77 Best George Bernard Shaw Quotes (LIFE)

Top 22 Most Famous George Bernard Shaw Quotes (TRUE JOY)

We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing. — We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.

Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself. — Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.

Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it. — Liberty means **responsibility**. That is why most men dread it.

Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world.

A happy family is but an earlier heaven. — A happy **family** is but an earlier heaven.

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.

People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

Success does not consist in never making mistakes but in never making the same one a second time. — **Success** does not consist in never making mistakes but in never making the same one a second time.

You see things; and you say 'Why' But I dream things that never were; and I say 'Why not'. — You see things; and you say ‘Why?’ But I **dream** things that never were; and I say ‘Why not?’.

If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you. — If you want to tell people the **truth**, make them laugh, otherwise they’ll kill you.

Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything. — Progress is impossible without **change**, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.

Two percent of the people think. Three percent of the people think they think. And ninety-five percent of the people would rather die than think.

There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart's desire. The other is to gain it. — There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart’s desire. The other is to gain it.

The things most people want to know about are usually none of their business.

Never wrestle with pigs. You both get dirty and the pig likes it.

You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul.

Men are wise in proportion, not to their experience, but to their capacity for experience.

A cigarette is a pinch of tobacco rolled in paper with fire at one end and a fool at the other.

Life is not meant to be easy, my child; but take courage – it can be delightful. — Life is not meant to be easy, my child; but take **courage** – it can be delightful.

Yesterday is the past, tomorrow is the future, today is a gift – that’s why it’s called the present.

Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.

26 George Bernard Shaw Quotes on Communication, Love and Death (INSPIRATIONAL)

No question is so difficult to answer as that to which the answer is obvious.

The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place. — The single biggest problem in **communication** is the illusion that it has taken place.

Take care to get what you like or you will be forced to like what you get.

I know of only one duty, and that is to love. — I know of only one duty, and that is to **love**.

Perhaps the greatest social service that can be rendered by anybody to the country and to mankind is to bring up a family. — Perhaps the greatest social service that can be rendered by anybody to the country and to mankind is to bring up a **family**.

The liar's punishment is, not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else. — The liar’s punishment is, not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else.

My way of joking is to tell the truth. It's the funniest joke in the world. — My way of joking is to tell the **truth**. It’s the funniest joke in the world.

There is no love sincerer than the love of food. — There is no **love** sincerer than the love of food.

Animals are my friends… and I don't eat my friends. — Animals are my friends… and I don’t eat my friends.

Old men are dangerous: it doesn't matter to them what is going to happen to the world. — Old men are dangerous: it doesn’t matter to them what is going to happen to the world.

Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance. — Beware of false **knowledge**; it is more dangerous than ignorance.

“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.”
George Bernard Shaw

The whole problem with the world is the fools and fanatics are always so sure of themselves, and wiser people are full of doubts.

Make it a rule never to give a child a book you would not read yourself.

The only time my education was interrupted was when I was in school.

Why should we take advice on sex from the pope? If he knows anything about it, he shouldn't! — Why should we take advice on sex from the pope? If he knows anything about it, he shouldn’t!

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

Youth, which is forgiven everything, forgives itself nothing: age, which forgives itself everything, is forgiven nothing.

Even the youngest of us may be wrong sometimes.

No diet will remove all the fat from your body because the brain is entirely fat. Without a brain, you might look good, but all you could do is run for public office.

If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance.

Silence is the most perfect expression of scorn.

Everything happens to everybody sooner or later if there is time enough. — Everything happens to everybody sooner or later if there is **time** enough.

Hatred is the coward's revenge for being intimidated. — Hatred is the coward’s revenge for being intimidated.

Both optimists and pessimists contribute to society. The optimist invents the aeroplane, the pessimist the parachute.

After all, the wrong road always leads somewhere.

29 Motivational George Bernard Shaw About Life, Career and Politics (FUTURE)

Life is a first draft… with NO rewrite. — **Life** is a first draft… with NO rewrite.

Imagination is the beginning of creation.

