Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Shaw argues titles only help mediocre people, burden great ones, and shame the unworthy.
In plain terms
Titles separate the average, annoy the great, and honor the unfit.
What can you take from it?
Ignore titles and judge by merit.

Where it applies

  • corporate culture
  • politics
  • social judgment

Putting it to work

  • focus on work
  • ignore labels

Questions to consider

  • Do titles matter to you?
  • What defines your worth?

Another view

It assumes titles have no practical utility in organizing society.

More from George Bernard Shaw

  1. Beware of the man who does not return your blow: he neither forgives you nor allows you to forgive yourself.

    Permalink to quote #121
  2. It is dangerous to be sincere unless you are also stupid.[1]

    Permalink to quote #123
  3. Imprisonment is as irrevocable as death.

    Permalink to quote #120

Related quotes

  1. 'Every man a king, but no one wears a crown.'

    Huey P. LongHuey P. Long quote #5
  2. They [the Americans] equally detest the pageantry of a king, and the supercilious hypocrisy of a bishop.

    JuniusJunius quote #9
  3. Must is not a word to be used to princes! Little man, little man, if your late father were here he would never dare utter such a word.

    Elizabeth I of EnglandElizabeth I of England quote #10