George Bernard Shaw

I dread success. To have succeeded is to have finished one’s business on earth, like the male spider, who is killed by the female the moment he has succeeded in his courtship. I like a state of continual becoming, with a goal in front and not behind.

Science is always wrong, it never solves a problem without creating ten more.

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

The art of government is the organisation of idolatry.

Censorship ends in logical completeness when nobody is allowed to read any books except the books nobody reads.

The greatest evils and the worst of crimes is poverty; our first duty, a duty to which every other consideration should be sacrificed, is not to be poor.

When many demons are struggling inside you, the one that you feed is the one that will become the strongest. You alone are responsible for what you feed.

I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.

Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of congress; but I repeat myself.

The philosopher is Nature’s pilot. And there you have our difference: to be n hell is to drift: to be in heaven is to steer.

Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance.

Loyalty to the country always. Loyalty to the government when it deserves it.

There is no character, howsoever good and fine, but it can be destroyed by ridicule, howsoever poor and witless. Observe the ass, for instance: his character is about perfect, he is the choicest spirit among all the humbler animals, yet see what ridicule has brought him to. Instead of feeling complimented when we are called an ass, we are left in doubt.

If it matters, it will hurt like knives or wrap and lift you in the most immeasurable joy. Or both. One thing is certain, you will feel intensely alive.

A man who has no office to go to – I don’t care who he is – is a trial of which you can have no conception.

Events can neither be regarded as a series of adventures nor strung on the thread of a preconceived moral. They must obey their own laws.

Remember who you are.

I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.

What is once well done is done forever.

The man who writes about himself and his own time is the only man who writes about all people and all time.

The one who prosperity takes too much delight in will be the most shocked by reverses.