Quotations by ...

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic


It was from Handel that I learned that style consists in force of assertion. If you can say a thing with one stroke unsanswerably, you have style; if not, you are at best a marchand de plasir, a decorative litterateur, or a muscal confectioner, or a painter of fans with cupids and cocottes. Handel has this power. When he sets the words "Fixed in his everlasting seat," the atheist is struck dumb; God is there, fixed in his everlasting seat by Handel, even if you live in an Avenue Paul Bert and despise such superstitions. You may despise what you like, but you cannot contradict Handel. You may despise what you like; but you cannot contradict Handel.

¶ "Causerie on Handel in England," Ainslee's Magazine (May 1913)

Originally a music society lecture given in France. Longer discussion.

The best reformers the world has ever seen are those who commence on themselves.

¶ (Attributed)

Unverified in Shaw's writings.

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

¶ (Attributed)

We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it.

¶ (Attributed)

When a thing is funny, search it carefully for a hidden truth.

¶ (Attributed)

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

¶ (Attributed)

Sometimes cited with the Americanized "insures." Also given as "Democracy is a system ensuring that the people are governed no better than they deserve."

Frequently quoted, but never sourced.

Crude classifications and false generalizations are the curse of organized life.

¶ (Attributed)

There is always danger for those who are afraid of it.

¶ (Attributed)

Life is not meant to be easy, my child; but take courage -- it can be delightful.

¶ (Attributed)

This is the true joy of life, the being used up for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clot 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 community, and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it what I can.

¶ (Attributed)

If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance.

¶ (Attributed)

Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.

¶ (Attributed)

The only service a friend can really render is to keep up your courage by holding up to you a mirror in which you can see a noble image of yourself.

¶ (Attributed)

Forget about likes and dislikes. They are of no consequence. Just do what
must be done. This may not be happiness, but it is greatness.

¶ (Attributed)

This is the true joy in life -- being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; 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 content.

¶ (Attributed)

The trouble with her is that she lacks the power of conversation but not the power of speech.

¶ (Attributed)

Every fool believes what his teachers tell him, and calls his credulity science or morality as confidently as his father called it divine revelation.

¶ (Attributed)

All censorships exist to prevent any one from challenging current conceptions and existing institutions. All progress is initiated by challenging current conceptions, and executed by supplanting existing institutions. Consequently the first condition of progress is the removal of censorships.

¶ (Attributed)

When a man wants to murder a tiger he calls it sport; when a
tiger wants to murder him he calls it ferocity.

¶ (Attributed)

Poverty does not produce unhappiness: It produces degradation.

¶ (Attributed)

The only man who behaved sensibly was my tailor; he took my measurement anew every time he saw me, while all the rest went on with their old measurements and expected them to fit me.

¶ (Attributed)

Custom will reconcile people to any atrocity.

¶ (Attributed)

All evolution in thought and conduct must at first appear as heresy and misconduct.

¶ (Attributed)

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

¶ (Attributed)

If you take too long in deciding what to do with your life, you'll find you've done it.

¶ (Attributed)

The liar's punishment is not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else.

¶ (Attributed)

The secret of being miserable is to have the leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not. The cure is occupation.

¶ (Attributed)

An election is a moral horror, as bad as battle except for the blood; a mud bath for every soul concerned.

¶ (Attributed)

Perhaps the greatest social service that can be rendered by anybody to the country and to mankind is to bring up a family.

¶ (Attributed)

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

¶ (Attributed)

A man learns to skate by staggering about making a fool of himself; indeed, he progresses in all things by making a fool of himself.

¶ (Attributed)

A nation's morals are like its teeth; when they're rotten it hurts to touch them.

¶ (Attributed)

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 until death do them part.

¶ (Attributed)

Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it.

¶ (Attributed)

All great truths begin as blasphemies.

¶ (Attributed)

The fact that a believer is happier than a sceptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality.

Androcles and the Lion, Preface

We are members one of another; so that you cannot injure or help your neighbor without injuring or helping yourself.

Androcles and the Lion, Preface ("The Alternative to Barabbas") (1912)

A man differs from a microbe only in being further on the path.

Back to Methuselah: A Metabiological Pentateuch, ch. 2 (1921)

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


Back to Methuselah, 1.1 (1921)

The Serpent speaking to Eve.

President John Kennedy quoted this addressing the Irish Parliament, Dublin (28 Jun. 1963). Sen. Robert Kennedy modified it for his campaign, as used by Sen. Edward Kennedy in his eulogy (1968): "Some men see things as they are and say, why; I dream things that never were and say, why not.”

When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty.

Caesar and Cleopatra, Act III (1898)

Apollodorus to Cleopatra

He is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature.

Caesar and Cleopatra, Act II (Caesar)

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.

Everybody’s Political What’s What?, ch. 30 (1944)

FANNY: It's all that the young can do for the old, to shock them and keep them up to date.

Fanny's First Play (1911)

Full text.

I did not let the fear of death govern my life, and my reward was, I had my life. You are going to let the fear of poverty govern your life; and your reward will be that you will eat, but you will not live.

Heartbreak House, Act 2 [Capt. Shotover] (1919)

In context.

The man who listens to Reason is lost: Reason enslaves all whose minds are not strong enough to master her.

Man and Superman, "Maxims for Revolutionists" (1903)

Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.

Man and Superman, "Maxims for Revolutionists: Liberty and Equality" (1903)

Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.

Man and Superman, “The Revolutionist’s Handbook” (1903)

What a man believes may be ascertained, not from his creed, but from the assumptions on which habitually acts.

Man and Superman (1903)

Lack of money is the root of all evil.

Man and Superman (1903)

NAPOLEON: There is nothing so bad or so good that you will not find an Englishman doing it; but you will never find an Englishman in the wrong. He does everything on principle. He fights you on patriotic principles; he robs you on business principles; he enslaves you on imperial principles.

Man of Destiny (1898)

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.

Mrs. Warren s Profession, Act III (1893)

People become attached to their burdens sometimes more than the burdens are attached to them.

Parents and Children, "Family Affection" (1914)

The churches must learn humility as well as teach it.

Saint Joan, Preface

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 Devil's Disciple

Am reserving two tickets for you for my premiere. Come and bring a friend -- if you have one.

¶ To Winston Churchill (Attributed)

Churchill's reply: Impossible to be present for the first performance. Will attend second -- if there is one.

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WIST is my collection of quotations I find meaningful, moving, amusing (intended or not), well-phrased, and/or to which I just say I "Wish I'd Said That." But just because I quote it here doesn't mean I actually agree with it. If you have any comments, corrections, or suggestions, please don't hesitate to

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