George Bernard Shaw

Both optimists and pessimists contribute to society. The optimist invents the airplane, the pessimist the parachute.

It is most unwise for people in love to marry.

I don’t want to talk grammar. I want to talk like a lady.

The only man I know who behaves sensibly is my tailor; he takes my measurements anew each time he sees me. The rest go on with their old measurements and expect me to fit them.

Rich men without convictions are more dangerous in modern society than poor women without chastity.

I dislike feeling at home when I am abroad.

God Almighty first planted a garden. And indeed, it is the purest of human pleasures.

We love to overlook the boundaries which we do not wish to pass.

The greatest glory in living lies in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.

I went to the Bach Choir concert and heard Mozart’s Requiem. I did not rise warmly to it. Then I heard an extract from Parsifal which I disliked very much. If Bach wriggles, Wagner writhes…

It is admirable to consider how many Millions of People come into, and go out of the World, Ignorant of themselves, and of the World they have lived in.

A man’s action is only a picture book of his creed.

The endearing elegance of female friendship.

Love has features which pierce all hearts, he wears a bandage which conceals the faults of those beloved. He has wings, he comes quickly and flies away the same.

Man is God’s highest present development. He is the latest thing in God.

You can free yourself from aging by reinterpreting your body and by grasping the link between belief and biology.

If your determination is fixed, I do not counsel you to despair. Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance.

Tis the good reader that makes the good book; in every book he finds passages which seem to be confidences or sides hidden from all else and unmistakably meant for his ear; the profit of books is according to the sensibility of the reader; the profound thought or passion sleeps as in a mine, until it is discovered by an equal mind and heart.

Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy the mad daughter of a wise mother. These daughters have too long dominated the earth.

I believe we are still so innocent. The species are still so innocent that a person who is apt to be murdered believes that the murderer, just before he puts the final wrench on his throat, will have enough compassion to give him one sweet cup of water.

It is very strange, and very melancholy, that the paucity of human pleasures should persuade us ever to call hunting one of them.