George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) was an Irish playwright, novelist and essayist, awarded a Nobel Prize for literature, an Oscar for Pygmalion and was co-founder of the London School of Economics.
He is best remembered today for his plays, Pygmalion, as well as The Devil's Disciple, Arms and the Man, Candida, Man and Superman and Heartbreak House.
He was awarded a Nobel Prize for literature in 1925 which at first he refused, later agreeing to accept it upon the condition that the cash reward be used to finance the translation of fellow playwright August Strindberg's work from Swedish to English.
He was also awarded an Oscar for his work on the 1938 film version of Pygmalion (not to be confused with the later adaptation as My Fair Lady)
Shaw revolutionized British theater in the 1920's, turning the focus from light, frothy sentimental material to issues of politics, religion and morality.
A fervent socialist and political activist, Shaw championed equal rights for men and women of the British working class. His concerns for social problems were always laced with rich, incisive humor touch that served to lighten the message.
He was world renowned when he died, his many pithy witticisms and observations known as "Shavians".
Below is a selection of my favorite Shavians.
You see things; and you say,
'Why?' But I dream things that never
were; and I say, "Why not?" (Most often attributed to Robert
Kennedy, as ““Some people see things as they are and say why? I dream things that never were and say, why
not?” this quote appears in Shaw’s "Back to Methuselah" (1921), part
1, act 1)
I can forgive Alfred Nobel
for having invented dynamite, but only a fiend in human form could have
invented the Nobel Prize.
When a stupid man is doing
something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty.
Patriotism is your conviction
that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in
it.
If you can't get rid of the
skeleton in your closet, you'd best teach it to dance.
There are two tragedies in
life. One is to lose your heart's desire. The other is to gain it.
It is a curious sensation:
the sort of pain that goes mercifully beyond our powers of feeling. When your
heart is broken, your boats are burned: nothing matters any more. It is the end
of happiness and the beginning of peace.
Do not waste your time on Social
Questions. What is the matter with the poor is Poverty; what is the matter with
the rich is Uselessness.
A life spent making mistakes
is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.
Criminals do not die by the
hands of the law. They die by the hands of other men.
Lack of money is the root of
all evil.
England and America are two
countries separated by a common language.
Gambling promises the poor
what property performs for the rich--something for nothing.
I often quote myself. It adds spice to my conversation.
Imagination is the beginning
of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last
you create what you will.
When you prevent me from
doing anything I want to do, that is persecution; but when I prevent you from
doing anything you want to do, that is law, order and morals.
Remember that you are a human
being with a soul and the divine gift to articulate speech: that your native
language is the language of Shakespeare and Milton...” (Pygmalion)
The great secret, Eliza, is
not having bad manners or good manners or any other particular sort of manners,
but having the same manner for all human souls: in short, behaving as if were
in Heaven, where there are no third-class carriages, and one soul is as good as
another.” (Pygmalion)
My way of joking is to
tell the truth. It's the funniest joke in the world.
Americans adore me and will
go on adoring me until I say something nice about them.
The worst sin toward our
fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that's the
essence of inhumanity.
No comments:
Post a Comment