George Bernard Shaw

Give a man health and a course to steer, and he’ll never stop to trouble about whether he’s happy or not.

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

You have no more right to consume happiness without producing it, than you do to consume wealth without producing it.

As long as I have a want, I have a reason for living. Satisfaction is death.

Physically there is nothing to distinguish human society from the farm-yard except that children are more troublesome and costly than chickens and calves and that men and women are not so completely enslaved as farm stock.

Gambling promises the poor what property performs for the rich, something for nothing.

The world is his who has money to go over it.

Society is a hospital of incurables.

Standing beneath this immense, bejeweled, star-spangled dome, breathing in its life, boundaries fall away, possibilities open up and my wings unfold. And I thought that you were the one who was the angel.

You may not always have a comfortable life and you will not always be able to solve all of the world’s problems at once but don’t ever underestimate the importance you can have because history has shown us that courage can be contagious and hope can take on a life of its own.

Most people think that aging is irreversible and we know that there are mechanisms even in the human machinery that allow for the reversal of aging, through correction of diet, through anti-oxidants, through removal of toxins from the body, through exercise, through yoga and breathing techniques, and through meditation.

That which we do not believe, we cannot adequately say; even though we may repeat the words ever so often.

My dear friend, clear your mind of cant [excessive thought]. You may talk as other people do: you may say to a man, Sir, I am your most humble servant. You are not his most humble servant. You may say, These are bad times; it is a melancholy thing to be reserved to such times. You don’t mind the times … You may talk in this manner; it is a mode of talking in Society; but don’t think foolishly.

Our tastes greatly alter. The lad does not care for the child’s rattle, and the old man does not care for the young man’s whore.

Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.

No man can be a pure specialist without being in the strict sense an idiot.

Patience makes lighter What sorrow may not heal.

Some men are born to own, and can animate all their possessions. Others cannot: their owning is not graceful; seems to be a compromise of their character: they seem to steal their own dividends.

Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.

As an example to others, and not that I care for moderation myself, it has always been my rule never to smoke when asleep and never to refrain when awake.

Rarely promise, but, if lawful, constantly perform.