Quotes by George Bernard Shaw

44 quotes     Show as list

Happiness and Beauty are by-products.
Activity is the only road to knowledge.
He who has never hoped can never despair.
He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches.
Economy is the art of making the most of life.
The love of economy is the root of all virtue.
There is no sincerer love than the love of food.
I often quote myself. It adds spice to my conversation.
It is dangerous to be sincere unless you are also stupid.
Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.
When a thing is funny, search it carefully for a hidden truth.
The more things a man is ashamed of, the more respectable he is.
Virtue consists, not in abstaining from vice, but in not desiring it.
Martyrdom is the only way a person can become famous without ability.
The vilest abortionist is he who attempts to mould a child’s character.
Obedience simulates subordination as fear of the police simulates honesty.
Take care to get what you like or you will be forced to like what you get.
He who gives money he has not earned is generous with other people’s labor.
Love consists of overestimating the differences between one woman and another.
Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.
Democracy is a device that insures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.
The more a man possesses over and above what he uses, the more careworn he becomes.
A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend upon the support of Paul.
You see things and you say 'why?" But I dream things that never were and I say 'why not?'
Men are wise in proportion, not to their experience, but to their capacity for experience.
The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicism by those who don't have it.
Do not do unto others as you would they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same.
Mens sana in corpore sano is a foolish saying. The sound body is a product of the sound mind.
We are told that when Jehovah created the world he saw that it was good. What would he say now?
In a stupid nation the man of genius becomes a god: everybody worships him and nobody does his will.
Two starving men cannot be twice as hungry as one; but two rascals can be ten times as vicious as one.
The man who listens to Reason is lost: Reason enslaves all whose minds are not strong enough to master her.
Man is the only animal which esteems itself rich in proportion to the number and voracity of its parasites.
Beware of the man who does not return your blow: he neither forgives you nor allows you to forgive yourself.
The unconscious self is the real genius. Your breathing goes wrong the moment your conscious self meddles with it.
Democracy is a form of government that substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.
If you begin by sacrificing yourself to those you love, you will end by hating those to whom you have sacrificed yourself.
Perhaps the greatest social service that can be rendered by anybody to the country and to mankind is to bring up a family. 
The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them; that's the essence of inhumanity
The man with toothache thinks everyone happy whose teeth are sound. The poverty stricken man makes the same mistake about the rich man.
The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact than a drunken man is happier than a sober one.
The roulette table pays nobody except him that keeps it. Nevertheless a passion for gaming is common, though a passion for keeping roulette tables is unknown.
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.
Do not give your children moral and religious instruction unless you are quite sure they will not take it too seriously. Better be the mother of Henri Quatre and Nell Gwynne than of Robespierre and Queen Mary Tudor.
44 quotes     Show as list