Quotations from George Bernard Shaw, 1856-1950
- My method is to take the utmost trouble to find the right thing to say, and then to say it with the utmost levity.
Answers to Nine Questions- The test of a man or woman's breeding is how they behave in a quarrel.
The Philanderer [1893], act IV- 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 [1893], act II- A great devotee of the Gospel of Getting On.
Mrs. Warren's Profession [1893], act IV- We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it.
Candida [1898], act I- There is only one religion, though there are a hundred versions of it.
Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant [1898], vol. II, 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 [1901], act II- A lifetime of happiness! No man alive could bear it: it would be hell on earth.
Man and Superman [1903], act I- The more things a man is ashamed of, the more respectable he is.
Man and Superman [1903], act I- There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart's desire. The other is to gain it.
Man and Superman [1903], act IV- The golden rule is that there is no golden rule.
Man and Superman [1903], Maxims for Revolutionists- He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches.
Man and Superman [1903], Maxims for Revolutionists- Marriage is popular because it combines the maximum of temptation with the maximum of opportunity.
Man and Superman [1903], Maxims for Revolutionists- Virtue consists, not in abstaining from vice, but in not desiring it.
Man and Superman [1903], Maxims for Revolutionists- 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 continuously until death do them part.
Getting Married [1908], preface- You don't learn to hold your own in the world by standing on guard, but by attacking, and getting well hammered yourself.
Getting Married [1908], preface- Independence? That's middle-class blasphemy. We are all dependent on one another, every soul of us on earth.
Pygmalion [1912], act V- All great truths begin as blasphemies.
Annajanska [1919]- You see things; and you say, "Why?" But I dream things that never were; and I say, "Why not?"
Back to Methuselah [1921], pt. I, act I- One man that has a mind and knows it can always beat ten men who haven't and don't.
The Apple Cart [1929], act I- I have defined the hundred per cent American as ninety-nine per cent an idiot.
Remarks on Sinclair Lewis receiving the Nobel Prize [1930]
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