I can forgive Alfred Nobel for having invented dynamite, but only a fiend in human form could have invented the Nobel Prize.
George Bernard Shaw
I often quote myself. It adds spice to my conversation.
George Bernard Shaw
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
My method is to take the utmost trouble to find the right thing to say, and then to say it with the utmost levity.
George Bernard Shaw, "Answers to Nine Questions"
He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches.
George Bernard Shaw, "Man and Superman" (1903)
A lifetime of happiness! No man alive could bear it: it would be hell on earth.
George Bernard Shaw, "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.
George Bernard Shaw, "Man and Superman" (1903), 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.
George Bernard Shaw, "Mrs. Warren's Profession" (1893) act II
There are no secrets better kept than the secrets that everybody guesses.
George Bernard Shaw, "Mrs. Warren's Profession" (1893), act III
Women upset everything. When you let them into your life, you find that the woman is driving at one thing and you're driving at another.
George Bernard Shaw, "Pygmalion" (1913)
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 Can Never Tell" (1898), act I
This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish selfish clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. I rejoice in life for it's own sake. Life is no "brief candle" to me. It is sort of a splendid torch which I have a hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it over to future generations.
George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, Epistle Dedicatory |
