There are lots of both thought-proving and satirical quotes which can be taken from the huge body of literary work of George Bernard Shaw.
At the same time, there are many quotes wrongly credited to Irish literary icon George Bernard Shaw; published on both online and off-line.
For instance, this quote:
“Success does not consist in never making blunders, but in never making the same one a second time.“
It is NOT by George Bernard Shaw, but actually by Henry Wheeler Shaw or better known by his pen name Josh Billings.
It is mistaken by many people is because, the quote was credited to the name H. W. Shaw in a couple of quotation books.
H. W. Shaw is actually Henry Wheeler Shaw aka Josh Billings.
BEWARE: The next time if you want to use or share a quote, don’t google it and just pick up the the first one in the search results.
You have to ensure that the sites are reliable. Make sure that the quotes are cited with proper sources.
Anyway, this renowned Irish dramatist and literary critic Bernard Shaw wrote more than 60 plays and almost all his writings deal sternly with prevailing social problems, with a touch of comedy.
His famous play Pygmalion was adapted into a musical called “My Fair Lady”.
Take your time to read through my wide selection of fully verified George Bernard Shaw quotes on life taken from his plays, articles, essays and reviews.
“The best autobiographies are confessions; but if a man is a deep writer all his works are confessions.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found in: SHAW: An Autobiography: 1856 -1898 By George Bernard Shaw, Edited And Compiled By Stanley Weintraub, Weybright and Talley, 1969, P. 2)
“The fickleness of the women I love is only equaled by the infernal constancy of the women who love me.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found here.)
“All great truths begin as blasphemies.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found: Annajanska, The Bolshevik Empress By George Bernard Shaw)
(Another source of the quote is found here.)
“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.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found in: The Doctorś Dilemma: Getting Married, & The Shewing-up of Blanco Posnet By Bernard Shaw, Constable And Company, 1930, Preface On Doctors, The Technical Problem, P. lxxxviii)
“I hear you say “Why?” Always “Why?” You see things; and you say “Why?” But I dream things that never were; and I say “Why not?” ” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found in: Back to Methuselah By George Bernard Shaw, Limited Editions Club, 1939, Part I, In The Beginning, Act I, P. 8)
(Another source of the quote is found here.)
“You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found in: Back to Methuselah: A Metabiological Pentateuch By George Bernard Shaw, First World Publishing 2007, Part V, As Far As Thought Can Reach, P. 424)
(Another source of the quote is found here.)
“There are two tragedies in life. One is not to get your heart’s desire. The other is to get it.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found in: Man and Superman: A Comedy and a Philosophy, Brentano’s, 1905, Act IV, P. 174)
“Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The Doctor’s Dilemma: A Tragedy By Bernard Shaw, Constable And Company, 1922, Act V, P. 98)
(The quote is also found in: The Doctor’s Dilemma: A Tragedy, 1906; Getting Married A Disquisitory Play, 1908 ; The Shewing-up Of Blanco Posnet A Sermon In Crude Melodrama, 1909 By George Bernard Shaw, W.H. Wise, 1930, P. 173)
“Progress is impossible without change; those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” – George Bernard Shaw
“Do not do unto others as you would that they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found in: Plays by George Bernard Shaw By George Bernard Shaw, Eric Bentley, Norman Lloyd, Penguin, 2004, Maxims For Revolutionists, The Golden Rule)
Note: You can see the whole list of Maxims For Revolutionists in here.
