George Bernard Shaw Quotes

For this fine summer morning here are a few quotes by that great master of old, Mr. George Bernard Shaw:

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

"England and America are two countries separated by the same language."

"A man never tells you anything until you contradict him."

All censorships exist to prevent anyone from challenging current conceptions and existing institutions. All progress is initiated by challenging current conceptions, and executed by supplanting existing institutions. Consequently the first condition of progress is the removal of censorships. There is the whole case against censorships in a nutshell.

Assassination is the extreme form of censorship.

This is the true joy in life: Being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one, being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it what I can. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.

Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.

"You see things as they are and ask, 'Why?' I dream things as they never were and ask, 'Why not?'"

"Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh."

"Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it."

You'll never have a quiet world until you knock the patriotism out of the human race.

"All great truths begin as blasphemies."

We live in an atmosphere of shame. We are ashamed of everything that is real about us; ashamed of ourselves, of our relatives, of our incomes, of our accents, of our opinions, of our experience, just as we are ashamed of our naked skins.

There are no secrets better kept than the secrets that everybody guesses.

Source: Quoteland