George Bernard Shaw

Hell is full of musical amateurs.

Patriotism is a pernicious, psychopathic form of idiocy.

A little learning is a dangerous thing, but we must take that risk because a little is as much as our biggest heads can hold.

To me the sole hope of human salvation lies in teaching Man to regard himself as an experiment in the realization of God, to regard his hands as God’s hand, his brain as God’s brain, his purpose as God’s purpose. He must regard God as a helpless Longing, which longed him into existence by its desperate need for an executive organ.

How can you dare teach a man to read until you’ve taught him everything else first?

The man with a toothache thinks everyone happy whose teeth are sound. The poverty-stricken man makes the same mistake about the rich man.

The fibers of all things have their tension and are strained like the strings of an instrument.

Thunder is good, thunder is impressive; but it is lightning that does the work.

Men are what their mothers made them.

I cannot tell you any spiritual truth that you don’t know already. All I can do is remind you of what you have forgotten.

I think that somehow, we learn who we really are and then live with that decision.

There is nothing you can say in answer to a compliment. I have been complimented myself a great many times, and they always embarrass me-I always feel that they have not said enough.

It is not where you start but how high you aim that matters for success.

The drama’s laws, the drama’s patrons give, for we that live to please, must please to live.

He that hath knowledge spareth his words.

We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake . . . by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep. I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor.

That strong mother doesn’t tell her cub ‘Son, stay weak so the wolves can get you’. She says, ‘Toughen up, this is reality we are living in’.

Don’t order any black things. Rejoice in his memory; and be radiant: leave grief to the children. Wear violet and purple. Be patient with the poor people who will snivel: they don’t know; and they think they will live for ever, which makes death a division instead of a bond.

Though I can make my extravaganzas appear credible, I cannot make the truth appear so.

I think a compliment ought to always precede a complaint, where one is possible, because it softens resentment and insures for the complaint a courteous and gentle reception.

Where grief is fresh, any attempt to divert it only irritates.