George Bernard Shaw

Democracy: The substitution of election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.

We know now that the soul is the body, and the body the soul. They tell us they are different because they want to persuade us that we can keep our souls if we let them make slaves of our bodies.

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

Don’t order any black things. Rejoice in his memory; and be radiant: leave grief to the children. Wear violet and purple. Be patient with the poor people who will snivel: they don’t know; and they think they will live for ever, which makes death a division instead of a bond.

Science becomes dangerous only when it imagines that it has reached its goal.

Choose silence of all virtues, for by it you hear other men’s imperfections, and conceal your own.

You affect your subconscious mind by verbal repetition.

People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

I am not able to instruct you. I can only tell that I have chosen wrong. I have passed my time in study without experience; in the attainment of sciences which can, for the most part, be but remotely useful to mankind. I have purchased knowledge at the expense of all the common comforts of life: I have missed the endearing elegance of female friendship, and the happy commerce of domestic tenderness.

It is not best that we should all think alike; it is a difference of opinion that makes horse races.

Baseball has the great advantage over cricket of being sooner ended.

Haven’t you learned yet that I put something more than whisky into my speeches.

We have more than we use.

All the variety, all the charm, all the beauty of life is made up of light and shadow.

Knowledge comes by eyes always open and working hands; and there is no knowledge that is not power.

A name pronounced is the recognition of the individual to whom it belongs. He who can pronounce my name aright, he can call me, and is entitled to my love and service.

His honest, patronizing pride in the good-will and respect of everybody about him was a safeguard even against foolish romance, still more against a lower kind of folly.

Strivers achieve what dreamers believe.

Any emotion, if it is sincere, is involuntary.

With the past, I have nothing to do; nor with the future. I live now.

And Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values, like you work hard for what you want in life. That your word is your bond; that you do what you say you’re going to do. That you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don’t know them and even if you don’t agree with them.