George Bernard Shaw was born on July 26, 1856, in Dublin, Ireland. He was an Irish critic, playwright, polemicist, and political activist. His achievements include writing over 60 influential plays, such as Pygmalion, Saint Joan, and Man and Superman, earning the 1925 Nobel Prize in Literature, and winning an Oscar for the Pygmalion film, making him the only person win both awards. May these George Bernard Shaw quotes and sayings offer you insights that will serve as an inspiration and motivation for whatever your goals in life are.
1. “The more things a man is ashamed of, the more respectable he is.” – George Bernard Shaw
2. “The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it.” – George Bernard Shaw
3. “There is always danger for those who are afraid.” – George Bernard Shaw
4. “Both optimists and pessimists contribute to society. The optimist invents the aeroplane, the pessimist the parachute.” – George Bernard Shaw
5. “Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.” – George Bernard Shaw
6. “Hatred is the coward's revenge for being intimidated.” – George Bernard Shaw
7. “You don't stop laughing when you grow old, you grow old when you stop laughing.” – George Bernard Shaw
8. “I am afraid we must make the world honest before we can honestly say to our children that honesty is the best policy.” – George Bernard Shaw
9. “The only way to avoid being miserable is not to have enough leisure to wonder whether you are happy or not.” – George Bernard Shaw
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10. “The things most people want to know about are usually none of their business.” – George Bernard Shaw
11. “The test of a man’s or woman’s breeding is how they behave in a quarrel.” – George Bernard Shaw
12. “There is no subject on which more dangerous nonsense is talked and thought than marriage.” – George Bernard Shaw
13. “A doctor’s reputation is made by the number of eminent men who die under his care.” – George Bernard Shaw
14. “When I was young, I observed that nine out of ten things I did were failures. So I did ten times more work.” – George Bernard Shaw
-min.jpg "Famous quotes and sayings by George Bernard Shaw")
15. “You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul.” – George Bernard Shaw
16. “The faults of the burglar are the qualities of the financier.” – George Bernard Shaw
17. “There is no satisfaction in hanging a man who does not object to it.” – George Bernard Shaw
18. “It is not pleasure that makes life worth living. It is life that makes pleasure worth having.” – George Bernard Shaw
19. “A book is like a child: it is easier to bring it into the world than to control it when it is launched there.” – George Bernard Shaw
-min.jpg "Famous quotes and sayings by George Bernard Shaw")
20. “Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” – George Bernard Shaw
21. “What is life but a series of inspired follies? The difficulty is to find them to do. Never lose a chance: it doesn’t come every day.” – George Bernard Shaw
22. “A man of my spiritual intensity does not eat corpses.” – George Bernard Shaw
23. “A fool's brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence university education.” – George Bernard Shaw
24. “Do not waste your time on social questions. What is the matter with the poor is poverty; what is the matter with the rich is uselessness.” – George Bernard Shaw
-min.jpg "Famous quotes and sayings by George Bernard Shaw")
25. “Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.” – George Bernard Shaw
26. “There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart's desire. The other is to gain it.” – George Bernard Shaw
27. “Hell is full of musical amateurs: music is the brandy of the damned. May not one lost soul be permitted to abstain?” – George Bernard Shaw
28. “A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.” – George Bernard Shaw
29. “Make it a rule never to give a child a book you would not read yourself.” – George Bernard Shaw
-min.jpg "Famous quotes and sayings by George Bernard Shaw")
30. “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” – George Bernard Shaw
More Best George Bernard Shaw Quotes about Life
31. “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.” – George Bernard Shaw
32. “There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why? I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?” – George Bernard Shaw
33. “Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” – George Bernard Shaw
34. “Everything happens to everybody sooner or later if there is time enough.” – George Bernard Shaw
35. “The liar's punishment is, not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else.” – George Bernard Shaw
36. “My way of joking is to tell the truth. It's the funniest joke in the world.” – George Bernard Shaw
37. “I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig, you get dirty; and besides, the pig likes it.” – George Bernard Shaw
38. “Success does not consist in never making mistakes but in never making the same one a second time.” – George Bernard Shaw
39. “War does not decide who is right but who is left.” – George Bernard Shaw
40. “When a man wants to murder a tiger he calls it sport; when a tiger wants to murder him he calls it ferocity.” – George Bernard Shaw
41. “Science never solves a problem without creating ten more.” – George Bernard Shaw
42. “After all, the wrong road always leads somewhere.” – George Bernard Shaw
43. “Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world.” – George Bernard Shaw
44. “Doing what needs to be done may not make you happy, but it will make you great.” – George Bernard Shaw
45. “We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it.” – George Bernard Shaw
