George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

Quotes

• Majesty: when a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares it as his duty.

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

• Without art the crudeness of reality would make the world unbearable.

• One man who has a mind and knows it can always beat ten men haven't and don't.

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

• The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them; that's the essence of inhumanity.

• When you prevent me from doing anything I want to do, that is persecution; but when I prevent you from doing anything you want to do, that is law, order and morals.

• No man can be a pure specialist without being in the strict sense an idiot.

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

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

• He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches.

• Hegel was right when he said that we learn from history that man can never learn anything from history.

• Martyrdom... is the only way in which a man can become famous without ability.

• The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one.

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

• 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.

• I often quote myself. It adds spice to my conversation.

• England and America are two countries separated by a common language.

• Americans adore me and will go on adoring me until I say something nice about them.

• Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will.