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No sooner had Jesus knocked over the dragon of superstition than Paul boldly set it on its legs again in the name of Jesus.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, Androcles and the Lion
You have learnt something. That always feels at first as if you had lost something.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, Major Barbara
One touch of Darwin makes the whole world kin.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, Back to Methuselah
Vulgarity is a necessary part of a complete author's equipment; and the clown is sometimes the best part of the circus.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, preface, London Music in 1888-89 as Heard by Corno di Bassetto
A fool’s brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, Maxims for Revolutionists
We don't bother much about dress and manners in England, because as a nation we don't dress well and we've no manners.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, You Never Can Tell
As long as I have a want, I have a reason for living. Satisfaction is death.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, Overruled
Death is for many of us the gate of hell; but we are inside on the way out, not outside on the way in.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, A Treatise on Parents and Children
Consistency is the enemy of enterprise, just as symmetry is the enemy of art.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, attributed, Bernard Shaw: The Lure of Fantasy
The novelties of one generation are only the resuscitated fashions of the generation before last.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, preface, Three Plays for Puritans
I, who said forty years ago that 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.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism, Capitalism, Sovietism, and Fascism
The quality of a play is the quality of its ideas.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, "The Play of Ideas," New Statesman, May 6, 1950
No age or condition is without its heroes. The least incapable general in a nation is its Cæsar, the least imbecile statesman its Solon, the least confused thinker its Socrates, the least commonplace poet its Shakespeare.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, Maxims for Revolutionists
Of Life only is there no end; and though of its million starry mansions many are empty and many still unbuilt, and though its vast domain is as yet unbearably desert, my seed shall one day fill it and master its matter to its uttermost confines. And for what may be beyond, the eyesight of Lilith is too short. It is enough that there is a beyond.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, Back to Methuselah
Silence is the perfect expression of scorn.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, Back to Methuselah
Kings are not born: they are made by universal hallucination.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, Maxims for Revolutionists
The confusion of marriage with morality has done more to destroy the conscience of the human race than any other single error.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, Man and Superman
The secret of success is to offend the greatest number of people.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, attributed, Days with Bernard Shaw
There are no perfectly honorable men; but every true man has one main point of honor and a few minor ones.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, Maxims for Revolutionists
Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, Man and Superman
Hell, in short, is a place where you have nothing to do but amuse yourself.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, Man and Superman
An actress is not a lady; at least, when she is, she is not an actress.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, The Drama Observed: 1911-1950
An asylum for the sane would be empty in America.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, attributed, Bernard Shaw: Selections of His Wit and Wisdom
No king on earth is as safe in his job as a Trade Union official. There is only one thing that can get him sacked; and that is drink. Not even that, as long as he doesn't actually fall down.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, The Apple Cart
The salvation of the world depends on the men whose laughter destroys the fool instead of encouraging him.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, attributed, 20,000 Quips & Quotes
The secret of being miserable is to have leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not. The cure for it is occupation, because occupation means pre-occupation; and the pre-occupied person is neither happy nor unhappy, but simply alive and active, which is pleasanter than any happiness.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, Misalliance
Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, Man and Superman
A man who has no office to go to--I don't care who he is--is a trial of which you can have no conception.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, The Irrational Knot
Self-sacrifice enables us to sacrifice other people without blushing.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, "Maxims for Revolutionists", Man and Superman
There are no secrets except the secrets that keep themselves.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, Back to Methuselah
We live in an atmosphere of shame. We are ashamed of everything that is real about us; ashamed of ourselves, of our relatives, of our incomes, of our accents, of our opinion, of our experience, just as we are ashamed of our naked skins.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, Man and Superman
No question is so difficult to answer as that to which the answer is obvious.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, Our Theatres in the Nineties
If you take too long in deciding what to do with your life, you'll find you've done it.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, attributed, Wisdom for the Soul: Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing
What the world calls originality is only an unaccustomed method of tickling it.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, Shaw on Shakespeare
On the face of India are the tender expressions which carry the mark of the Creator's hand.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, attributed, Science & Technology in India Through the Ages
Gambling promises the poor what property performs for the rich--something for nothing.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, Man and Superman
Common sense is instinct. Enough of it is genius.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, attributed, The Irish Digest, 1960
In gambling the many must lose in order that the few may win.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, The Conservator, May 1913
The surest way to ruin a man who doesn't know how to handle money is to give him some.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, Heartbreak House
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