George Bernard Shaw quotes - page 20

The faults of the burglar are the qualities of the financier: the manners and habits of a duke would cost a city clerk his situation. (George Bernard Shaw)
But no public man in these islands ever believes that the Bible means what it says: he is always convinced that it says what he means; and I have no reason to hope that Mr Coote may be an exception to the rule. View quote
George Bernard Shaw
I wouldn't have ate it, only I'm too lady-like to take it out of my mouth. View quote
George Bernard Shaw
Attention and activity lead to mistakes as well as to successes; but a life spent in making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing. View quote
George Bernard Shaw
I am a communist, but not a member of the Communist Party. Stalin is a first rate Fabian. I am one of the founders of Fabianism and as such very friendly to Russia. View quote
George Bernard Shaw
He [the British taxpayer] must be taught that war is not precise or economical. It is almost inconceivably wasteful and extravagant. It burns the house to roast the pig, and even then seldom roasts him effectively..... waste is the law of modern war; and nothing is cheap on the battlefield except the lives of men...... Therefore, my taxpayer, resign yourself to this: that we may fight bravely, fight hard, fight long, fight cunningly, fight recklessly, fight in a hundred and fifty ways, but we cannot fight cheaply. View quote
George Bernard Shaw
Walk! Not bloody likely. I am going in a taxi. View quote
George Bernard Shaw
This is the real enemy, the invader from the East, the Druze, the ruffian, the oriental parasite; in a word: the Jew. View quote
George Bernard Shaw
I make no vows. I take my chance. ... It means that I fear certainty as you fear uncertainty. It means that nothing is certain but uncertainty. If I bind the future I bind my will. If I bind my will I strangle creation. View quote
George Bernard Shaw
It is not the sale of my soul that troubles me: I have sold it too often to care about that. I have sold it for a professorship. I have sold it for an income. ... What is all human conduct but the daily and hourly sale of our souls for trifles? View quote
George Bernard Shaw
THEODOTUS: Caesar: you are a stranger here, and not conversant with our laws. The kings and queens of Egypt may not marry except with their own royal blood. Ptolemy and Cleopatra are born king and consort just as they are born brother and sister. BRITANNUS (shocked): Caesar: this is not proper. THEODOTUS (outraged): How! CAESAR (recovering his self-possession): Pardon him, Theodotus: he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature. (George Bernard Shaw)
When a man says money can do anything, that settles it: he hasn't got any. View quote
George Bernard Shaw
If women were particular about men's characters, they would never get married at all. View quote
George Bernard Shaw
The minority is sometimes right; the majority always wrong. View quote
George Bernard Shaw
The frontier between hell and heaven is only the difference between two ways of looking at things. View quote
George Bernard Shaw
It's easier to replace a dead man than a good picture. View quote
George Bernard Shaw
It's so hard to know what to do when one wishes earnestly to do right. View quote
George Bernard Shaw
Find enough clever things to say, and you're a Prime Minister; write them down and you're a Shakespeare. View quote
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. View quote
George Bernard Shaw
A man who has no office to go, to I don't care who he is, is a trial of which you can have no conception. View quote
George Bernard Shaw
If there was nothing wrong in the world there wouldn't be anything for us to do. (George Bernard Shaw)
I exclude the hypothesis of complete originality on [Charles] Lever's part, because a man can no more be completely original in that sense than a tree can grow out of air. View quote
George Bernard Shaw
Undershaft: You have made for yourself something that you call a morality or a religion or what not. It doesn't fit the facts. Well, scrap it. Scrap it and get one that does fit. That is what is wrong with the world at present. It scraps its obsolete steam engines and dynamos; but it wont scrap its old prejudices and its old moralities and its old religions and its old political constitutions. Whats the result? In machinery it does very well; but in morals and religion and politics it is working at a loss that brings it nearer bankruptcy every year. View quote
George Bernard Shaw
Well, I tell you again to get rid of your Constitution. But I suppose you won't do it. You have a good president and you have a bad Constitution, and the bad Constitution gets the better of the good President all the time. The end of it will be is that you might as well have an English Prime Minister. View quote
George Bernard Shaw
I heard your prayers Thank God it's all over! View quote
George Bernard Shaw