“If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance.” – George Bernard Shaw
(Immaturity By Bernard Shaw, Constable & Company Ltd., 1921, Preface, P. xxiv)
(The quote is also found in: The Complete Prefaces of Bernard Shaw By Bernard Shaw, Paul Hamlyn, 1965, P. 668)
“There is no love sincerer than the love of food.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found in: Man and Superman: A Comedy and a Philosophy By Bernard Shaw, Read Books Ltd, 2014, Act I)
“…When two people are under the influence of the most violent, most insane, most delusive, and most transient of passions, they are required to swear that they will remain in that excited, abnormal, and exhausting condition continuously until death do them part.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found in: The Collected Works of Bernard Shaw, Volume 12 By Bernard Shaw, W.H. Wise., 1930, P. 201)
“Virtue consists, not in abstaining from vice, but in not desiring it.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found in: Plays by George Bernard Shaw By George Bernard Shaw, Eric Bentley, Norman Lloyd, Penguin, 2004, Maxims for Revolutionists, Virtues And Vices)
“Just as the liar’s punishment is, not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe any one else; so a guilty society can more easily be persuaded that any apparently innocent act is guilty than that any apparently guilty act is innocent.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The Quintessence of Ibsenism By George Bernard Shaw, Walter Scott, 1891, The Two Pioneers, P. 2)
(The quote is also found in: Selected Prose By George Bernard Shaw, Dodd, Mead, 1952, P. 546)
“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
(The Devil’s Disciple: A Melodrama By George Bernard Shaw, Brentano’s , 1906, Act II, P. 32)
(The quote is also found in: The Devil’s Disciple By George Bernard Shaw, The Floating Press, 2011 , Act II, P. 42)
“Whilst we have prisons it matters little which of us occupy the cells.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found in: Four Plays by Bernard Shaw By George Bernard Shaw, Pocket Books (Mm), 1968, Maxims for Revolutionists, Crime And Punishment, P. 487)
“Do you know what a pessimist is? A man who thinks everybody as nasty as himself, and hates them for it.” – George Bernard Shaw
(An Unsocial Socialist By George Bernard Shaw, Project Gutenberg, February, 1999, Chapter V)
(The quote is also found in: An Unsocial Socialist By George Bernard Shaw, 1st World Publishing, 2004, Ch.V, P. 99)
(Another source of the quote is found here.)
“My way of joking is to tell the truth. It’s the funniest joke in the world.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found in: John Bull’s Other Island By George Bernard Shaw, 1st World Publishing, 2004, Act II, P. 50)
“You were a perfect success: the audience was a dismal failure.” – George Bernard Shaw
(Music In London 1890-94,Volume II By George Bernard Shaw, Constable And Company Ltd, 1890, P. 169)
(The quote is also found in : Music in London, 1890-94, Volume 2 By George Bernard Shaw, Scholarly Press, 1977, P. 169)
“He knows nothing; and he thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found in: Major Barbara By George Bernard Shaw, The Floating Press, 2009, Act III, P. 145)
“…After all, the wrong road always leads somewhere.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The Dark Lady Of The Sonnets By George Bernard Shaw, Preface, Frank Harris, P. 7)
(The quote is also found in: Selected Short Plays By George Bernard Shaw, Penguin UK, 1988, The Dark Lady Of The Sonnets, Preface, Frank Harris)
“Hatred is the coward’s revenge for being intimidated.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found in: Major Barbara By George Bernard Shaw, Courier Corporation, 2012, Act III, P. 77)
“Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found in: The Collected Works of George Bernard Shaw: Plays, Novels, Articles, Lectures, Letters and Essays By George Bernard Shaw, e-artnow, 2015, Maxims For Revolutionists (1903), Honor)
“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
(The quote is also found in: Man And Superman: A Comedy And A Philosophy By Bernard Shaw, Brentano’s, 1922, Maxims for Revolutionists, P. 238)
“When a thing is funny, search it for a hidden truth.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found in: Back to Methuselah By George Bernard Shaw, First World Publishing, 2007, Part V, As Far As Thought Can Reach, P. 420)
(Another source of the quote is found here.)
