a barbarian and believes that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature.

~ George Bernard Shaw

- Julius Caesar

A man's interest in the world is only an overflow from his interest in himself.

~ George Bernard Shaw

Hamlet's experience simply could not have happened to a plumber.

~ George Bernard Shaw