George Bernard Shaw

“Nobody could stand an eternity of Heaven.”

“Take care to get what you like or you will be forced to like what you get.”

“When a man says money can do anything, that settles it: he hasn't got any.”

“Capitalism has destroyed our belief in any effective power but that of self interest backed by force.”

“Do not waste your time on Social Questions. What is the matter with the poor is Poverty; what is the matter with the rich is Uselessness.”

“Marriage is good enough for the lower classes: they have facilities for desertion that are denied to us.”

“Do not do unto others as you expect they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same.”

“My method of getting a play across the footlights is like a revolver shooting: every line has a bullet in it and comes with an explosion.”

“What we want to see is the child in pursuit of the knowledge not the knowledge in pursuit of the child.”

“Men are wise in proportion, not to their experience, but to their capacity for experience.”

“There is no satisfaction in hanging a man who does not object to it.”

“What is the use of writing plays, what is the use of writing anything, if there is not a will which finally moulds chaos itself into a race of gods.”

“I'm an atheist and I thank God for it.”

“Except during the nine months before he draws his first breath, no man manages his affairs as well as a tree does.”

“Nothing is worth doing unless the consequences may be serious.”

“A perpetual holiday is a good working definition of hell.”

“Hegel was right when he said that we learn from history that man can never learn anything from history.”

“נפשו הפוריטנית, השרירית, המקובעת־נודדת (המשתקפת בצורה מעולה בדברי ההלל של היגנס לאינטלקט ב'פיגמליון'), טיפחה בו סלידה מכל הדברים, בין אם שירים או המצאות, שעוצבו כדי להקל על המצב האנושי מבלי לנסות לשפרו בפועל.”

“בקרב רוב הכותבים, סגנון הוא ברכה, הזמנה, הורדת הגשר הנע שבין האמן והעולם. ל־שו לא היה זמן לתחבולות כאלו. בניגוד לרוב בני ארצו, הוא תיעב חינניות, שהחשיב אותה כעדות של חולשה כרונית הפכפכה.”

“אתה שונא פרחים?”