Democracy is a form of government that substitutes election by
the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.
[To William Douglas] Go on writing plays, my boy. One of these
days a London producer will go into his office and say to his
secretary, "Is there a play from Shaw this morning?" and when she
says, "No," he will say, "Well then, we'll have to start on the
rubbish." And that's your chance my boy.
I dread success. To have succeeded is to have finished one's
business on earth, like the male spider, who is killed by the
female the moment he has succeeded in his courtship. I like a
state of continual becoming, with a goal in front and not behind.
[From "The Man of Destiny"]
Napoleon: What shall we do with this soldier, Guiseppe? Everything
he says is wrong.
Guiseppe: Make him a general, Excellency, and then everything he
says will be right.
Sex is the poor man's opera.
The English have no respect for their language, and will not
teach their children to speak 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.
There is no satisfaction in hanging a man who does not object
to 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.