Quotes by George Bernard Shaw

Lack of money is the root of all evil.

Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.

Martyrdom is the only way in which a man can become famous without ability.

Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it.

Reading made Don Quixote a gentleman. Believing what he read made him mad.

Self-sacrifice enables us to sacrifice other people without blushing.

Take the utmost trouble to find the right thing to say, and then say it with the utmost levity.

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

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

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.

When a thing is funny, search it carefully for a hidden truth.

You are going to let the fear of poverty govern your life and your reward will be that you will eat, but you will not live.

Youth is a wonderful thing. What a crime to waste it on children.

My method is to take the utmost trouble to find the right thing to say, and then to say it with the utmost levity.
"Answers to Nine Questions"

You see things; and you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say, "Why not?"
"Back to Methuselah" (1921), part 1, act 1

There are two tragedies in life. One is not to get your heart's desire. The other is to get it.
"Man and Superman" (1903), act 4

A lifetime of happiness! No man alive could bear it: it would be hell on earth.
"Man and Superman" (1903), act I

The more things a man is ashamed of, the more respectable he is.
"Man and Superman" (1903), act I

You'll never have a quiet world till you knock the patriotism out of the human race.
"Misalliance"