Quotes By George Bernard Shaw

In an ugly and unhappy world the richest man can purchase nothing but ugliness and unhappiness.

No question is so difficult to answer as that to which the answer is obvious.

I dread success. To have succeeded is to have finished one's business on earth, like the male spider who is killed by the female the moment he has succeeded in his courtship. I like the state of continual becoming, with a goal in front and not behind.

Martyrdom, sir, is what these people like: it is the only way in which a man can become famous without ability.

If Despotism failed only for want of a capable benevolent despot, what chance has Democracy, which requires a whole population of capable voters.

Life at its noblest leaves mere happiness far behind; and indeed cannot endure it. Happiness is not the object of life: life has no object: it is an end in itself; and courage consists in the readiness to sacrifice happiness for an intenser quality of life.

Marriage is the most licentious of human institutions.

English is the easiest language to speak badly.

Marriage is popular because it combines the maximum of temptation with the maximum of opportunity.

A pessimist is a man who thinks everybody is as nasty as himself, and hates them for it.

Gambling promises the poor what property performs for the rich-something for nothing.

The sex illusion is not a fixed quantity: not what mathematicians call a constant. It varies from zero in my wife's case to madness in that of our stepsister.

Be like the sun and meadow, which are not in the least concerned about the coming winter.

Peace is not only better than war, but infinitely more arduous.

Imitation is not just the sincerest form of flattery - it's the sincerest form of learning.

Words are only postage stamps delivering the object for you to unwrap.

The novelties of one generation are only the resuscitated fashions of the generation before last.

The secret of being miserable is to have leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not. The cure for it is occupation, because occupation means pre-occupation; and the pre-occupied person is neither happy nor unhappy, but simply alive and active. That is why it is necessary to happiness that one should be tired.

The perfect love affair is one which is conducted entirely by post.

Nothing is worth doing unless the consequences may be serious.