George Bernard Shaw on arguing with jerks

Never wrestle with pigs.  You both get dirty and the pig likes it.

~ George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw on welfare

A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.

~ George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw on mistakes

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.

~ George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw on the gold standard

You have to choose (as a voter) between trusting the natural stability of gold and the honesty and intelligence of members of government. And with due respect for these gentlemen, I advise you, as long as the capitalist system lasts, to vote for gold.

~ George Bernard Shaw, playwright and novelist, 1856-1950

George Bernard Shaw on politicians

He knows nothing; and he thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career. 

~ George Bernard Shaw, Major Barbara (1907)

George Bernard Shaw on freedom and responsibility

Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.

~ George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw on WWI

I see the people of England united in a fierce detestation of the views and acts of Prussian Junkerism. And I see the German people stirred to the depths by a similar antipathy to English Junkerism, and anger at the apparent treachery and duplicity of the attack made on them by us in their extremist peril from France and Russia. I see both nations duped, but alas! not quite unwillingly duped, by their Junkers and Militarists into wreaking on one another the wrath they should have spent in destroying Junkerism and Militarism in their own country.

~ George Bernard Shaw, "Common Sense About the War," 1914

George Bernard Shaw on socialism

I, as a Socialist, have had to preach, as much as anyone, the enormous power of the environment. We can change it; we must change it; there is absolutely no other sense in life than the task of changing it. What is the use of writing plays, what is the use of writing anything, if there is not a will which finally moulds chaos itself into a race of gods.

~ George Bernard Shaw, letter to Henry James, January 17, 1909