George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), Dublin-born playwright, novelist, and socialist,
lived in England after he was about twenty.
Here are quite well annotated Shaw quotations from many sources,
with some toned-down adaptations added here and there, and all are put into a mold that suggests advancements or waking up (eye-openings too).
 Taking advice from George Bernard Shaw and ceasing to be a musical amateur (or dropping dead) through it, seems like no small error
THAT A believer is happier than a sceptic is
no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. [George
Bernard Shaw, Androcles and the Lion, Preface (1916)]
We have not lost faith, but we have transferred it from God to the medical profession.
[George Bernard Shaw]
When a thing is funny, search it carefully for a hidden truth. [George Bernard Shaw]
The philosopher is Nature's pilot. [George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman (act III)]
Why should we take advice on sex from the pope? If he knows anything about it, he
shouldn't! [George Bernard Shaw]
England and America are two countries separated by a common language. [George Bernard
Shaw]
You'll never have a quiet world till you knock out the patriotism . . . [With George
Bernard Shaw, O'Flaherty, V.C.]
Which painting in the National Gallery would I save if there was a fire? The one nearest
the door of course. [George Bernard Shaw]
Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious
when people laugh. [George Bernard Shaw, The Doctor's Dilemma]
Hell is full of musical amateurs. [George Bernard Shaw]
If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance. [George
Bernard Shaw]
I am a Millionaire. That is my religion. [George Bernard Shaw, Major Barbara (1907) act
2]
No man who is occupied in doing a very difficult thing, and doing it very well, ever
loses his self-respect. [George Bernard Shaw]
The first condition of progress is the removal of censorship. [George Bernard Shaw,
Preface to Mrs. Warren's Profession]
Titles distinguish the mediocre, embarrass the superior, and are disgraced by the
inferior. [George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman]
In my experience the men who want something for nothing are invariably Christians.
[George Bernard Shaw, The Nobleman, in Saint Joan, sc. 4]
The world is populated in the main by people who should not exist. [George Bernard
Shaw]
There can be two tragedies in life: one is not to get your heart's desire. The other is
to get it. [With George Bernard Shaw]
Nobody can say a word against Greek: it
stamps a man at once as an educated gentlemen. [George Bernard Shaw, Major Barbara] (2)
What is the matter with the rich is Uselessness. [George Bernard Shaw]
We can learn from history that we seem to learn nothing from history. [With George
Bernard Shaw]
Hell is not all paved with bad intentions. [Cf. George Bernard Shaw]
There are few loves sincerer than the love of food. [Cf. George Bernard Shaw, Man and
Superman (1903) act 1]
 Reputation depends on people who
give it
HAPPINESS of credulity can be cheap and
dangerous. [With George Bernard Shaw, Androcles and the Lion, Preface (1916)] (3)
I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week.
[George Bernard Shaw]
Money is a most important thing in the world. [Cf. George Bernard Shaw]
Do not do unto others as you would that they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be
the same. [George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman (1903), Maxims for Revolutionists]
Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all others because you
were born in it. [George Bernard Shaw]
Seemingly unreasonable people attempt to adapt the world to themselves. Much progress,
therefore, depends on such people. [With George Bernard Shaw]
Give women the vote, and in five years there will be a crushing tax on bachelors. [George
Bernard Shaw]
Martyrdom... is one way in which a man can become famous without ability. [With George Bernard Shaw, The Devil's Disciple (1901) act 3] (4)
Lack of money is the root of much evil. [With George Bernard Shaw]
My situation is . . . death is better than cannibalism. My will contains
directions for my funeral, which will be followed not by mourning coaches, but by oxen,
sheep, flocks of poultry, and a small travelling aquarium of live fish, all wearing white
scarf's in honour of the man who perished rather than eat his fellow creatures. [George
Bernard Shaw]
If all economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion. [George
Bernard Shaw]
The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got
it. [George Bernard Shaw]
The only man who behaved sensibly was my tailor; he took my measurement anew every time
he saw me, while all the rest went on with their old measurements and expected them to fit
me. [George Bernard Shaw]
You see things; and you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say, Why
not? [George Bernard Shaw, Back to Methuselah (1921), part 1, act 1]
Virtue is insufficient temptation. [George Bernard Shaw]
What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of
the child. [George Bernard Shaw]
 Observe that managing "ten things in the sky" (including coming projects) can give rise to very hard work
YOU ARE . . . the most bigoted of
obstructionists in science itself. When it comes to getting a move on you are all of the
same opinion: stop it, flog it, hang it, dynamite it, stamp it out. [George Bernard Shaw, a
naturalist, addressing other members of the Caravan of the Curious, in The Adventures of the
Black Girl in Her Search for God (1932). From The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations] (5)
When I was young I observed that nine out of every ten things I did were failures, so I
did ten times more work. [George Bernard Shaw]
A doctor's reputation is made by the number
of eminent men who die under his care. [George Bernard Shaw] 
Beware of the man whose God is in the skies. [George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman
(1903) Maxims for Revolutionists] (7)
Common people do not pray; they only beg. [George Bernard Shaw, Misalliance (1910),
quoted from Encarta Book of Quotations]
Education: A succession of eye-openers each involving the repudiation of some previously
held belief. [George Bernard Shaw, attributed]
- Taking advice from George Bernard Shaw and ceasing to be a musical amateur (or
dropping dead) through it, seems like no small error.
- Reputation depends on what sort of people that give it.
- Observe that managing "ten things in the sky" (including coming projects) can
give rise to very hard work.
Taking advice from drop-dead-Bernard of plenty of hard work, depends on trust that is put
into that one. I would not succumb to faith like that, but rather go on and play not his
game, or "music", but my own.
While Shaw was still a music critic, he was dining with a friend in a restaurant that
provided for entertainment an orchestra that was at best mediocre. The leader, recognising
Shaw, wrote him a note asking him what he would like the orchestra to play next.
"Dominoes," replied Shaw.
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