46. “Two percent of the people think; three percent of the people think they think; and ninety-five percent of the people would rather die than think.” – George Bernard Shaw
47. “When a thing is funny, search it carefully for a hidden truth.” – George Bernard Shaw
48. “Silence is the most perfect expression of scorn.” – George Bernard Shaw
49. “A gentleman is one who puts more into the world than he takes out.” – George Bernard Shaw
50. “Take care to get what you like or you will be forced to like what you get.” – George Bernard Shaw
51. “Do not do unto others as you would that they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same.” – George Bernard Shaw
52. “Happy is the man who can make a living by his hobby.” – George Bernard Shaw
53. “You have learnt something. That always feels at first as if you have lost something.” – George Bernard Shaw
54. “Choose silence of all virtues, for by it you hear other men's imperfections, and conceal your own.” – George Bernard Shaw
55. “Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.” – George Bernard Shaw
56. “If you can’t appreciate what you’ve got, you’d better get what you can appreciate.” – George Bernard Shaw
57. “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.” – George Bernard Shaw
58. “A miracle, my friend, is an event which creates faith.” – George Bernard Shaw
59. “The most tragic thing in the world is a man of genius who is not a man of honor.” – George Bernard Shaw
60. “It is dangerous to be sincere unless you are also stupid.” – George Bernard Shaw
61. “We learn from experience that men never learn anything from experience.” – George Bernard Shaw
62. “It is a curious sensation: the sort of pain that goes mercifully beyond our powers of feeling. When your heart is broken, your boats are burned: nothing matters any more. It is the end of happiness and the beginning of peace.” – George Bernard Shaw
63. “Power does not corrupt men; fools, however, if they get into a position of power, corrupt power.” – George Bernard Shaw
64. “Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” – George Bernard Shaw
65. “Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will.” – George Bernard Shaw
66. “I often quote myself. It adds spice to my conversation.” – George Bernard Shaw
67. “The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that's the essence of inhumanity.” – George Bernard Shaw
68. “We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” – George Bernard Shaw
69. “When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty.” – George Bernard Shaw
70. “Without art, the crudeness of reality would make the world unbearable.” – George Bernard Shaw
71. “The harder I work, the more I live.” – George Bernard Shaw
72. “This is the true joy in life, being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one.” – George Bernard Shaw
73. “You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man's initiative and independence.” – George Bernard Shaw
74. “All great truths begin as blasphemies.” – George Bernard Shaw
75. “I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live.” – George Bernard Shaw
76. “People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.” – George Bernard Shaw
77. “He who can, does. He who cannot teaches.” – George Bernard Shaw
78. “Never wrestle with pigs. You get dirty and besides, the pig likes it.” – George Bernard Shaw
79. “Life was never meant to be easy, my child, but take courage: it can be delightful.” – George Bernard Shaw
80. “The golden rule is that there are no golden rules.” – George Bernard Shaw
81. “If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they’ll kill you.” – George Bernard Shaw
82. “Nothing is ever done in this world until men are prepared to kill one another if it is not done.” – George Bernard Shaw
83. “Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.” – George Bernard Shaw
84. “Men are wise in proportion, not to their experience, but to their capacity for experience.” – George Bernard Shaw
85. “There is no love sincerer than the love of food.” – George Bernard Shaw
86. “Youth is wasted on the young.” – George Bernard Shaw
87. “No question is so difficult to answer as that to which the answer is obvious.” – George Bernard Shaw
88. “A lifetime of happiness! No man alive could bear it: it would be hell on earth.” – George Bernard Shaw
89. “If all the economists were laid end to end, they'd never reach a conclusion.” – George Bernard Shaw
90. “Perhaps the greatest social service that can be rendered by anybody to the country and to mankind is to bring up a family.” – George Bernard Shaw
91. “Marriage is popular because it combines the maximum of temptation with the maximum of opportunity.” – George Bernard Shaw
92. “Syllables govern the world.” – George Bernard Shaw
93. “Animals are my friends and I don't eat my friends.” – George Bernard Shaw
94. “It's a woman's business to get married as soon as possible, and a man's to keep unmarried as long as he can.” – George Bernard Shaw
95. “Kings are not born: they are made by artificial hallucination.” – George Bernard Shaw
96. “Old men are dangerous: it doesn’t matter to them what is going to happen to the world.” – George Bernard Shaw
97. “The theory of legal procedure is that if you set two liars to expose one another, the truth will emerge.” – George Bernard Shaw
98. “Lack of money is the root of all evil.” – George Bernard Shaw
99. “The only time my education was interrupted was when I was in school.” – George Bernard Shaw
100. “As long as I have a want, I have a reason for living. Satisfaction is death.” – George Bernard Shaw
Share these Famous George Bernard Shaw Quotes with your friends, family, and loved ones to inspire them as well.
