# George Bernard Shaw's best quotes (the ones he really wrote)

Mostly from the Maxims for Revolutionists at the end of Man and Superman (1903): Shaw's sharpest lines with their source, and without the famous ones he never wrote, like 'two countries divided by a common language'.

- 38 votes · 12 items
- Jul 15, 2020 · Jericho Torres
- https://even.best/en/l/4557/george-bernard-shaw-s-best-quotes-the-ones-he-really-wrote

## Top 12

1. **The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself.** (6 · ▲6 ▼0) — Maxims for Revolutionists (1903). It ends: 'Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.'
2. **Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.** (5 · ▲6 ▼1) — Maxims for Revolutionists (1903).
3. **Do not do unto others as you would expect they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same.** (5 · ▲5 ▼0) — Maxims for Revolutionists (1903).
4. **There is no love sincerer than the love of food.** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — Man and Superman (1903).
5. **No man can be a pure specialist without being in the strict sense an idiot.** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — Maxims for Revolutionists (1903).
6. **If you begin by sacrificing yourself to those you love, you will end by hating those to whom you have sacrificed yourself.** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — Maxims for Revolutionists (1903).
7. **He who desires a lifetime of happiness with a beautiful woman desires to enjoy the taste of wine by keeping his mouth always full of it.** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — Maxims for Revolutionists (1903).
8. **Martyrdom, sir, is what these people like: it is the only way in which a man can become famous without ability.** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — The Devil's Disciple (1897), Act II.
9. **Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.** (1 · ▲2 ▼1) — Maxims for Revolutionists (1903).
10. **In a stupid nation the man of genius becomes a god: everybody worships him and nobody does his will.** (1 · ▲2 ▼1) — Maxims for Revolutionists (1903).
11. **Youth, which is forgiven everything, forgives itself nothing: age, which forgives itself everything, is forgiven nothing.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Maxims for Revolutionists (1903).
12. **Economy is the art of making the most of life. The love of economy is the root of all virtue.** (-1 · ▲1 ▼2) — Man and Superman (1903).

How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.