George Bernard Shaw

Even the youngest of us may be wrong sometimes.

The most anxious man in a prison is the governor.

You have to choose between trusting to the natural stability of gold and the natural stability of the honesty and intelligence of the members of the Government. And, with due respect for these gentlemen, I advise you, as long as the Capitalist system lasts, to vote for gold.

Marriage is popular because it combines the maximum of temptation with the maximum of opportunity.

Virtue consists, not in abstaining from vice, but in not desiring it.

He’s a man of great common sense and good taste – meaning thereby a man without originality or moral courage.

He is armed without who is innocent within, be this thy screen, and this thy wall of brass.

Men are generally more careful of the breed of their horses and dogs than of their children.

A good memory and a tongue tied in the middle is a combination which gives immortality to conversation.

Depend upon it that if a man talks of his misfortunes there is something in them that is not disagreeable to him; for where there is nothing but pure misery there never is any recourse to the mention of it.

Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.

Harold, like the rest of us, had many impressions which saved him the trouble of distinct ideas.

To say that a man is your Friend, means commonly no more than this, that he is not your enemy. Most contemplate only what would be the accidental and trifling advantages of Friendship, as that the Friend can assist in time of need by his substance, or his influence, or his counsel. Even the utmost goodwill and harmony and practical kindness are not sufficient for Friendship, for Friends do not live in harmony merely, as some say, but in melody.

Our humanity is a poor thing, except for the divinity that stirs within us.

To do something, say something, see something, before anybody else – these are things that confer a pleasure compared with which other pleasures are tame and commonplace, other ecstasies cheap and trivial.

I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society.

The sun is but a morning star.

I have been breaking silence these twenty-three years and have hardly made a rent in it.

The fibers of all things have their tension and are strained like the strings of an instrument.

All promise outruns performance.

My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it.