25 George Bernard Shaw Quotes

George Bernard Shaw was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1856. In 1876 he moved to London to write, but he struggled financially. In 1895, he became a theater critic for the Saturday Review and began writing plays of his own.

Bob Dylan and George Bernard Shaw are the only two people who have won a Nobel Prize for Literature and an Academy Award. Shaw won won his Nobel Prize for Literature for “Pygmalion” and his Academy Award for the screenplay of “Pygmalion”. 

His life’s work includes over 60 plays, as well as many essays, novels, and short stories.

I hope that you will enjoy this wonderful collection of George Bernard Shaw Quotes.

1. Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything. — George Bernard Shaw

2. Success does not consist in never making mistakes but in never making the same one a second time. — George Bernard Shaw

3. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can’t find them, make them. — George Bernard Shaw

4. Write your sad times in sand, write your good times in stone. — George Bernard Shaw

5. Some men see things as they are and ask why. Others dream things that never were and ask why not. — George Bernard Shaw

6. The moment we want to believe something, we suddenly see all the arguments for it, and become blind to the arguments against it. — George Bernard Shaw

7. Only fools repeat the same things over and over, expecting to obtain different results. — George Bernard Shaw

8. Promise yourself that you will be a success story, and I promise you that all the forces of the universe will unite to come to your aid; you might not feel today or for a while, but the longer you wait the bigger the prize. — George Bernard Shaw

9. Beware of false knowledge, it is more dangerous than ignorance. — George Bernard Shaw

10. The possibilities are numerous once we decide to act and not react. — George Bernard Shaw

11. People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it. — George Bernard Shaw

12. We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future. — George Bernard Shaw

13. A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul. — George Bernard Shaw

14. Both optimists and pessimists contribute to society. The optimist invents the aeroplane, the pessimist the parachute. — George Bernard Shaw

15. Just do what must be done. This may not be happiness but it is greatness. — George Bernard Shaw

16. Make it a rule never to give a child a book you would not read yourself. — George Bernard Shaw

17. The only way to avoid being miserable is not to have enough leisure to wonder whether you are happy or not. — George Bernard Shaw

18. Happy is the man who can make a living by his hobby. — George Bernard Shaw

19. Life is not meant to be easy my child, but take courage: it can be delightful. — George Bernard Shaw

20. We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing. — George Bernard Shaw

21. Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself. — George Bernard Shaw

22. Two percent of the people think; three percent of the people think they think; and ninety-five percent of the people would rather die than think. — George Bernard Shaw

23. Our lives are shaped not as much by our experiences as by our expectations. — George Bernard Shaw

24. Take care to get what you like or you will be forced to like what you get. — George Bernard Shaw

25. There is the eternal war between those who are in the world for what they can get out of it and those who are in the world to make it a better place for everybody to live in. — George Bernard Shaw