George Bernard Shaw

No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says: He is always convinced that it says what he means.

The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that’s the essence of inhumanity.

Virtue is insufficient temptation.

Independence? That’s middle class blasphemy. We are all dependent on one another, every soul of us on earth.

Ladies and gentleman are permitted to have friends in the kennel, but not in the kitchen.

This is the true joy in life: Being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one, being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little 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 what I can. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.

Beware of the man who does not return your blow: he neither forgives you nor allows you to forgive yourself.

It was high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, ‘always do what you are afraid to do.’

As a rule, adversity reveals genius and prosperity hides it.

Nature… She pardons no mistakes. Her yea is yea, and her nay, nay.

Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees all others.

Who shall set a limit to the influence of a human being?

All Excess is ill: But Drunkenness is of the worst Sort. It spoils Health, dismounts the Mind, and unmans Men: It reveals Secrets, is Quarrelsome, Lascivious, Impudent, Dangerous and Mad. In fine, he that is drunk is not a Man: Because he is so long void of Reason, that distinguishes a Man from a Beast.

Tear thyself from delay.

What provokes your risibility, Sir? Have I said anything that you understand? Then I ask pardon of the rest of the company.

A woman’s heart must be of such a size and no larger, else it must be pressed small, like Chinese feet; her happiness is to be made as cakes are, by a fixed recipe.

Reality is a sliding door.

Fortune knocks at every man’s door once in a life, but in a good many cases the man is in a neighboring saloon and does not hear her.

I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.

Pale death with an impartial foot knocks at the hovels of the poor and the palaces of king.

Politics is the gizzard of society, full of gut and gravel.