No man who is occupied in doing a very difficult thing, and doing it very well, ever loses his self-respect. — No man who is occupied in doing a very difficult thing, and doing it very well, ever loses his **self-respect**.

We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it. — We have no more right to consume **happiness** without producing it than to consume **wealth** without producing it.

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself.

A socialist is somebody who doesn't have anything, and is ready to divide it up equally among everybody. — A socialist is somebody who doesn’t have anything, and is ready to divide it up equally among everybody.

You can easily find people who are ten times as rich at sixty as they were at twenty; but not one of them will tell you that they are ten times as happy. — You can easily find people who are ten times as rich at sixty as they were at twenty; but not one of them will tell you that they are ten times as **happy**.

There is nothing that can be changed more completely than human nature when the job is taken in hand early enough. — There is nothing that can be changed more completely than human **nature** when the job is taken in hand early enough.

A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.

The more things a man is ashamed of, the more respectable he is. — The more things a man is ashamed of, the more **respectable** he is.

A pessimist is a man who thinks everybody is as nasty as himself, and hates them for it.

If you are going to let the fear of poverty govern your life, your reward will be that you will eat, but you will not live. — If you are going to let the **fear** of poverty govern your life, your reward will be that you will eat, but you will not live.

He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches.

Without art, the crudeness of reality would make the world unbearable.

He knows nothing and thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career. — He knows nothing and thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political **career**.

Nothing is worth doing unless the consequences may be serious.

The play was a great success, but audience was a dismal failure.

Common people do not pray; they only beg.

The only way to avoid being miserable is not to have enough leisure to wonder whether you are happy or not.

[The] power of accurate observation… is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it.

The longer I live, the more convinced am I that this planet is used by other planets as a lunatic asylum.

The secret to success is to offend the greatest number of people. — The secret to **success** is to offend the greatest number of people.

A gentleman is one who puts more into the world than he takes out. — A **gentleman** is one who puts more into the world than he takes out.

The person I miss most is the one I could have been.

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.

If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must man be of learning from experience.

The most tragic thing in the world is a man of genius who is not a man of honor.

Now that we have learned to fly in the air like birds and dive in the sea like fish, only one thing remains – to learn to live on earth like humans.

George Bernard Shaw Short Biography

Born 26 July 1856 in Portobello, Dublin, Ireland, George Bernard Shaw was a playwright, literary critic, and recipient of a Nobel Prize for Literature.

Shaw was an avid reader as a child. In 1876, he moved to London to be with his family. He refused to take any clerical work and eventually found a job as a ghostwriter for The Hornet, a weekly satirical. In between working he would write his own stories.

He finished his first novel entitled Immaturity in 1870. It was too dark to be published then and was later published sometime in the 1930s.

Shaw started his career as a critic and novelist in the mid-1880s and became a well-known music critic. He started critiquing music for The Star in February 1889.

From 1895-1898 Shaw worked as a theater critic for The Saturday Review, it was also during this time that his work started gaining attention.

Shaw’s most famous work is the play Pygmalion, which he published in 1912. It was popularly received during its time and was later developed into the equally popular stage musical My Fair Lady (1956).

Shaw was a Nobel Prize awardee in 1925 for his works in literature.

Further Reading:

George Bernard Shaw on Marriage, the Oppression of Women, and the Hypocrisies of Monogamy – Brain Pickings
‘Pygmalion’ a Study on Class, Language and Sexism – Chicago Tribune
The World Has Never Needed George Bernard Shaw More – Irish Times
5 Interesting Facts You Need to Know About George Bernard Shaw – Classical Arts Universe

Here are the best George Bernard Shaw quotes so you can be open to change to allow progress to flourish and avoid stubbornness.

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Top 22 Most Famous George Bernard Shaw Quotes (TRUE JOY)

26 George Bernard Shaw Quotes on Communication, Love and Death (INSPIRATIONAL)

29 Motivational George Bernard Shaw About Life, Career and Politics (FUTURE)

George Bernard Shaw Short Biography

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