“When a man wants to murder a tiger he calls it sport; when a tiger wants to murder him he calls it ferocity.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found in: Plays by George Bernard Shaw By George Bernard Shaw, Eric Bentley, Norman Lloyd, Penguin, 2004, Maxims for Revolutionists, Crime And Punishment)
“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 of happiness, and by no means a necessity of life.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found in: The Collected Works of George Bernard Shaw: Plays, Novels, Articles, Lectures, Letters and Essays By George Bernard Shaw, e-artnow, 2015, The Importance Of Hell In The Salvation Scheme)
(Two more sources where the quote are found: here and here.)
“Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found in: Plays by George Bernard Shaw By George Bernard Shaw, Eric Bentley, Norman Lloyd, Penguin, 2004, Maxims for Revolutionists, Liberty And Equality)
“Without art, the crudeness of reality would make the world unbearable.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found in: Back to Methuselah By George Bernard Shaw, First World Publishing, 2007, Part V, As Far As Thought Can Reach, P. 420)
(Another source of the quote is found here.)
“…The way to deal with worldly people is to frighten them by repeating their scandalous whisperings aloud.” – George Bernard Shaw
(Love Among The Artists By George Bernard Shaw, Brentano’s, 1910, Bk I, ch.VI, P. 105)
(The quote is also found in: Love Among the Artists(Autobiographical Novel): A Story With a Purpose By George Bernard Shaw, e-artnow, 2015, Bk. I, Ch. VI)
“This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of Nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found in: Man And Superman By Bernard Shaw, Read Books Ltd, 2014, Epistle Dedicatory To Arthur Bingham Walkley)
“The more things a man is ashamed of, the more respectable he is.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found in: Man And Superman By Bernard Shaw, Read Books Ltd, 2014, Act I)
“The only man who behaved sensibly was my tailor; he took my measure anew every time he saw me, whilst all the rest went on with their old measurements and expected them to fit me.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found in: Man And Superman By Bernard Shaw, Read Books Ltd, 2014, Act I)
“A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found in: Everybody’s Political What’s What? By George Bernard Shaw, Dodd, Mead & Company, 1944, ch.XXX, State Corruption, P. 256)
“…Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire; you will what you imagine; and at last you create what you will.” – George Bernard Shaw
“…power of accurate observation which is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found in: Music in London, 1890-1894, Volume 3 By Bernard Shaw, Constable And Company Limited, 1932, P. 266)
“The unconscious self is the real genius. Your breathing goes wrong the moment your conscious self meddles with it.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found in: Plays by George Bernard Shaw By George Bernard Shaw, Eric Bentley, Norman Lloyd, Penguin, 2004, Maxims for Revolutionists,, The Unconscious Self)
“There is only one religion, though there are a hundred versions of it.” – George Bernard Shaw
(Plays: Pleasant and Unpleasant By Bernard Shaw, Vol II, Grant Richards, 1898, Preface; p.vii)
(The quote is also found in: Arms and the Man By George Bernard Shaw, Courier Corporation, 2012, Preface[To Vol.II (Pleasant Plays) Of Plays: Pleasant And Unpleasant], P. viii)
“Decency is Indecency’s Conspiracy of Silence.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found in: Plays by George Bernard Shaw By George Bernard Shaw, Eric Bentley, Norman Lloyd, Penguin, 2004, Maxims for Revolutionists, Decency)
“Men are wise in proportion, not to their experience, but to their capacity for experience.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found in: Plays by George Bernard Shaw By George Bernard Shaw, Eric Bentley, Norman Lloyd, Penguin, 2004, Maxims for Revolutionists, Experience)
“Hell is full of musical amateurs: music is the brandy of the damned.” – George Bernard Shaw
(This quote is also found in: Man and Superman By Bernard Shaw, Read Books Ltd, 2014, Act III)
“As long as I have a want, I have a reason for living. Satisfaction is death.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found in: Androcles And The Lion Overruled Pygamalion By George Bernard Shaw, Overruled, Farcical Comedy Shirking Its Subject, PP. 169-70)
