George Bernard Shaw: Trending quotes (page 2)
George Bernard Shaw trending quotes. Read the latest quotes in collection“Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.”
#25
1900s, Maxims for Revolutionists (1903)
Source: Man and Superman
The Two Pioneers
1890s, Quintessence Of Ibsenism (1891; 1913)
“Must then a Christ perish in torment in every age to save those that have no imagination?”
Saint Joan : A Chronicle Play In Six Scenes And An Epilogue (1923)
1920s
“I have my own soul. My own spark of divine fire.”
Source: Pygmalion & My Fair Lady
“Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.”
#17
1900s, Maxims for Revolutionists (1903)
“Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”
Variant: Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.
Preface
1910s, The Doctor's Dilemma (1911)
Variant: A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.
Context: Attention and activity lead to mistakes as well as to successes; but a life spent in making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.
“My way of joking is to tell the truth. It's the funniest joke in the world.”
Act II
Source: 1900s, John Bull's Other Island (1907)
“You have learnt something. That always feels at first as if you had lost something.”
Act III
Source: 1900s, Major Barbara (1905)
Jesus, as portrayed in Preface, Difference Between Reader And Spectator
1930s, On the Rocks (1933)
Context: The kingdom of God is striving to come. The empire that looks back in terror shall give way to the kingdom that looks forward with hope. Terror drives men mad: hope and faith give them divine wisdom. The men whom you fill with fear will stick at no evil and perish in their sin: the men whom I fill with faith shall inherit the earth. I say to you Cast out fear. Speak no more vain things to me about the greatness of Rome. … You, standing for Rome, are the universal coward: I, standing for the kingdom of God, have braved everything, lost everything, and won an eternal crown.
“If you're going to tell people the truth, you better make them laugh; otherwise they'll kill you.”
Credited to Shaw in the lead in to the mockumentary C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America (2004) and other recent works, but this or slight variants of it are also sometimes attributed to W. C. Fields, Charlie Chaplin, and Oscar Wilde. It might possibly be derived from Shaw's statement in John Bull's Other Island (1907): "My way of joking is to tell the truth. It's the funniest joke in the world."
Another possibility is that it is derived from Shaw's characteristic of Mark Twain: "He has to put things in such a way as to make people who would otherwise hang him believe he is joking."
Variants:
If you are going to tell people the truth, you'd better make them laugh. Otherwise, they'll kill you.
If you're going to tell people the truth, you'd better make them laugh. Otherwise, they'll kill you.
Disputed