As we navigate the bumpy roads of life, there's nothing like a sprinkling of wit and wisdom to guide us. And who better to turn to for such sage insights than the illustrious playwright and polemicist, George Bernard Shaw? Shaw's biting humor, revolutionary ideas, and profound wisdom have been leaving indelible marks on the hearts and minds of people for over a century. In this blog, we have curated a collection of 50 thought-provoking George Bernard Shaw quotes that will inspire, provoke, and quite possibly, tickle your funny bone.
Take a journey with us as we delve into the world of George Bernard Shaw, the man who never shied away from speaking his mind, even in the face of stiff Victorian moral standards. It is said that during one of his prolific debates, Shaw told his opponent, “I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend… if you have one.” To which his opponent replied, “Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second… if there is one.” This sharp wit and unabashed honesty reverberate through his numerous quotes and it's this flavor that we'll savor in our compilation of George Bernard Shaw quotes. So, buckle up for a refreshing, intellectually stimulating ride!
First Lessons in Life
1. “Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”
2. “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.”
3. “We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.”
4. “Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”
5. “A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.”
6. “Success does not consist in never making mistakes but in never making the same one a second time.”
7. “Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.”
8. “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”
9. “Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine, and at last, you create what you will.”
10. “Youth is wasted on the young.”
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On Love and Relationships
- “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.”
- “First love is only a little foolishness and a lot of curiosity.”
- “There are two tragedies in life. One is not to get your heart’s desire. The other is to get it.”
- “It is most unwise for people in love to marry.”
- “Love is a gross exaggeration of the difference between one person and everybody else.”
- “A man's friendships are one of the best measures of his worth.”
- “Independence? That's middle-class blasphemy. We are all dependent on one another, every soul of us on earth.”
- “In this world, there is always danger for those who are afraid of it.”
- “Never wrestle with pigs. You both get dirty and the pig likes it.”
- “Just do what must be done. This may not be happiness, but it is greatness.”
On Society and Human Nature
- “The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that's the essence of inhumanity.”
- “Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.”
- “Patriotism is, fundamentally, a conviction that a particular country is the best in the world because you were born in it.”
- “Do not do unto others as you would have them do unto you—they might have different tastes.”
- “The more things a man is ashamed of, the more respectable he is.”
- “He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches.”
- “Without art, the crudeness of reality would make the world unbearable.”
- “The golden rule is that there are no golden rules.”
- “There is no love sincerer than the love of food.”
- “All great truths begin as blasphemies.”
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Musings on Religion and Philosophy
- “Beware of the man whose god is in the skies.”
- “The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one.”
- “Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got a hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.”
- “There is only one religion, though there are a hundred versions of it.”
- “God is on the side of the big battalions.”
- “Science never solves a problem without creating ten more.”
- “The philosopher is Nature's pilot. And there you have our difference: to be in hell is to drift: to be in heaven is to steer.”
- “We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.”
- “Miracles, in the sense of phenomena we cannot explain, surround us on every hand: life itself is the miracle of miracles.”
- “Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”
On the Power of Words and Ideas
- “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”
- “A fool's brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence university education.”
- “I can forgive Alfred Nobel for inventing dynamite, but only a fiend in human form could have invented the Nobel Prize.”
- “The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it.”
- “A fashion is nothing but an induced epidemic.”
- “The only man I know who behaves sensibly is my tailor; he takes my measurements anew each time he sees me. The rest go on with their old measurements and expect me to fit them.”
- “A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.”
- “You see things; and you say ‘Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say ‘Why not?'”
- “If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.”
- “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
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