20 George Bernard Shaw Quotes on Life

George Bernard Shaw quotes on life

14. You must not suppose, because I am a man of letters, that I never tried to earn an honest living.

20. As long as I have a want, I have a reason for living. Satisfaction is death.

55. This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of Nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.

61. A lifetime of happiness! No man alive could bear it: it would be hell on earth.

80. But Heaven cannot be described by metaphor. Thither I shall go presently, because there I hope to escape at last from lies and from the tedious, vulgar pursuit of happiness, to spend my eons in contemplation.

81. Senor Commander: I do not blame your disgust: a picture gallery is a dull place for a blind man. But even as you enjoy the contemplation of such romantic mirages as beauty and pleasure; so would I enjoy the contemplation of that which interests me above all things namely, Life: the force that ever strives to attain greater power of contemplating itself. What made this brain of mine, do you think? Not the need to move my limbs; for a rat with half my brains moves as well as I. Not merely the need to do, but the need to know what I do, lest in my blind efforts to live I should be slaying myself.

96. Here there is nothing but love and beauty. Ugh! it is like sitting for all eternity at the first act of a fashionable play, before the complications begin. Never in my worst moments of superstitious terror on earth did I dream that Hell was so horrible. I live, like a hairdresser, in the continual contemplation of beauty, toying with silken tresses. I breathe an atmosphere of sweetness, like a confectioner's shopboy.

99. The philosopher is Nature's pilot. And there you have our difference: to be in hell is to drift: to be in heaven is to steer.

101. As to your Life Force, which you think irresistible, it is the most resistible thing in the world for a person of any character. But if you are naturally vulgar and credulous, as all reformers are, it will thrust you first into religion, where you will sprinkle water on babies to save their souls from me; then it will drive you from religion into science, where you will snatch the babies from the water sprinkling and inoculate them with disease to save them from catching it accidentally; then you will take to politics, where you will become the catspaw of corrupt functionaries and the henchman of ambitious humbugs; and the end will be despair and decrepitude, broken nerve and shattered hopes, vain regrets for that worst and silliest of wastes and sacrifices, the waste and sacrifice of the power of enjoyment: in a word, the punishment of the fool who pursues the better before he has secured the good.

109. There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart's desire. The other is to get it.

115. Marriage is popular because it combines the maximum of temptation with the maximum of opportunity.

160. Do not try to live for ever. You will not succeed.

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

169. What is life but a series of inspired follies? The difficulty is to find them to do. Never lose a chance: it doesn't come every day.

182. Everything happens to everybody sooner or later if there is time enough.

185. Life is not meant to be easy, my child but take courage: it can be delightful.

208. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.

222. Life isn't about finding yourself, it's about creating yourself.

     Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.

226. The average age (life expectancy) of a meat eater is 63. I am on the verge of 85 and still work as hard as ever. I have lived quite long enough and I am trying to die; but I simply cannot do it. A single beefsteak would finish me; but I cannot bring myself to swallow it. I am oppressed with a dread of living forever. That is the only disadvantage of vegetarianism.

229. The longer I live the more I see that I am never wrong about anything, and that all the pains I have so humbly taken to verify my notions have only wasted my time.[1]