Quotes from George Bernard Shaw

Character actor' is a technical term denoting a clever stage performer who cannot act, and therefore makes an elaborate study of the disguises and stage tricks by which acting can be grotesquely simulated.

La science est une nouvelle religion et la désinfection est son eau bénite.

Eliza has no use for the foolish romantic tradition that all women love to be mastered, if not actually bullied and beaten.

Loyalty in a critic is corruption.

The golden rule is that there are no golden rules

I owe all my originality, such as it is, to my determination not to be a literary man. Instead of belonging to a literary club I belong to a municipal council. Instead of drinking and discussing authors and reviews, I sit on committees with capable practical greengrocers and bootmakers... Keep away from books and from men who get their ideas from books, and your own books will always be fresh.

Dac? nu eÈ™ti în stare s? preÈ›uieÈ™ti ceea ce ai, atunci caut? s? ai ceea ce eÈ™ti în stare s? preÈ›uieÈ™ti.

Forget about likes and dislikes. They are of no consequence. Just do what must be done. This may not be happiness but it is greatness.

Dying is a troublesome business: there is pain to be suffered, and it wrings one's heart; but death is a splendid thing—a warfare accomplished, a beginning all over again, a triumph. You can always see that in their faces.

Some men dream of things as they are and say; Why? I dream of things that never were and say; Why not?

HECTOR Well, I don't mean to be drowned like a rat in a trap. I still have the will to live. What am I to do? CAPT. SHOTOVER Do? Nothing simpler. Learn your business as an Englishman. HECTOR And what may my business as an Englishman be, pray? CAPT. SHOTOVER Navigation. Learn it and live; or leave it and be damned.

I never asked to be a king: it was pushed on me. So if you are going to say 'Son of St Louis: gird on the sword of your ancestors, and lead us to victory' you may spare your breath to cool your porridge; for I cannot do it. I am not built that way; and there is an end of it.

The biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has been accomplished.

The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicism by those who don't have it.

Professor Henry Higgins: She's an owl, sickened by a few days of *my* sunshine.

Opera is when a tenor and soprano want to make love, but are prevented from doing so by a baritone

We shall never be able to keep the secret unless everybody knows what it is.

To be fool enough to believe a ramping, stamping, thumping lie: that is what you call sincerity!

But your lordship knows very well that I am not attached to the soil in a vulgar manner, like a serf. Still, I have a feeling about it; [with growing agitation] and I am not ashamed of it; and [rising wildly] by God, if this goes on any longer I will fling my cassock to the devil, and take arms myself, and strangle the accursed witch with my own hands.

There's only one way of escaping trouble; and that's killing things. Henry Higgins, Act V, Pygmalion

It is easy-terribly easy-to shake a man's faith in himself. To take advantage of that to to break a man's spirit is Devil's work.

Hypatia:...I don't want to be good; and I don't want to be bad: I just don't want to be bothered about either good or bad: I want to be an active verb. Lord Summerhays: An active verb? Oh, I see.An active verb signifies to be, to do or to suffer. Hypatia: Just so; how clever of you! I want to be; I want to do; and I'm game to suffer if it costs that. But stick here doing nothing but being good and nice and ladylike I simply won't.

Then the violet coffin moved again and went in feet first. And behold! The feet burst miraculously into streaming ribbons of garnet coloured lovely flame, smokeless and eager, like pentecostal tongues, and as the whole coffin passed in it sprang into flame all over; and my mother became that beautiful fire.

Under Socialism, you would not be allowed to be poor. You would be forcibly fed, clothed, lodged, taught, and employed whether you liked it or not. If it were discovered that you had not character and industry enough to be worth all this trouble, you might possibly be executed in a kindly manner; but whilst you were permitted to live, you would have to live well.