Bernard Shaw Quotes – Insights from the Playwright

The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.

Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.

Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.

Success does not consist in never making mistakes but in never making the same one a second time.

The only man who behaves sensibly is my tailor; he takes my measurements anew each time he sees me. The rest go on with their old measurements and expect me to fit them.

You see things; and you say, ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say, ‘Why not?’

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.

The possibilities are numerous once we decide to act and not react.

The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it.

Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass; it’s about learning to dance in the rain.

A gentleman is one who puts more into the world than he takes out.

The biggest problem with the world today is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.

The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can’t find them, make them.

It is not socialism that is corrupting Britain; it is European bureaucracy.

Bernard Shaw Quotes – Insights from the Playwright part 2

The moment we want to believe something, we suddenly see all the arguments for it, and become blind to the arguments against it.

Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.

Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world.

If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance.

There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart’s desire. The other is to gain it.

The man who writes about himself and his own time is the only man who writes about all people and all time.

The only service a friend can really render is to keep up your courage by holding up to you a mirror in which you can see a noble image of yourself.

Success does not consist in never making mistakes, but in never making the same one a second time.

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.

A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.

If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance.

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.

Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine, and at last, you create what you will.

Lack of money is the root of all evil.

People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can’t find them, make them.

The first condition of progress is the removal of censorship.

The test of a man’s religious life and character is not what he does in the exceptional moments of life, but what he does in the ordinary times when there is nothing tremendous or exciting on.

People are too prone to think that all things are possible. They forget that every sense imposes its own limits on the mind and that ignorance is the invisible yoke.

Marriage is an alliance entered into by a man who can’t sleep with the window shut, and a woman who can’t sleep with the window open.

Silence is the most perfect expression of scorn.

The only way to avoid being miserable is not to have enough leisure to wonder whether you are happy or not.

Life levels all men. Death reveals the eminent.

My way of joking is to tell the truth; it’s the funniest joke in the world.

You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul.

Money opens all doors.

Freedom means responsibility. That’s why most men dread it.

When two people are under the influence of the most violent, most insane, most delusive, and most transient of passions, they are required to swear that they will remain in that excited, abnormal and exhausting condition continuously until death do them part.

A fool’s brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry.

You see things; and you say ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say ‘Why not?’

The secret of being miserable is to have leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not.