George Bernard Shaw

You have no more right to consume happiness without producing it, than you do to consume wealth without producing it.

It is dangerous to be sincere unless you are also stupid.

We mustn’t be stiff and stand-off, you know. We must be thoroughly democratic, and patronize everybody without distinction of class.

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

The perfect love affair is one which is conducted entirely by post.

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.

Woman is a ray of God. She is not that earthly beloved: she is creative, not created.

Painting was called silent poetry and poetry speaking painting.

Sir, I have no objection to a man’s drinking wine, if he can do it in moderation. I found myself apt to go to excess in it, and therefore, after having been for some time without it, on account of illness, I thought it better not to return to it. Every man is to judge for himself, according to the effects which he experiences.

Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us.

Failure is success if we learn from it.

Little minds have little worries, big minds have no time for worries.

It’s not burn baby burn, but learn, baby, learn, so that you can earn, baby, earn.

Half a man’s wisdom goes with his courage.

From the deepest desires often come the deadliest hate.

I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always have plenty of music. It seems to infuse strength into my limbs and ideas into my brain. Life seems to go on without effort, when I am filled with music.

When you do the wrong thing, knowing it is wrong, you do so because you haven’t developed the habit of effectively controlling or neutralizing strong inner urges that tempt you, or because you have established the wrong habit and don’t know how to eliminate them effectively.

Happiness is not a state to arrive at, rather, a manner of traveling.

To act from pure benevolence is not possible for finite human beings, Human benevolence is mingled with vanity, interest, or some other motive.

As a rule, adversity reveals genius and prosperity hides it.

The jealous are troublesome to others, but torment to themselves.