George Bernard Shaw quotes - page 28

He never does a proper thing without giving an improper reason for it. (George Bernard Shaw)
Orchestras only need to be sworn at, and a German is consequently at an advantage with them, as English profanity, except in America, has not gone beyond a limited technology of perdition. View quote
George Bernard Shaw
If you strike a child, take care that you strike it in anger, even at the risk of maiming it for life. A blow in cold blood neither can nor should be forgiven. View quote
George Bernard Shaw
A woman whose face looked as if it had been made of sugar and someone had licked it. View quote
George Bernard Shaw
No man fully capable of his own language ever masters another. View quote
George Bernard Shaw
If you can say a thing with one stroke, unanswerably you have style if not, you are at best a marchande de plaisir, a decorative litt. View quote
George Bernard Shaw
Physically there is nothing to distinguish human society from the farm-yard except that children are more troublesome and costly than chickens and calves and that men and women are not so completely enslaved as farm stock. View quote
George Bernard Shaw
Do you think that the things people make fools of themselves about are any less real and true than the things they behave sensibly about? They are more true: they are the only things that are true. View quote
George Bernard Shaw
When a prisoner sees the door of his dungeon open he dashes for it without stopping to think where he shall get his dinner. View quote
George Bernard Shaw
He who bears the brand of Cain shall rule the earth. View quote
George Bernard Shaw
In the arts of peace Man is a bungler. (George Bernard Shaw)
The kingdom of God is striving to come. The empire that looks back in terror shall give way to the kingdom that looks forward with hope. View quote
George Bernard Shaw
"I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend ... if you have one." - George Bernard Shaw, playwright (to Winston Churchill) "Cannot possibly attend first night; will attend second, if there is one." - Churchill's response. View quote
George Bernard Shaw
Art is the magic mirror you make to reflect your invisible dreams in visible pictures. You use a glass mirror to see your face: you use works of art to see your soul. View quote
George Bernard Shaw
He was not anti-Christ: nobody had heard of such a power of darkness then; but he was startlingly anti-Moses. He was against the priests, against the judiciary, against the military, against the city (he declared that it was impossible for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven), against all the interests, classes, principalities and powers, inviting everybody to abandon all these and follow him. By every argument, legal, political, religious, customary, and polite, he was the most complete enemy of the society of his time ever brought to the bar. View quote
George Bernard Shaw
I have always held the religion of Muhammad in high estimation because of its wonderful vitality. It is the only religion which appears to me to possess that assimilating capability to the changing phase of existence which can make itself appeal to every age. View quote
George Bernard Shaw
In law we draw a line between the killing of human animals and non-human ones, setting the latter apart as brutes. This was founded on a general belief that humans have immortal souls and brutes none. Nowadays more and more people are refusing to make this distinction. View quote
George Bernard Shaw
I say, let them dread, of all things, stagnation; for from the moment I, Lilith, lose hope and faith in them, they are doomed. In that hope and faith I have let them live for a moment; and in that moment I have spared them many times. View quote
George Bernard Shaw
You, standing for Rome, are the universal coward: I, standing for the kingdom of God, have braved everything, lost everything, and won an eternal crown. View quote
George Bernard Shaw
History has borne out the case against him; for no State has ever constituted itself on his principles or made it possible to live according to his commandments: those States who have taken his name have taken it as an alias to enable them to persecute his followers more plausibly. View quote
George Bernard Shaw
I dislike cruelty, even cruelty to other people, and should therefore like to see all cruel people exterminated. (George Bernard Shaw)
These childish evasions are revolting. We must strip off the whitewash and find out what is really beneath it. Extermination must be put on a scientific basis if it is ever to be carried out humanely and apologetically as well as thoroughly. View quote
George Bernard Shaw
The apparent multiplicity of Gods is bewildering at the first glance; but you presently discover that they are all the same one God in different aspects and functions and even sexes. There is always one uttermost God who defies personification. View quote
George Bernard Shaw
The last word remains with Christ and Handel; and this must stand as the best defence of Tolerance until a better man than I makes a better job of it. View quote
George Bernard Shaw
I had patience with them for many ages: they tried me very sorely. They did terrible things: they embraced death, and said that eternal life was a fable. View quote
George Bernard Shaw