George Bernard Shaw

You have set up in New York Harbor a monstrous idol which you call Liberty. The only thing that remains to complete that monument is to put on its pedestal the inscription written by Dante on the gate of hell: All hope abandon ye who enter here.

Few of us have vitality enough to make any of our instincts imperious.

Lack of money is the root of all evil.

Self-denial is not a virtue, it is only the effect of prudence on rascality.

A broken heart is a very pleasant complaint for a man in London if he has a comfortable income.

My method is to take the utmost trouble to find the right thing to say, and then to say it with the utmost levity.

Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.

Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful; for beauty is God’s handwriting – a wayside sacrament. Welcome it in every fair face, in every fair sky, in every fair flower, and thank God for it as a cup of blessing.

The Artist is he who detects and applies the law from observation of the works of Genius, whether of man or Nature. The Artisan is he who merely applies the rules which others have detected.

There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart’s desire. The other is to gain it.

Courage is exhilarating.

We women are always in danger of living too exclusively in the affections; and though our affections are perhaps the best gifts we have, we ought also to have our share of the more independent life — some joy in things for their own sake. It is piteous to see the helplessness of some sweet women when their affections are disappointed — because all their teaching has been, that they can only delight in study of any kind for the sake of a personal love. They have never contemplated an independent delight in ideas as an experience which they could confess without being laughed at. Yet surely women need this defense against passionate affliction even more than men.

A wise man will make haste to forgive, because he knows the true value of time, and will not suffer it to pass away in unnecessary pain.

After the first blush of sin comes its indifference.

If a man can write a better book, preach a better sermon, or make a better mousetrap, than his neighbor, though he build his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door.

He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.

Life isn’t as serious as the mind makes it out to be.

How pleasant it is for a father to sit at his child’s board. It is like an aged man reclining under the shadow of an oak which he has planted.

Virtue is too often merely local.

Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit.

My reputation grows with every failure.