Source: 1900s, Man and Superman (1903), p. 121
George Bernard Shaw: Trending quotes (page 9)
George Bernard Shaw trending quotes. Read the latest quotes in collection
George Bernard Shaw:
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“A man of my spiritual intensity does not eat corpses.”
George Bernard Shaw, quoted by Hesketh Pearson, George Bernard Shaw: His Life and Personality, 1942
1940s and later
“Forgive him, for he believes that the customs of his tribe are the laws of nature!”
Act II; sometimes paraphrased as: The customs of your tribe are not laws of nature.
1890s, Caesar and Cleopatra (1898)
Variant: Pardon him, Theodotus: he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature.
Context: THEODOTUS: Caesar: you are a stranger here, and not conversant with our laws. The kings and queens of Egypt may not marry except with their own royal blood. Ptolemy and Cleopatra are born king and consort just as they are born brother and sister.
BRITANNUS (shocked): Caesar: this is not proper.
THEODOTUS (outraged): How!
CAESAR (recovering his self-possession): Pardon him, Theodotus: he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature.
“There is only one religion, though there are a hundred versions of it.”
Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant, Vol. II, preface (1898)
1890s
“The United States and Great Britain are two countries separated by a common language.”
Widely attributed to Shaw begin31 (187ning in the 1940s, esp. after appearing in the November 1942 Reader’s Digest, the quotation is actually a variant of "Indeed, in many respects, she [Mrs. Otis] was quite English, and was an excellent example of the fact that we have really everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, language" from Oscar Wilde's 1887 short story "The Canterville Ghost".
Misattributed
Variant: The English and the Americans are two peoples divided by a common language.
“I learned long ago never to wrestle with a pig. … You get dirty and besides the pig likes it.”
Initially attributed to Cyrus S. Ching in Time, Vol. 56 (1950), p. 21.
Misattributed
Variant: Never wrestle with pigs. You both get dirty and the pig likes it.
Source: Mrs. Warren's Profession & Others