George Bernard Shaw

A Native American elder once described his own inner struggles in this manner: Inside of me there are two dogs. One of the dogs is mean and evil. The other dog is good. The mean dog fights the good dog all the time. When asked which dog wins, he reflected for a moment and replied, The one I feed the most. On Other Peoples Expectations: The only man who behaved sensibly was my tailor; he took my measurement anew every time he saw me, while all the rest went on with their old measurements and expected them to fit me.

The art of government is the organization of idolatry. The bureaucracy consists of functionaries; the aristocracy, of idols; the democracy, of idolaters. The populace cannot understand the bureaucracy: it can only worship the national idols.

Martyrdom is the only way a man can become famous without ability.

Patriotism is a pernicious, psychopathic form of idiocy.

If you must hold yourself up to your children as an object lesson, hold yourself up as a warning and not an example.

It is a woman’s business to get married as soon as possible, and a man’s to keep unmarried as long as he can.

The hour of departure has arrived and we go our ways; I to die, and you to live. Which is better? Only God knows.

If you develop rules, never have more than ten.

When you’ve worked hard, and done well, and walked through that doorway of opportunity, you do not slam it shut behind you. You reach back, and you give other folks the same chances that helped you succeed.

Writers are the engineers of human souls.

There is nothing in the world like a persuasive speech to fuddle the mental apparatus.

There is one topic peremptorily forbidden to all well-bred, to all rational mortals, namely, their distempers. If you have not slept, or if you have slept, or if you have headache, or sciatica, or leprosy, or thunder-stroke, I beseech you, by all angels, to hold your peace, and not pollute the morning.

I only desire sincere relations with the worthiest of my acquaintance, that they may give me an opportunity once in a year to speak the truth.

A cynic can chill and dishearten with a single word.

If we live truly, we shall see truly.

The heart is forever inexperienced.

Like bees, they must put their lives into the sting they give.

The sovereign is called a tyrant who knows no laws but his caprice.

Once made equal to man, woman becomes his superior.

Look before you leap for as you sow, ye are like to reap.

Our knowledge is the amassed thought and experience of innumerable minds.