2. “The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it.” – George Bernard Shaw
3. “There is always danger for those who are afraid.” – George Bernard Shaw
4. “Both optimists and pessimists contribute to society. The optimist invents the aeroplane, the pessimist the parachute.” – George Bernard Shaw
5. “Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.” – George Bernard Shaw
6. “Hatred is the coward's revenge for being intimidated.” – George Bernard Shaw
7. “You don't stop laughing when you grow old, you grow old when you stop laughing.” – George Bernard Shaw
8. “I am afraid we must make the world honest before we can honestly say to our children that honesty is the best policy.” – George Bernard Shaw
9. “The only way to avoid being miserable is not to have enough leisure to wonder whether you are happy or not.” – George Bernard Shaw
11. “The test of a man’s or woman’s breeding is how they behave in a quarrel.” – George Bernard Shaw
12. “There is no subject on which more dangerous nonsense is talked and thought than marriage.” – George Bernard Shaw
13. “A doctor’s reputation is made by the number of eminent men who die under his care.” – George Bernard Shaw
14. “When I was young, I observed that nine out of ten things I did were failures. So I did ten times more work.” – George Bernard Shaw
16. “The faults of the burglar are the qualities of the financier.” – George Bernard Shaw
17. “There is no satisfaction in hanging a man who does not object to it.” – George Bernard Shaw
18. “It is not pleasure that makes life worth living. It is life that makes pleasure worth having.” – George Bernard Shaw
19. “A book is like a child: it is easier to bring it into the world than to control it when it is launched there.” – George Bernard Shaw
21. “What is life but a series of inspired follies? The difficulty is to find them to do. Never lose a chance: it doesn’t come every day.” – George Bernard Shaw
22. “A man of my spiritual intensity does not eat corpses.” – George Bernard Shaw
23. “A fool's brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence university education.” – George Bernard Shaw
24. “Do not waste your time on social questions. What is the matter with the poor is poverty; what is the matter with the rich is uselessness.” – George Bernard Shaw
26. “There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart's desire. The other is to gain it.” – George Bernard Shaw
27. “Hell is full of musical amateurs: music is the brandy of the damned. May not one lost soul be permitted to abstain?” – George Bernard Shaw
28. “A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.” – George Bernard Shaw
29. “Make it a rule never to give a child a book you would not read yourself.” – George Bernard Shaw
More Best George Bernard Shaw Quotes about Life
31. “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.” – George Bernard Shaw
32. “There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why? I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?” – George Bernard Shaw
33. “Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” – George Bernard Shaw
34. “Everything happens to everybody sooner or later if there is time enough.” – George Bernard Shaw
35. “The liar's punishment is, not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else.” – George Bernard Shaw
36. “My way of joking is to tell the truth. It's the funniest joke in the world.” – George Bernard Shaw
37. “I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig, you get dirty; and besides, the pig likes it.” – George Bernard Shaw
38. “Success does not consist in never making mistakes but in never making the same one a second time.” – George Bernard Shaw
39. “War does not decide who is right but who is left.” – George Bernard Shaw
40. “When a man wants to murder a tiger he calls it sport; when a tiger wants to murder him he calls it ferocity.” – George Bernard Shaw
41. “Science never solves a problem without creating ten more.” – George Bernard Shaw
42. “After all, the wrong road always leads somewhere.” – George Bernard Shaw
43. “Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world.” – George Bernard Shaw
44. “Doing what needs to be done may not make you happy, but it will make you great.” – George Bernard Shaw
45. “We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it.” – George Bernard Shaw
46. “Two percent of the people think; three percent of the people think they think; and ninety-five percent of the people would rather die than think.” – George Bernard Shaw
47. “When a thing is funny, search it carefully for a hidden truth.” – George Bernard Shaw
48. “Silence is the most perfect expression of scorn.” – George Bernard Shaw
49. “A gentleman is one who puts more into the world than he takes out.” – George Bernard Shaw
50. “Take care to get what you like or you will be forced to like what you get.” – George Bernard Shaw
51. “Do not do unto others as you would that they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same.” – George Bernard Shaw
