George Bernard Shaw Quotes
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It is said that every people has the Government it deserves. It is more to the point that every Government has the electorate it deserves; for the orator of the front bench can edify or debauch an ignorant electorate at will.
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A pessimist is a man who thinks everybody is as nasty as himself, and hates them for it.
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When a man of normal habits is ill, everyone hastens to assure him that he is going to recover. When a vegetarian is ill (which fortunately very seldom happens), everyone assures him that he is going to die, and that they told him so, and that it serves him right. They implore him to take at least a little gravy, so as to give himself a chance of lasting out the night...
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The criminal law is no use to decent people.
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In my dreams is a country where the State is the Church and the Church the people: three in one and one in three. It is a commonwealth in which work is play and play is life: three in one and one in three. It is a temple in which the priest is the worshiper and the worshiper the worshipped: three in one and one in three. It is a godhead in which all life is human and all humanity divine: three in one and one in three.
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The function of the actor is to make the audience imagine for the moment that real things are happening to real people.
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We should have had socialism already, but for the socialists, am quite willing to drop the name if dropping it will help me to get the thing.
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If you can say a thing with one stroke, unanswerably you have style; if not, you are at best a marchande de plaisir; a decorative litt...
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Some people look at the world and say 'why?' Some people look at the world and say 'why not?'
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O Lord! I don't know which is the worst of the country, the walking or the sitting at home with nothing to do.
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Assasination on the scaffold is the worst form of assasination, because there it is invested with the approval of society.
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If the governments devalue the currency in order to betray all creditors, you politely call this procedure 'inflation'.
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When a thing is funny, search it carefully for a hidden truth.
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If more than 10% of the people like a painting, you can be sure it's bad.
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Life levels all men. Death reveals the eminent.
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Reminiscences make one feel so deliciously aged and sad.
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A newspaper, not having to act on its descriptions and reports, but only to sell them to idly curious people, has nothing but honor to lose by inaccuracy and non-veracity.
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A man thinking or working is always alone, let him be where he will.
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Martyrdom: The only way a man can become famous without ability.
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Brigham Young lived to become immortal in history as an American Moses by leading his people through the wilderness into an unpromised land.
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When people shake their heads because we are living in a restless age, ask them how they would like to life in a stationary one, and do without change...
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I do not waste my time writing pot-boilers: the pot must be boiled, and even my pot au feu has some chunks of fresh meat in it. ...I have no time to boil myself down; and anyhow I could not do so and preserve all the necessary nutriment and the flavoring on which the digestibility depends.
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You don't learn to hold your own in the world by standing on guard, but by attacking, and getting well hammered yourself.
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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.