Quotes by Shaw, George Bernard

"What is wrong with priests and popes is that instead of being apostles and saints, they are nothing but empirics who say I know instead of I am learning, and pray for credulity and inertia as wise men pray for skepticism and activity."

Shaw, George Bernard on churches   

"People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. 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."

Shaw, George Bernard on circumstance   

"Find enough clever things to say, and you're a Prime Minister; write them down and you're a Shakespeare."

Shaw, George Bernard on cleverness
3 fans of this quote   

"Nothing is worth doing unless the consequences may be serious."

Shaw, George Bernard on consequences   

"The American Constitution, one of the few modern political documents drawn up by men who were forced by the sternest circumstances to think out what they really had to face, instead of chopping logic in a university classroom."

Shaw, George Bernard on constitutions   

"How can what an Englishman believes be hearsay? It is a contradiction in terms."

Shaw, George Bernard on contradiction   

"I enjoy convalescence. It is the part that makes the illness worth while."

Shaw, George Bernard on convalescence   

"She has lost the art of conversation, but not, unfortunately, the power of speech."

Shaw, George Bernard on conversation   

"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."

Shaw, George Bernard on conversion   

"We are all dependent on one another, every soul of us on earth."

Shaw, George Bernard on cooperation   

"I never thought much of the courage of a lion tamer. Inside the cage he is at least safe from people."

Shaw, George Bernard on courage
4 fans of this quote   

"Man gives every reason for his conduct save one, every excuse for his crimes save one, every plea for his safety save one; and that one is his cowardice."

Shaw, George Bernard on war   

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

Shaw, George Bernard on crafts   

"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. The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality."

Shaw, George Bernard on credulity   

"I believe in Michelangelo, Velasquez, and Rembrandt; in the might of design, the mystery of color, the redemption of all things by Beauty everlasting, and the message of Art that has made these hands blessed. Amen. Amen."

Shaw, George Bernard on creeds   

"The faults of the burglar are the qualities of the financier."

Shaw, George Bernard on crime and criminals   

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

Shaw, George Bernard on cynics and cynicism   

"[Dancing is] A perpendicular expression of a horizontal desire."

Shaw, George Bernard on dance and dancing
7 fans of this quote   

"In this world there is always danger for those who are afraid of it."

Shaw, George Bernard on anger   

"England and America are two countries separated by the same language. "

Shaw, George Bernard on uncategorised   

"There is nothing so bad or so good that you will not find an Englishman doing it; but you will never find an Englishman in the wrong. He does everything on principle. He fights you on patriotic principles; he robs you on business principles; he enslaves you on imperial principles. "

Shaw, George Bernard on uncategorised   

"Majesty: when a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty. "

Shaw, George Bernard on uncategorised   

"You see things; and you say Why? But I dream things that never were; and I say Why not?"

Shaw, George Bernard on uncategorised   

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

Shaw, George Bernard on uncategorised   

"You have set up in New York Harbor a monstrous idol which you call Liberty. The only thing that remains to complete that monument is to put on its pedestal the inscription written by Dante on the gate of hell: All hope abandon ye who enter here. "

Shaw, George Bernard on uncategorised   

"You have to choose between trusting to the natural stability of gold and the natural stability of the honesty and intelligence of the members of the Government. And, with due respect for these gentlemen, I advise you, as long as the Capitalist system lasts, to vote for gold. "

Shaw, George Bernard on uncategorised   

"The best reformers the world has ever seen are those who commence on themselves. "

Shaw, George Bernard on uncategorised
5 fans of this quote   

"The fact that a believer is happier than a sceptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality."

Shaw, George Bernard on atheism
4 fans of this quote