George Bernard Shaw

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

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

Nothing is ever done in this world until men are prepared to kill one another if it is not done.

There is only one universal passion fear.

What is the matter with the poor is poverty; what is the matter with the rich is uselessness.

Great art is never produced for its own sake. It is too difficult to be worth the effort.

Men over forty are no judges of a book written in a new spirit.

Life is one long process of getting tired.

Wisdom is better than silver and gold. I was hopeless, now I’m on hope road.

The fickleness of the women I love is only equalled by the infernal constancy of the women who love me.

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

A heart well prepared for adversity in bad times hopes, and in good times fears for a change in fortune.

Poetry puts starch in your backbone so you can stand, so you can compose your life.

Be a little careful about your library. Do you foresee what you will do with it? Very little to be sure. But the real question is, What it will do with you?

Anger makes dull men witty – but it keeps them poor.

A man is not finished when he is defeated. He is finished when he quits.

How many attractions for us have our passing fellows in the streets, both male and female, which our ethics forbid us to express, which yet infuse so much pleasure into life. A lovely child, a handsome youth, a beautiful girl, a heroic man, a maternal woman, a venerable old man, charm us, though strangers, and we cannot say so, or look at them but for a moment.

We must train hard. It’s not about denying a weakness may exist but about denying its right to persist.

After the first blush of sin comes its indifference.

If a diplomat says yes, he means perhaps. If he says perhaps he means no. And if he says no, he’s the hell of a diplomat.

There is a crack in everything God has made.