George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950), was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 1880s to his death and beyond.
Here is a selection of some of George Bernard Shaw most famous quotes. Inspirational and motivating sayings from George Bernard Shaw.
George Bernard Shaw Quotes and Sayings
Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.
Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.
If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance.
I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend... if you have one.
Dancing is a perpendicular expression of a horizontal desire.
Make it a rule never to give a child a book you would not read yourself.
There is no love sincerer than the love of food.
My way of joking is to tell the truth. It's the funniest joke in the world.
Write your Sad times in Sand, Write your Good times in Stone.
Never wrestle with pigs. You both get dirty and the pig likes it.
Patriotism is, fundamentally, a conviction that a particular country is the best in the world because you were born in it..
After all, the wrong road always leads somewhere.
Animals are my friends...and I don't eat my friends.
The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.
He knows nothing; and he thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career.
The play was a great success, but audience was a dismal failure.
Youth is wasted on the young.
The liar's punishment is, not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else.
You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul.
There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart's desire. The other is to gain it.
Why should we take advice on sex from the pope? If he knows anything about it, he shouldn't!
A pessimist is a man who thinks everybody is as nasty as himself, and hates them for it.
When two people are under the influence of the most violent, most insane, most delusive, and most transient of passions, they are required to swear that they will remain in that excited, abnormal, and exhausting condition continuously until death do them part.
A Native American elder once described his own inner struggles in this manner: Inside of me there are two dogs. One of the dogs is mean and evil. The other dog is good. The mean dog fights the good dog all the time. When asked which dog wins, he reflected for a moment and replied, The one I feed the most.
Hatred is the coward's revenge for being intimidated.
Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world.
The trouble with her is that she lacks the power of conversation but not the power of speech.
A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.
Reading made Don Quixote a gentleman. Believing what he read made him mad.
He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches.
Both optimists and pessimists contribute to society. The optimist invents the aeroplane, the pessimist the parachute.
Choose silence of all virtues, for by it you hear other men's imperfections, and conceal your own.
When a thing is funny, search it carefully for a hidden truth.
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.
Power does not corrupt men; fools, however, if they get into a position of power, corrupt power.
Liquor is the chloroform which enables the poor man to endure the painful operation of living.
While we ourselves are the living graves of murdered beasts, how can we expect any ideal conditions on this earth?
When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty.
You don't stop laughing when you grow old, you grow old when you stop laughing.
The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it.
Progress is impossible without change; and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.
You have learnt something. That always feels at first as if you have lost something.
All great truths begin as blasphemies.
The most tragic thing in the world is a man of genius who is not a man of honor.
Doing what needs to be done may not make you happy, but it will make you great.
A socialist is somebody who doesn't have anything, and is ready to divide it up equally among everybody.
The things most people want to know about are usually none of their business.
Happy is the man who can make a living by his hobby.
A photographer is like a cod, which produces a million eggs in order that one may reach maturity.
Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.
Silence is the most perfect expression of scorn.
There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why? I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?
Imitation is not just the sincerest form of flattery - it's the sincerest form of learning.
Censorship ends in logical completeness when nobody is allowed to read any books except the books that nobody can read.
We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.
The only time my education was interrupted was when I was in school.
The thought of two thousand people crunching celery at the same time horrified me.
Criminals do not die by the hands of the law. They die by the hands of other men.
Do not do unto others as you would that they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same.
The only man who behaved sensibly was my tailor: he took my measure anew every time he saw me, whilst all the rest went on with their old measurements and expected them to fit me.
The difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she's treated.
Without art, the crudeness of reality would make the world unbearable.
When you loved me I gave you the whole sun and stars to play with. I gave you eternity in a single moment, strength of the mountains in one clasp of your arms, and the volume of all the seas in one impulse of your soul.
Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.
If you can't appreciate what you’ve got, you’d better get what you can appreciate.
When a man wants to murder a tiger he calls it sport; when a tiger wants to murder him he calls it ferocity.
No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says: He is always convinced that it says what he means.
I often quote myself. It adds spice to my conversation.
I'm not a teacher: only a fellow traveler of whom you asked the way. I pointed ahead - ahead of myself as well as you.
We learn from experience that men never learn anything from experience.
I choose not to make a graveyard of my body for the rotting corpses of dead animals.
This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; the 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 have very carefully studied Islam and the life of its Prophet (PBUH). I have done so both as a student of history and as a critic. And I have come to conclusion that Muhammad (PBUH) was indeed a great man and a deliverer and benefactor of mankind which was till then writhing under the most agonising Pain.
You see things; you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say 'Why not?
Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.
A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.
The man who writes about himself and his own time is the only man who writes about all people and all time.
Progress is impossible without change; and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.
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.
People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.
Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.
People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can't find them, make them.
Success does not consist in never making mistakes but in never making the same one a second time.
If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.
Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will.
As long as I have a want, I have a reason for living. Satisfaction is death.
Both optimists and pessimists contribute to society. The optimist invents the aeroplane, the pessimist the parachute.
We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
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