George Bernard Shaw

What is virtue but the Trade Unionism of the married?

…with the black marble which gives the fireplace the air of a miniature family vault, to suggest early Victorian commercial respectability, belief in money, Bible fetichism, fear of hell always at war with fear of poverty, instinctive horror of the passionate character of art, love and Roman Catholic religion, and all the first fruits of plutocracy in the early generations of the industrial revolution.

Well, dearie, men have to do some awfully mean things to keep up their respectability. But you can’t blame them for that, can you?

Youth is a wonderful thing. What a crime to waste it on children.

Life on board a pleasure steamer violates every moral and physical condition of healthy life except fresh air. It is a guzzling, lounging, gambling, dog’s life. The only alternative to excitement is irritability.

Socialism is the same as Communism, only better English.

Censorship ends in logical completeness when nobody is allowed to read any books except the books that nobody reads.

Better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt.

One great use of words is to hide our thoughts.

Keep true, never be ashamed of doing right; decide on what you think is right and stick to it.

Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs.

We are happier in many ways when we are old than when we were young. The young sow wild oats. The old grow sage.

Poverty consist in feeling poor.

Every stroke our fury strikes is sure to hit ourselves at last.

Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty.

Art is a jealous mistress; and if a man have a genius for painting, poetry, music, architecture or philosophy, he makes a bad husband and an ill provider.

Those that are little, little things suit.

Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.

No poems can please for long or live that are written by water drinkers.

God has placed no limits to the exercise of the intellect he has given us, on this side of the grave.

To have a great man for a friend seems pleasant to those who have never tried it; those who have, fear it.