Explore Quotes by George Bernard Shaw

If any religion had a chance of ruling over England, nay Europe within the next hundred years, it could be Islam.

A miracle, my friend, is an event which creates faith.

I have my own soul. My own spark of divine fire.

The average age (longevity) of a meat eater is 63. I am on the verge of 85 and still work as hard as ever. I have lived quite long enough and am trying to die; but I simply cannot do it. A single beef-steak would finish me; but I cannot bring myself to swallow it. I am oppressed with a dread of living forever. That is the only disadvantage of vegetarianism.

The more I see of the moneyed classes, the more I understand the guillotine.

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

Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got a hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.

Only in books has mankind known perfect truth, love and beauty.

Custom will reconcile people to any atrocity, and fashion will drive them to acquire any custom.

Atrocities are not less atrocities when they occur in laboratories and are called medical research.

When the horrors of anarchy force us to set up laws that forbid us to fight and torture one another for sport, we still snatch at every excuse for declaring individuals outside the protection of law and torturing them to our hearts content.

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

For four wicked centuries the world has dreamed this foolish dream of efficiency; and the end is not yet. But the end will come.

I knew if I waited around long enough something like this would happen.

Liquor is the chloroform which enables the poor man to endure the painful operation of living.

While browsing in a second-hand bookshop one day, George Bernard Shaw was amused to find a copy of one of his own works which he himself had inscribed for a friend: "To ----, with esteem, George Bernard Shaw." He immediately purchased the book and returned it to the friend with a second inscription: "With renewed esteem, George Bernard Shaw.

All censorships exist to prevent anyone from challenging current conceptions and existing institutions. All progress is initiated by challenging current conceptions, and executed by supplanting existing institutions. Consequently, the first condition of progress is the removal of censorship.

I have very carefully studied Islam and the life of its Prophet (PBUH). I have done so both as a student of history and as a critic. And I have come to conclusion that Muhammad (PBUH) was indeed a great man and a deliverer and benefactor of mankind which was till then writhing under the most agonising Pain.

My main reason for adopting literature as a profession was that, as the author is never seen by his clients, he need not dress respectably.

The longer I live, the more I realize that I am never wrong about anything, and that all the pains I have so humbly taken to verify my notions have only wasted my time!

After all, the wrong road always leads somewhere.