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 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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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.
