“Chloroform has done a lot of mischief. It's enabled every fool to be a surgeon.”
1910s, The Doctor's Dilemma (1911)
George Bernard Shaw:
413
quotes
39
likes
George Bernard Shaw Quotes
“The Bible is most dangerous book ever written on earth, keep it under lock and key.”
From Why You Should Never be a Christian (1987) by Ishaq 'Kunle Sanni and Dawood Ayodele Amoo.
Misattributed
“Undershaft: My religion? Well, my dear, I am a Millionaire. That is my religion.”
Act II
1900s, Major Barbara (1905)
“The secret of forgiving everything is to understand nothing.”
Leo
1900s, Getting Married (1908)
“My specialty is being right when other people are wrong.”
You Never Can Tell, Act IV
1890s
“No elaboration of physical or moral accomplishment can atone for the sin of parasitism.”
#116
1900s, Maxims for Revolutionists (1903)
“B: What do you think what a person I am?”
"The role of the character initiating the proposal in this anecdote has been assigned to George Bernard Shaw, Winston Churchill, Groucho Marx, Mark Twain, W. C. Fields, Bertrand Russell, H.G. Wells, Woodrow Wilson and others. However, the earliest example of this basic story found by QI did not spotlight any of the persons just listed [...]
[...] QI hypothesizes that this anecdote began as a fictional tale that was intended to be humorous with an edge of antagonism. The story was retold for decades. Famous men were substituted into the role of the individual making the proposition. Occasionally, the individual who received the proposition was also described as famous, but typically she remained unidentified.
[...] In January 1937 the syndicated newspaper columnist O. O. McIntyre printed a version of the anecdote that he says was sent to him as a newspaper clipping. This tale featured a powerful Canadian-British media magnate and politician named Max Aitken who was also referred to as Lord Beaverbrook [MJLB]":
Someone sends me a clipping from Columnist Lyons with this honey:
“They are telling this of Lord Beaverbrook and a visiting Yankee actress. In a game of hypothetical questions, Beaverbrook asked the lady: ‘Would you live with a stranger if he paid you one million pounds?’ She said she would. ‘And if be paid you five pounds?’ The irate lady fumed: ‘Five pounds. What do you think I am?’ Beaverbrook replied: ‘We’ve already established that. Now we are trying to determine the degree.”
Quote investigator http://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/03/07/haggling/ cited 2013-07-10
Misattributed
“The great advantage of a hotel is that it's a refuge from home life.”
You Never Can Tell, Act II
1890s
“Socialism urged to find dictator,” Berkeley Daily Gazette (Nov. 30, 1927)
1890s
“I know I began as a passion and have ended as a habit, like all husbands.”
The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles, Act 2 (1934)
1940s and later
1900s, Major Barbara (1905)
That is my last word. Think over it.
The Apple Cart (1928) Preface
1920s
The Serpent, in Pt. V
1920s, Back to Methuselah (1921)
“I can't talk religion to a man with bodily hunger in his eyes.”
Act II
1900s, Major Barbara (1905)
1900s, Love Among the Artists (1900)
Answers to Nine Questions (September 1896), answers to nine questions submitted by Clarence Rook, who had interviewed him in 1895
1890s
Version given in Irrepressible Churchill: A Treasury of Winston Churchill’s Wit by Kay Halle, 1966
Apocryphal, from 1946. See discussion at Winston Churchill#Misattributed, and detailed discussion at “ Here are Two Tickets for the Opening of My Play. Bring a Friend—If You Have One http://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/03/25/two-tickets-shaw/”, Garson O’Toole, Quote Investigator http://quoteinvestigator.com/, (March 25, 2012)
Misattributed
#149
1900s, Maxims for Revolutionists (1903)
“You cannot be a hero without being a coward.”
Preface http://books.google.com/books?id=u4xiAAAAMAAJ&q=%22You+cannot+be+a+hero+without+being+a+coward%22&pg=PR13#v=onepage
1900s, John Bull's Other Island (1907)
“Scratch an Englishman and find a Protestant.”
Saint Joan : A Chronicle Play In Six Scenes And An Epilogue (1923)
1920s
1900s, Love Among the Artists (1900)
The Serpent, in Pt I : In the Beginning
1920s, Back to Methuselah (1921)
#160
1900s, Maxims for Revolutionists (1903)
“Beware of the man whose god is in the skies.”
#83
1900s, Maxims for Revolutionists (1903)
“I like a bit of a mongrel myself, whether it's a man or a dog; they're the best for every day.”
Episode I
1910s, Misalliance (1910)
The Daily Chronicle on the 7 March 1917 https://www.rte.ie/centuryireland/index.php/articles/george-bernard-shaw-joyriding-on-the-front.
1910s, The Technique of War (1917)
Pt. V
1920s, Back to Methuselah (1921)
1900s, Love Among the Artists (1900)
“It's well to be off with the Old Woman before you're on with the New.”
Act II
1890s, The Philanderer (1893)
“The more a man possesses over and above what he uses, the more careworn he becomes.”
#108
1900s, Maxims for Revolutionists (1903)
Mrs. George
1900s, Getting Married (1908)
“Reason enslaves all whose minds are not strong enough to master her.”
#125
1900s, Maxims for Revolutionists (1903)
“Journalists are too poorly paid in this country to know anything that is fit for publication.”
Preface
1900s, Getting Married (1908)
Preface to English Prisons Under Local Government http://books.google.com/books?id=81YwAAAAYAAJ by Sydney and Beatrice Webb (1922)
1940s and later
“The quality of a play is the quality of its ideas.”
"The Play of Ideas", New Statesman (6 May 1950)
1940s and later
#23
1900s, Maxims for Revolutionists (1903)
Preface: "The Personal Sentimental Basis of Monogamy" http://www.enotalone.com/article/13714.html
1900s, Getting Married (1908)
“Riches and Art are spurious receipts for the production of Happiness and Beauty.”
#104
1900s, Maxims for Revolutionists (1903)
As quoted in Socialism and Superior Brains: The Political Thought of Bernard Shaw by Gareth Griffith (1993). Originally from Bernard Shaw, The News Chronicle, “The Blackshirt Challenge,” (Jan. 1934)
1930s
As quoted in Days with Bernard Shaw (1949) by Stephen Winsten
1940s and later
“Economy is the art of making the most of life. The love of economy is the root of all virtue.”
Source: 1900s, Man and Superman (1903), p. 235
#101
1900s, Maxims for Revolutionists (1903)
