George Bernard Shaw

The great secret, Eliza, is not having bad manners or good manners or any other particular sort of manners, but having the same manner for all human souls: in short, behaving as if you were in Heaven, where there are no third-class carriages, and one soul is as good as another.

It is easy – terribly easy – to shake a man’s faith in himself. To take advantage of that to break a man’s spirit is devil’s work.

People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can’t find them, make them.

If you strike a child, take care that you strike it in anger, even at the risk of maiming it for life. A blow in cold blood neither can nor should be forgiven.

The fact that a believer is happier than a sceptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality.

I’m an atheist and I thank God for it.

Life must be filled up, and the man who is not capable of intellectual pleasures must content himself with such as his senses can afford.

People of great position are servants times three, servants of their country, servants of fame, and servants of business.

One may make their house a palace of sham, or they can make it a home, a refuge.

I never thought much of the courage of a lion tamer. Inside the cage he is at least safe from people.

The first step, my son, which one makes in the world, is the one on which depends the rest of our days.

In taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior.

Truth is neither alive nor dead; it just aggravates itself all the time.

I’m out there to clean the plate. Once they’ve read what I’ve written on a subject, I want them to think, ‘That’s it!’ I think the highest aspiration people in our trade can have is that once they’ve written a story, nobody will ever try it again.

One thing you learn: if you want to reveal yourself, you also have to know where to stop.

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

The fact that a believer is happier than a sceptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality.

As to the adjective, when in doubt strike it out.

Many of the phenomena of Winter are suggestive of an inexpressible tenderness and fragile delicacy. We are accustomed to hear this king described as a rude and boisterous tyrant; but with the gentleness of a lover he adorns the tresses of Summer.

Do what you know and perception is converted into character.

We are all alike, on the inside.