George Bernard Shaw

I finished my first book seventy-six years ago. I offered it to every publisher on the English-speaking earth I had ever heard of. Their refusals were unanimous: and it did not get into print until, fifty years later; publishers would publish anything that had my name on it.

A man’s interest in the world is only an overflow from his interest in himself.

The English have no respect for their language, and will not teach their children to speak it.

Only on paper has humanity yet achieved glory, beauty, truth, knowledge, virtue, and abiding love.

Man gives every reason for his conduct save one, every excuse for his crimes save one, every plea for his safety save one; and that one is his cowardice.

Man can climb to the highest summits, but he cannot dwell there long.

Everything in Nature contains all the powers of Nature. Everything is made of one hidden stuff.

If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life.

It is a brave thing to have courage to be an individual; it is also, perhaps, a lonely thing. But it is better than not being an individual, which is to be nobody at all.

In charity there is no excess.

As Puppets are to Men, and Babies to Children, so is Man’s Workmanship to God’s: We are the Picture, he the Reality.

He who distinguishes the true savor of his food can never be a glutton; he who does not cannot be otherwise.

No man thoroughly understands a truth until he has contended against it.

When one wanted one’s interests looking after whatever the cost, it was not so well for a lawyer to be over honest, else he might not be up to other people’s tricks.

It is the amends of a short and troublesome life, that doing good and suffering ill entitles man to a longer and better

We are a puny and fickle folk. Avarice, hesitation, and following are our diseases.

When the eyes say one thing, and the tongue another, a practiced man relies on the language of the first.

Laughter is the greatest weapon we have and we, as humans, use it the least.

Next to the originator of a good sentence is the first quoter of it. Many will read the book before one thinks of quoting a passage. As soon as he has done this, that line will be quoted east and west.

Nature magically suits a man to his fortunes, by making them the fruit of his character.

A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining, but wants it back the minute it begins to rain.