A liar begins with making falsehood appear like truth, and ends with making truth itself appear like falsehood.
William Shenstone (1714-1763) English poet
(Attributed)
Love withers under constraint: its very essence is liberty: it is compatible neither with obedience, jealousy, nor fear.
Familiar acts are beautiful through love.
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) English poet
Prometheus Unbound, “The Earth,” Act IV, l. 403 (1819)
Our sincerest laughter
With some pain is fraught;
Our sweetest songs
Are those that tell of saddest thought.
Whether one has natural talent or not, any learning period requires the willingness to suffer uncertainty and embarrassment.
Gail Sheehy (1936-2020) American writer, journalist, editor
(Attributed)
If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we are not really living. Growth demands a temporary surrender of security.
Gail Sheehy (1936-2020) American writer, journalist, editor
Passages (1976)
A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.
John Augustus Shedd (1859-1928) American writer, educator
Salt from My Attic (1928)
Variants:
More information on this quotation here. Sometimes (mis)attributed to William Greenough Thayer Shedd.- "Ships in harbor are safe, but that is not what ships are built for."
- "A ship in port is safe. But that’s not what ships were built for." (used by Grace Hopper)
- "A ship is always safe at shore, but that is not what it is built for." (frequently misattributed to Albert Einstein)
When two people are under the influence of the most violent, most insane, most delusive and most transient of passions, they are required to swear that they will remain in that excited, abnormal and exhausting condition until death do them part.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
Getting Married, Preface (1908)
Full text.
A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
(Attributed)
The secret of being miserable is to have the leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not. The cure is occupation.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
(Attributed)
The savage bows down to idols of wood and stone: the civilized man to idols of flesh and blood.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
Man and Superman, “Maxims for Revolutionists,” “Idolatry” (1903)
Full text.
When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
Caesar and Cleopatra, Act 3 [Apollodorus] (1898)
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 (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
Man and Superman, Act I [Tanner] (1903)
Full text.
Poverty does not produce unhappiness: It produces degradation.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
(Attributed)
Every fool believes what his teachers tell him, and calls his credulity science or morality as confidently as his father called it divine revelation.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
Man and Superman, “Maxims for Revolutionists,” “Education” (1903)
Full text.
It is no use my liking or disliking; I do what must be done, and have no time to attend myself. That is not happiness, but it is greatness.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
Caesar and Cleopatra, Act IV [Cleopatra] (1898)
Full text. An variation on this is frequently quoted, but I haven't been able to find a source: "Forget about likes and dislikes. They are of no consequence. Just do what must be done. This may not be happiness, but it is greatness."
If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
(Attributed)
The churches must learn humility as well as teach it.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
Saint Joan, Preface
People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. 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 (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
Mrs. Warren s Profession, Act III (1893)
We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
Candida, Act I (1898)
All great truths begin as blasphemies.
A nation’s morals are like its teeth; when they’re rotten it hurts to touch them.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
(Attributed)
Perhaps the greatest social service that can be rendered by anybody to the country and to mankind is to bring up a family.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
(Attributed)
The liar’s punishment is not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
Quintessence of Ibsenism (1891)
There is nothing for us but to make it a point of honor to privilege heresy to the last bearable degree on the simple ground that all evolution in thought and conduct must at first appear as heresy and misconduct.
Custom will reconcile people to any atrocity; and fashion will drive them to acquire any custom.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
“Killing for Sport,” Nash’s Magazine (Sep 1914)
People become attached to their burdens sometimes more than the burdens are attached to them.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
Parents and Children, “Family Affection” (1914)
When a man wants to murder a tiger he calls it sport; when a tiger wants to murder him he calls it ferocity.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
Man and Superman, “Maxims for Revolutionists,” “Crime and Punishment” (1903)
Full text.
The trouble with her is that she lacks the power of conversation but not the power of speech.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
(Attributed)
The only service a friend can really render is to keep up your courage by holding up to you a mirror in which you can see a noble image of yourself.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
(Attributed)
This is the true joy in life, the being used up 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.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
Man and Superman, “Epistle Dedicatory” (1903)
(Source)
ANDERSON: My dear: in this world there is always danger for those who are afraid of it. There’s a danger that the house will catch fire in the night; but we shan’t sleep any the less soundly for that.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
The Devil’s Disciple, Act II (1897)
Full text.
Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
(Attributed)
Sometimes cited with the Americanized "insures." Also given as "Democracy is a system ensuring that the people are governed no better than they deserve." Frequently quoted, but never sourced.
Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
Man and Superman, “Maxims for Revolutionists: Liberty and Equality” (1903)
Full text.
Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
(Attributed)
He is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
Caesar and Cleopatra, Act II [Caesar] (1899)
A man differs from a microbe only in being further on the path.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
Back to Methuselah: A Metabiological Pentateuch, ch. 2 (1921)
A man learns to skate by staggering about making a fool of himself; indeed, he progresses in all things by making a fool of himself.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
(Attributed)
An election is a moral horror, as bad as battle except for the blood; a mud bath for every soul concerned.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
(Attributed)
If you take too long in deciding what to do with your life, you’ll find you’ve done it.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
(Attributed)
Unsourced. Also attributed to Pam Shaw.
Lack of money is the root of all evil.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
Man and Superman (1903)
We are members one of another; so that you cannot injure or help your neighbor without injuring or helping yourself.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
Androcles and the Lion, Preface (“The Alternative to Barabbas”) (1912)
THE SERPENT: You see things; and you say, “Why?” But I dream things that never were; and I say, “Why not?”
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
Back to Methuselah, 1.1 (1921)
The Serpent speaking to Eve. President John Kennedy quoted this addressing the Irish Parliament, Dublin (28 Jun. 1963). Sen. Robert Kennedy modified it for his campaign, as used by Sen. Edward Kennedy in his eulogy (1968): "Some men see things as they are and say, why; I dream things that never were and say, why not.”
All censorships exist to prevent any one from challenging current conceptions and existing institutions. All progress is initiated by challenging current conceptions, and executed by supplanting existing institutions. Consequently the first condition of progress is the removal of censorships.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Preface (1893)
(Source)
Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
The Doctor’s Dilemma, Act 5 [Ridgeon] (1906)
(Source)
Life is not meant to be easy, my child; but take courage — it can be delightful.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
Back to Methuselah, Part 5 [The He-Ancient] (1921)
(Source)
Crude classifications and false generalizations are the curse of organized life.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
(Attributed)
There’s more to life than a tiny tush, and you don’t die from embarrassment.
Carole Shaw (b. 1936) American singer, publisher, activist
(Attributed)
When asked the most important things she'd learned in life
Why are they always blaming everything on the rappers? Don’t blame the youth. Blame the wicked culture. Every Sunday night on TV, Angela Lansbury taught these kids violence on Murder, She Wrote … Blame the reruns of Have Gun, Will Travel and Gunsmoke.
Rev. Al Sharpton (b. 1954) American clergyman and activist
(Attributed)
on media coverage of Gangsta Rappers
I met a new girl at a barbecue, very pretty, a blond I think. I don’t know, her hair was on fire, and all she talked about was herself. You know these kind of girls: ‘I’m hot. I’m on fire. Me, me, me.’ You know. ‘Help me, put me out.’ Come on, could we talk about me just a little bit?
Garry Shandling (1949-2016) American comedian
(Attributed)
REGAN: Jesters do oft prove prophets.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
King Lear, Act 5, sc. 3, l. 83 (5.3.83) (1606)
(Source)
Frequently misattributed (with "often" for "oft") to Joseph Addison.
HENRY: Are these things then necessities?
Then let us meet them like necessities.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Henry IV, Part 2, Act 3, sc. 1, l. 94ff (3.1.94-95) (c. 1598)
(Source)
DUKE: The robbed that smiles steals something from the thief.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Othello, Act 1, sc. 3, l. 238 (1.3.238) (1603)
(Source)
GONZALO: Beseech you, sir, be merry. You have cause —
So have we all — of joy, for our escape
Is much beyond our loss. Our hint of woe
Is common; every day some sailor’s wife,
The masters of some merchant, and the merchant
Have just our theme of woe. But for the miracle —
I mean our preservation — few in millions
Can speak like us. Then wisely, good sir, weigh
Our sorrow with our comfort.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Tempest, Act 2, sc. 1, l. 1ff (2.1.1-9) (1611)
(Source)