(Another source of the quote is found in: Selected Short Plays By George Bernard Shaw, Penguin UK, 1988, Overruled, Farcical Comedy Shirking Its Subject)
“The first prison I ever saw had inscribed on it CEASE TO DO EVIL: LEARN TO DO WELL; but as the inscription was on the outside, the prisoners could not read it.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The Crime of Imprisonment By Bernard Shaw, Greenwood Press, 1969, P. 70)
(The quote is also found in: The Complete Prefaces: 1914-1929 By George Bernard Shaw, Edited By Dan H. Laurence, Daniel James Leary, Allen Lane, The Penguin Press, 1993, P.468)
“Criminals do not die by the hands of the law. They die by the hands of other men.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found in: Plays by George Bernard Shaw By George Bernard Shaw, Eric Bentley, Norman Lloyd, Penguin, 2004, Maxims for Revolutionists, Crime And Punishment)
“The golden rule is that there are no golden rules.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found in: Plays by George Bernard Shaw By George Bernard Shaw, Eric Bentley, Norman Lloyd, Penguin, 2004, Maxims for Revolutionists, The Golden Rule)
“Silence is the most perfect expression of scorn.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found in: Back to Methuselah By George Bernard Shaw, 1st World Publishing, 2007, Part V, As Far As Thought Can Reach, P. 388)
“In heaven an angel is nobody in particular.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found in: Plays by George Bernard Shaw By George Bernard Shaw, Eric Bentley, Norman Lloyd, Penguin, 2004, Maxims for Revolutionists, Greatness)
“The relation of superior to inferior excludes good manners.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found in: Plays by George Bernard Shaw By George Bernard Shaw, Eric Bentley, Norman Lloyd, Penguin, 2004, Maxims for Revolutionists, Liberty And Equality)
“…No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says: He is always convinced that it says what he means.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found in: Our Theatres in the Nineties, Volume 1 By Bernard Shaw, Constable And Company Limited, 1954, P. 83)
“Beware of the man who does not return your blow: he neither forgives you nor allows you to forgive yourself.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found in: Plays by George Bernard Shaw, Penguin Group USA, Incorporated, 1960, Maxims for Revolutionists, Stray Sayings, P. 447)
“First love is only a little foolishness and a lot of curiosity.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found in: John Bull’s Other Island By Bernard Shaw, Edited By Dan H. Laurence, Penguin, 1984, P. 150)
“If you can’t appreciate what you’ve got, you’d better get what you can appreciate.” – George Bernard Shaw
(Pygmalion By George Bernard Shaw, Xist Publishing, 2015, Act V)
(The quote is also found in: Pygmalion By George Bernard Shaw, A Penn State Electronic Classics Series Publication, The Pennsylvania State University, 2004, Act V; P. 81)
“The art of government is the organization of idolatry.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found in: Plays by George Bernard Shaw By George Bernard Shaw, Eric Bentley, Norman Lloyd, Penguin, 2004, Maxims for Revolutionists, Idolatry)
“It is dangerous to be sincere unless you are also stupid.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found in: Plays by George Bernard Shaw By George Bernard Shaw, Eric Bentley, Norman Lloyd, Penguin, 2004, Maxims for Revolutionists, Stray Sayings)
“Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found in: Plays by George Bernard Shaw By George Bernard Shaw, Penguin Group USA, Incorporated, 1960, Maxims for Revolutionists, Democracy, P. 437)
“Happy is the man who can make a living by his hobby.” – George Bernard Shaw
(Pygmalion By George Bernard Shaw, Xist Publishing, 2016, Act I)
(The quote is also found in: Pygmalion By George Bernard Shaw, A Penn State Electronic Classics Series Publication, The Pennsylvania State University, 2004, Act I; P. 15)
“Every genuinely benevolent person loathes almsgiving and mendicity.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found in: Plays by George Bernard Shaw, Penguin Group USA, Incorporated, 1960, Maxims for Revolutionists, Charity, P. 445)
