George Bernard Shaw

You are all fundamentalists with a top dressing of science. That is why you are the stupidest of conservatives and reactionists in politics and the most bigoted of obstructionists in science itself. When it comes to getting a move on you are all of the same opinion: stop it, flog it, hang it, dynamite it, stamp it out.

I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the community and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.

Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire; you will what you imagine; and at last you create what you will.

There are no secrets better kept than the secrets that everybody guesses.

We sing in a church, why can we not dance there?

Which painting in the National Gallery would I save if there was a fire? The one nearest the door of course.

The man who lets himself be bored is even more contemptible than the bore.

Words are but the signs of ideas.

A weed is a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.

We are always paid for our suspicion by finding what we suspect.

Perpetual modernness is the measure of merit in every work of art.

All styles are good except the tiresome kind.

Love can often be misguided and do as much harm as good, but respect can do only good. It assumes that the other person’s stature is as large as one’s own, his rights as reasonable, his needs as important.

Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased by tales, so is the other.

The quality of the imagination is to flow and not to freeze.

When any calamity has been suffered, the first thing to be remembered is how much has been escaped.

Do what good thou canst unknown, and be not vain of what ought rather to be felt than seen.

The noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees is the high road that leads him to England.

Love is indeed Heaven upon Earth; since Heaven above would not be Heaven without it: For where there is not Love; there is Fear: But perfect Love casts out Fear. And yet we naturally fear most to offend what we most Love. What we Love, we’ll Hear; what we Love, we’ll Trust; and what we Love, we’ll serve, ay, and suffer for too. If you love me (says our Blessed Redeemer) keep my Commandments. Why? Why then he’ll Love us; then we shall be his Friends; then he’ll send us the Comforter; then whatsoever we ask, we shall receive; and then where he is we shall be also, and that for ever. Behold the Fruits of Love; the Power, Vertue, Benefit and Beauty of Love! Love is above all; and when it prevails in us all, we shall all be Lovely, and in Love with God and one with another.

We ascribe beauty to that which is simple; which has no superfluous parts; which exactly answers its end; which stands related to all things; which is the mean of many extremes.

To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.