 |
Hunting
|
|
When a man wants to murder a tiger he calls it sport; when a tiger wants to murder him he calls it ferocity.
-George Bernard Shaw
|
|
Ideas
|
|
|
I tell you that as long as I can conceive something better than myself I cannot be easy unless I am striving to bring it into existence or clearing the way for it.
-George Bernard Shaw
|
|
Imagination
|
|
|
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
|
|
|
You see things as they are and ask, 'Why?' I dream things as they never were and ask, 'Why not?'
the serpent saying to Eve
-George Bernard Shaw, Back to Methuselah
|
|
Independence
|
|
|
Independence? That's middle-class blasphemy. We are all dependent on one another, every soul of us on earth.
-George Bernard Shaw, Pygmalion, 1912
|
|
Industry
|
|
...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.
-George Bernard Shaw, You Never Can Tell
|
|
Insects
|
|
|
Man is the only animal which esteems itself rich in proportion to the number and voracity of its parasites.
-George Bernard Shaw
|
|
Instinct
|
|
|
Few of us have vitality enough to make any of our instincts imperious.
-George Bernard Shaw
|
|
Intelligence
|
|
|
Find enough clever things to say, and you're a Prime Minister; write them down and you're a Shakespeare.
-George Bernard Shaw
|
|
Joy, Excitement
|
|
|
The joy in life is to be used for a purpose. I want to be used up when I die.
-George Bernard Shaw
|
|
Language
|
|
|
The English have no respect for their language, and will not teach their children to speak it.
-George Bernard Shaw
|
|
|
If the announcer can produce the impression that he is a gentlemen, he may pronounce as he pleases.
-George Bernard Shaw
|
|
Laughter
|
|
|
Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.
-George Bernard Shaw
|
|
Law
|
|
|
Whenever you wish to do anything against the law, Cicely, always consult a good solicitor first.
-George Bernard Shaw
|
|
Liberty
|
|
|
Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.
-George Bernard Shaw
|
|
Life
|
|
|
Life is a disease; and the only difference between one man and another is the stage of the disease at which he lives. You are always at the crisis: I am always in the convalescent stage.
-George Bernard Shaw
|
|
Love
|
|
|
The fickleness of the women I love is only equaled by the infernal constancy of the women who love me.
-George Bernard Shaw
|
|
|
First love is only a little foolishness and a lot of curiosity: no really self-respecting woman would take advantage of it.
-George Bernard Shaw
|
|
|
If you value a man's regard, strive with him. As to liking, you like your newspaper -- and despise it.
-George Bernard Shaw
|
|
Madness
|
|
|
We want a few mad people now. See where the sane ones have landed us!
-George Bernard Shaw
|
|
Mankind, Man
|
|
|
In the arts of life man invents nothing; but in the arts of death he outdoes Nature herself, and produces by chemistry and machinery all the slaughter of plague, pestilence, and famine.
-George Bernard Shaw
|
|
Manners
|
|
|
The great secret, Eliza, is not having bad manners or good manners or any other particular sort of manners, but having the same manner for all human souls: in short, behaving as if you were in Heaven, where there are no third-class carriages, and one soul is as good as another.
-George Bernard Shaw
|
|
Marriage
|
|
|
There is no subject on which more dangerous nonsense is talked and thought than marriage.
-George Bernard Shaw
|
|
|
Marriage is popular because it combines the maximum of temptation with the maximum of opportunity.
-George Bernard Shaw
|
|
|
It is a woman's business to get married as soon as possible, and a man's to keep unmarried as long as he can.
-George Bernard Shaw
|
Books by and about George Bernard Shaw