52. “Happy is the man who can make a living by his hobby.” – George Bernard Shaw
53. “You have learnt something. That always feels at first as if you have lost something.” – George Bernard Shaw
54. “Choose silence of all virtues, for by it you hear other men's imperfections, and conceal your own.” – George Bernard Shaw
55. “Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.” – George Bernard Shaw
56. “If you can’t appreciate what you’ve got, you’d better get what you can appreciate.” – George Bernard Shaw
57. “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.” – George Bernard Shaw
58. “A miracle, my friend, is an event which creates faith.” – George Bernard Shaw
59. “The most tragic thing in the world is a man of genius who is not a man of honor.” – George Bernard Shaw
60. “It is dangerous to be sincere unless you are also stupid.” – George Bernard Shaw
61. “We learn from experience that men never learn anything from experience.” – George Bernard Shaw
62. “It is a curious sensation: the sort of pain that goes mercifully beyond our powers of feeling. When your heart is broken, your boats are burned: nothing matters any more. It is the end of happiness and the beginning of peace.” – George Bernard Shaw
63. “Power does not corrupt men; fools, however, if they get into a position of power, corrupt power.” – George Bernard Shaw
64. “Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” – George Bernard Shaw
65. “Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will.” – George Bernard Shaw
66. “I often quote myself. It adds spice to my conversation.” – George Bernard Shaw
67. “The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that's the essence of inhumanity.” – George Bernard Shaw
68. “We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” – George Bernard Shaw
69. “When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty.” – George Bernard Shaw
70. “Without art, the crudeness of reality would make the world unbearable.” – George Bernard Shaw
71. “The harder I work, the more I live.” – George Bernard Shaw
72. “This is the true joy in life, being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one.” – George Bernard Shaw
73. “You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man's initiative and independence.” – George Bernard Shaw
74. “All great truths begin as blasphemies.” – George Bernard Shaw
75. “I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live.” – George Bernard Shaw
76. “People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.” – George Bernard Shaw
77. “He who can, does. He who cannot teaches.” – George Bernard Shaw
78. “Never wrestle with pigs. You get dirty and besides, the pig likes it.” – George Bernard Shaw
79. “Life was never meant to be easy, my child, but take courage: it can be delightful.” – George Bernard Shaw
80. “The golden rule is that there are no golden rules.” – George Bernard Shaw
81. “If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they’ll kill you.” – George Bernard Shaw
82. “Nothing is ever done in this world until men are prepared to kill one another if it is not done.” – George Bernard Shaw
83. “Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.” – George Bernard Shaw
84. “Men are wise in proportion, not to their experience, but to their capacity for experience.” – George Bernard Shaw
85. “There is no love sincerer than the love of food.” – George Bernard Shaw
86. “Youth is wasted on the young.” – George Bernard Shaw
87. “No question is so difficult to answer as that to which the answer is obvious.” – George Bernard Shaw
88. “A lifetime of happiness! No man alive could bear it: it would be hell on earth.” – George Bernard Shaw
89. “If all the economists were laid end to end, they'd never reach a conclusion.” – George Bernard Shaw
90. “Perhaps the greatest social service that can be rendered by anybody to the country and to mankind is to bring up a family.” – George Bernard Shaw
91. “Marriage is popular because it combines the maximum of temptation with the maximum of opportunity.” – George Bernard Shaw
92. “Syllables govern the world.” – George Bernard Shaw
93. “Animals are my friends and I don't eat my friends.” – George Bernard Shaw
94. “It's a woman's business to get married as soon as possible, and a man's to keep unmarried as long as he can.” – George Bernard Shaw
95. “Kings are not born: they are made by artificial hallucination.” – George Bernard Shaw
96. “Old men are dangerous: it doesn’t matter to them what is going to happen to the world.” – George Bernard Shaw
97. “The theory of legal procedure is that if you set two liars to expose one another, the truth will emerge.” – George Bernard Shaw
98. “Lack of money is the root of all evil.” – George Bernard Shaw
99. “The only time my education was interrupted was when I was in school.” – George Bernard Shaw
100. “As long as I have a want, I have a reason for living. Satisfaction is death.” – George Bernard Shaw
Share these Famous George Bernard Shaw Quotes with your friends, family, and loved ones to inspire them as well.