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. George Bernard Shaw
No question is so difficult to answer as that to which the answer is obvious. George Bernard Shaw
Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it. George Bernard Shaw
What really flatters a man is that you think him worth flattering. George Bernard Shaw
A fashion is nothing but an induced epidemic. George Bernard Shaw
A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend upon the support of Paul. George Bernard Shaw
Democracy is a device that insures we shall be governed no better than we deserve. George Bernard Shaw
Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for the appointment by the corrupt few. George Bernard Shaw
If all economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion. George Bernard Shaw
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. George Bernard Shaw
It is dangerous to be sincere unless you are also stupid. George Bernard Shaw
The more things a man is ashamed of, the more respectable he is. George Bernard Shaw
There is only one religion, though there are a hundred versions of it. George Bernard Shaw
When I was young, I observed that nine out of ten things I did were failures. So I did ten times more work. George Bernard Shaw
Youth is a wonderful thing. What a crime to waste it on children. George Bernard Shaw
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. George Bernard Shaw
When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty. George Bernard Shaw
Poverty does not produce unhappiness: it produces degradation. George Bernard Shaw
Common sense is instinct. Enough of it is genius. George Bernard Shaw
What a man believes may be ascertained, not from his creed, but from the assumptions on which he habitually acts. George Bernard Shaw
The English are not very spiritual people, so they invented cricket to give them some idea of eternity. George Bernard Shaw
A perpetual holiday is a good working definition of hell. George Bernard Shaw
In a hospital they throw you out into the street before you are half cured, but in a nursing home they don’t let you out till you are dead. George Bernard Shaw
The great advantage of a hotel is that it’s a refuge from home life. George Bernard Shaw
The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them; that’s the essence of inhumanity. George Bernard Shaw
Miracles, in the sense of phenomena we cannot explain, surround us on every hand: life itself is the miracle of miracles. George Bernard Shaw
Men have to do some awfully mean things to keep up their respectability. George Bernard Shaw
I never resist temptation, because I have found that things that are bad for me do not tempt me. George Bernard Shaw
Anarchism is a game at which the police can beat you. George Bernard Shaw
Assassination is the extreme form of censorship. George Bernard Shaw
An Irishman’s heart is nothing but his imagination. George Bernard Shaw
My way of joking is to tell the truth, It’s the funniest joke in the world. George Bernard Shaw
The great secret is not having bad manners or good manners or having 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
Let a short Act of Parliament be passed, placing all street musicians outside the protection of the law, so that any citizen may assail them with stones, sticks, knives, pistols or bombs without incurring any penalties. George Bernard Shaw
Why should we take advice on sex from the pope? If he knows anything about it, he shouldn’t! George Bernard Shaw
The man who listens to Reason is lost: Reason enslaves all whose minds are not strong enough to master her. George Bernard Shaw
No king on earth is as safe in his job as a Trade Union official. There is only one thing that can get him sacked; and that is drink. Not even that, as long as he doesn’t actually fall down. George Bernard Shaw
Self-sacrifice enables us to sacrifice other people without blushing. George Bernard Shaw
No man who is occupied in doing a very difficult thing, and doing it very well, ever loses his self-respect. George Bernard Shaw
The writer who aims at producing the platitudes which are ‘not for an age, but for all time’, has his reward in being unreadable in all ages. George Bernard Shaw
A vegetarian is not a person who lives on vegetables, any more than a Catholic is a person who lives on cats. George Bernard Shaw
Both optimists and pessimists contribute to the society. The optimist invents the aeroplane, the pessimist the parachute. George Bernard Shaw
In a battle all you need to make you fight is a little hot blood and the knowledge that it’s more dangerous to lose than to win. George Bernard Shaw
He knows nothing and thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career. George Bernard Shaw
Newspapers are unable, seemingly, to discriminate between a bicycle accident and the collapse of civilisation. George Bernard Shaw
The conversion of a savage to Christianity is the conversion of Christianity to savagery. George Bernard Shaw
The great danger of conversion in all ages has been that when the religion of the high mind is offered to the lower mind, the lower mind, feeling its fascination without understanding it, and being incapable of rising to it, drags it down to its level by degrading it. George Bernard Shaw
You cannot be a hero without being a coward. George Bernard Shaw
I can’t talk religion to a man with bodily hunger in his eyes. George Bernard Shaw
I enjoy convalescence. It is the part that makes the illness worth while. George Bernard Shaw
Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all others because you were born in it. George Bernard Shaw
The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it. George Bernard Shaw
There is no sincerer love than the love of food. George Bernard Shaw
A life spent in making mistakes is not only more honourable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing. George Bernard Shaw
To be in hell is to drift; to be in heaven is to steer. George Bernard Shaw
I’m only a beer teetotaller, not a champagne teetotaller. George Bernard Shaw
Capitalism justified itself and was adopted as an economic principle on the express ground that it provides selfish motives for doing good, and that human beings will do nothing except for selfish motives. George Bernard Shaw
Power does not corrupt men. Fools, however, if they get into a position of power, corrupt power. George Bernard Shaw
Dancing is a perpendicular expression of a horizontal desire. George Bernard Shaw
He who has never hoped can never despair. George Bernard Shaw
Censorship ends in logical completeness when nobody is allowed to read any books except the books nobody reads. George Bernard Shaw
The greatest problem in communication is the illusion that it has been accomplished. George Bernard Shaw
In this world there is always danger for those who are afraid of it. George Bernard Shaw
The notion that disarmament can put a stop to war is contradicted by the nearest dogfight. George Bernard Shaw
A gentleman is one who puts more into the world than he takes out. George Bernard Shaw
No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says: He is always convinced that it says what he means. George Bernard Shaw
We are the only real aristocracy in the world: the aristocracy of money. George Bernard Shaw
In gambling the many must lose in order that the few may win. George Bernard Shaw
Decency is indecency’s conspiracy of silence. George Bernard Shaw
When our relatives are at home, we have to think of all their good points or it would be impossible to endure them. But when they are away, we console ourselves for their absence by dwelling on their vices. George Bernard Shaw
The test of a man’s or woman’s breeding is how they behave in a quarrel. Anybody can behave well when things are going smoothly. George Bernard Shaw
The most anxious man in a prison is the governor. George Bernard Shaw
Of the three official objects of our prison system: vengeance, deterrence, and reformation of the criminal, only one is achieved; and that is the one which is nakedly abominable. George Bernard Shaw