George Bernard Shaw citations

Page 7

“The greatest doer must also be the greatest dreamer”

“La vie égalise tous les hommes; la mort en révèle les éminents.”

“Celui qui donne de l'argent qu'il n'a pas gagné est généreux avec le travail d'autrui.”

“Méfie-toi de l'homme dont le Dieu est dans les cieux.”

“Il y a deux sortes de savants : les spécialistes, qui connaissent tout sur rien, et les philosophes, qui ne connaissent rien sur tout.”

“Celui qui peut, agit. Celui qui ne peut pas, donne des leçons.”

“Ne fais pas aux autres ce que tu voudrais qu'ils te fassent. Leurs goûts peuvent être différents.”

“Ce que personne ne croit a besoin d'être démontré aussi souvent que possible.”

“L'art du gouvernement consiste à organiser l'idolâtrie.”

“Il y a cinquante manières de dire Oui, et cinq cents de dire Non, mais il n'y a qu'une manière de les écrire.”

“L'homme raisonnable s'adapte au monde; l'homme déraisonnable essaye d'adapter le monde à lui. Tout progrès dépend donc de l'homme déraisonnable.”

“La bureaucratie consiste en fonctionnaires; l'aristocratie, en idoles; la démocratie, en idolâtres.”

“Dans la vie, il y a deux catégories d’individus :
Ceux qui regardent le monde tel qu’il est et se demandent pourquoi.
Ceux qui imaginent le monde tel qu’il devrait être et qui se disent : pourquoi pas?”

“… a man of great common sense and good taste, meaning thereby a man without originality or moral courage.”

“A man learns to skate by staggering about and making a fool of himself. Indeed he progresses in all things by resolutely making a fool of himself.”

“The English are not a very spiritual people, so they invented cricket to give them some idea of eternity.”

“She has mischievious moments when she wishes she could get him alone on a desert island…”

“Custom will reconcile people to any atrocity; and fashion will drive them to acquire any custom.”

“The best way to get your point across is to entertain.”

“I hear you say "Why?" Always "Why?" You see things; and you say "Why?" But I dream things that never were; and I say "Why not?"”

“A learned man is an idler who kills time by study.”

“Men are wise in proportion, not to their experience, but to their capacity for experience. If we could learn from mere experience, the stones of London would be wiser than its wisest men.”

“One man that has a mind and knows it can always beat ten men who haven't and don't.”

“Which painting in the National Gallery would I save if there was a fire? The one nearest the door of course.”

“Don't think you can frighten me by telling me that I am alone. France is alone. God is alone. And the loneliness of God is His strength.”

“Assassination is the extreme form of censorship; and it seems hard to justify an incitement to it on anti-censorial principles.”

“I am afraid we must make the world honest before we can honestly tell our children that honesty is the best policy.”

“I like flowers, I also like children, but I do not chop their heads off and keep them in bowls of water around the house.”

“Lack of money is the root of all evil.”

“HIGGINS. Have you no morals, man?
DOOLITTLE [unabashed] Cant afford them, Governor. Neither could you if you was as poor as me.”

“It's all that the young can do for the old, to shock them and keep them up to date.”

“Science never solves a problem without creating ten more”

“What we want to see is the child in pursuit of the knowledge not the knowledge in pursuit of the child.”

“There is no satisfaction in hanging a man who does not object to it.”

“Everything happens to everybody sooner or later if there is time enough.”

“It is a woman's business to get married as soon as possible, and a man's
to keep unmarried as long as he can.”

“Only on paper has humanity yet achieved glory, beauty, truth, knowledge, virtue, and abiding love.”

“It is not pleasure that makes life worth living. It is life that makes pleasure worth having.”

“The man with a toothache thinks everyone happy whose teeth are sound. The poverty stricken man makes the same mistake about the rich man.”

“Most people go to their grave with their music inside them.”

“I dislike feeling at home when I am abroad.”

“What is the matter with universities is that the students are school children, whereas it is of the very essence of university education that they should be adults.”