The quotations of

George Bernard Shaw

Irish playwright, critic, and polemicist

1856–1950

99 quotes, most often on Love, Morality and Clever Jabs.

It is necessary for the welfare of society that genius should be privileged to utter sedition, to blaspheme, to outrage good taste, to corrupt the youthful mind, and generally to scandalize one’s uncles.
- Genius
Which painting in the National Gallery would I save if there was a fire? The one nearest the door of course.
- Art
- Clever Jabs
A reasonable man adapts himself to his environment. An unreasonable man persists in attempting to adapt his environment to suit himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that’s the essence of inhumanity.
The Devil’s Disciple, Act II (1901)
- Good & Evil
- Morality
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.
Maxims for Revolutionists (1903), #124
- Change
Must then a Christ perish in torment in every age to save those that have no imagination?
Saint Joan (1923), Epilogue (Cauchon)
- Christianity
The confusion of marriage with morality has done more to destroy the conscience of the human race than any other single error.
Man and Superman (1903), p. 121
- Marriage
- Morality
There is no love sincerer than the love of food.
Man and Superman (1903), p. 23
- Food
- Love
My way of joking is to tell the truth. It’s the funniest joke in the world.
John Bull’s Other Island (1907), Act II
- Humor
- Truth & Lies
I was a cannibal for twenty-five years. For the rest I have been a vegetarian. It was Shelley who first opened my eyes to the savagery of my diet.
Interview “Who I Am, and What I Think”, in Frank Harris’s periodical The Candid Friend (May 1901), reprinted in Sixteen Self Sketches, 1949, p. 53; quoted in Desmond King-Hele, Shelley: His Thought and Work, 1984, p. 42
- Food
Those who understand evil pardon it.
Maxims for Revolutionists (1903), #167
- Forgiveness
- Good & Evil
Beware of the man whose god is in the skies.
Maxims for Revolutionists (1903), #83
- Anti-Religion
- God
Even the youngest of us may be wrong sometimes.
Love Among the Artists (1900)
- Comedy
- Youth
All professions are conspiracies against the laity.
The Doctor’s Dilemma (1911), Act I
- Clever Jabs
- Work
The greatest of evils and the worst of crimes is poverty.
Major Barbara (1905), Preface
- Money

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