“You are going to let the fear of poverty govern your life and your reward will be that you will eat, but you will not live.” – George Bernard Shaw
(Heartbreak House By George Bernard Shaw, Read Books Ltd, 2015, Act II)
(The quote is also found in: Heartbreak House, Great Catherine, And Playlets Of The War. By Bernard Shaw, Brentano’s, 1919, Heartbreak House XXVI 1913-16, Act 2, P. 88)
“…To be in hell is to drift; to be in heaven is to steer.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found in: Man And Superman By Bernard Shaw, Read Books Ltd, 2014, Act III)
“Take care to get what you like or you will be forced to like what you get.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found in: Plays by George Bernard Shaw By George Bernard Shaw, Eric Bentley, Norman Lloyd, Penguin, 2004, Maxims for Revolutionists, Stray Sayings)
“Bear it like a man, Tavy even if you feel it like an ass.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found in: Man and Superman By Bernard Shaw, Read Books Ltd, 2014, Act II)
“It is not pleasure that makes life worth living. It is life that makes pleasure worth having.” – George Bernard Shaw
(In Good King Charles’s Golden Days By George Bernard Shaw, Act I)
(The quote is also found in: Last Plays: “In Good King Charles’s Golden Days”; Buoyant Billions; Farfetched Fables; Shakes Versus Shav; Why She Would Not By Dan Laurence, George Bernard Shaw, Penguin UK, 2013, In Good King Charles’s Golden Days: A True History That Never Happened, Act I)
“There are no secrets better kept than the secrets that everybody guesses.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found in: Mrs. Warren’s Profession By George Bernard Shaw, Cosimo, Inc., 2006, Act.III, P. 41)
“He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found in: Plays by George Bernard Shaw By George Bernard Shaw, Eric Bentley, Norman Lloyd, Penguin, 2004, Maxims for Revolutionists, Education)
“The test of a man or woman’s breeding is how they behave in a quarrel.” – George Bernard Shaw
“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.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found in: Plays by George Bernard Shaw By George Bernard Shaw, Contributed By Eric Bentley, Norman Lloyd, Penguin, 2004, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Act II)
“Life levels all men: death reveals the eminent.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found in: Plays by George Bernard Shaw By George Bernard Shaw, Penguin Group USA, Incorporated, 1960, Maxims for Revolutionists, Fame)
“Hell is paved with good intentions, not with bad ones. All men mean well.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found in: Plays by George Bernard Shaw By George Bernard Shaw, Penguin Group USA, Incorporated, 1960, Maxims for Revolutionists, Good Intentions)
“Beware of his false knowledge: it is more dangerous than ignorance.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found in: Plays by George Bernard Shaw By George Bernard Shaw, Eric Bentley, Norman Lloyd, Penguin, 2004, Maxims for Revolutionists, Education)
“Activity is the only road to knowledge.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found in: Plays by George Bernard Shaw By George Bernard Shaw, Eric Bentley, Norman Lloyd, Penguin, 2004, Maxims for Revolutionists, Education)
“Vice is waste of life. Poverty, obedience, and celibacy are the canonical vices.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found in: Plays by George Bernard Shaw By George Bernard Shaw, Eric Bentley, Norman Lloyd, Penguin, 2004, Maxims for Revolutionists, Virtues And Vices)
(Another source of the quote is found in: The Complete Prefaces Of Bernard Shaw, Paul Hamlyn, 1965, P. 191)
“There are no secrets except the secrets that keep themselves.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found in: Back to Methuselah By George Bernard Shaw, The Floating Press, 2010, Part III The Thing Happens, P. 330)
“In one word, to conceive. That is the word that means both the beginning in imagination and the end in creation.” – George Bernard Shaw
(The quote is also found in: Back to Methuselah By George Bernard Shaw, Limited Editions Club, 1939, Part I, In The Beginning, Act I, P. 11)
(Another source of the quote is found in: The Works Of George Bernard Volume 16 By Bernard Shaw, Constable 1930, P. 10)
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