George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw (July 26, 1856 – November 2, 1950) was an Irish playwright and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925.

Quotes

• "The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it."
• "Whilst we have prisons it matters little which of us occupy the cells."
• "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man."
• "Do not do unto others as you expect they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same."
• "Most people would rather die sooner than think. In fact, they do so."
• "Lack of money is the root of all evil."
• "Youth is wasted on the young."
• "Democracy is a system ensuring that the people are governed no better than they deserve."
• "I can forgive Alfred Nobel for inventing dynamite, but only a fiend in human form could have invented the Nobel Prize."
• "I have always held the religion of Muhammad in high estimation because of its wonderful vitality. It is the only religion which appears to me to possess that assimilating capacity to the changing phase of existence which can make itself appeal to every age. I have studied him - the wonderful man and in my opinion far from being an anti-Christ, he must be called the Saviour of Humanity. I believe that if a man like him were to assume the dictatorship of the modern world, he would succeed in solving its problems in a way that would bring it the much needed peace and happiness: I have prophesied about the faith of Muhammad that it would be acceptable to the Europe of tomorrow as it is beginning to be acceptable to the Europe of today."
• "The main difference between the opposition of Islam to Hinduism and the opposition between Protestant and Catholic is that the Catholic persecutes as fiercely as the Protestant when he has the power; but Hinduism cannot persecute, because all the Gods---and what goes deeper, the no Gods---are to be found in its Temples."
• "Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few."
• "The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality."
• "This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one, the being a force of nature, instead of a selfish, feverish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community, and it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no brief candle to me, it is a sort of splendid torch which I've 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."
• (To a woman who wrote to him that she wanted to have children with him because, she was beautiful and he was very smart. Therefore, their children would be smart and beautiful.) "What if our children are as ugly as I am and as silly as you are?"
• "Irish history is something no Englishman should forget and no Irishman should remember."