George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright, socialist, and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama. Over the course of his life he wrote more than 60 plays. Nearly all his plays address prevailing social problems, but each also includes a vein of comedy that makes their stark themes more palatable. In these works Shaw examined education, marriage, religion, government, health care, and class privilege.
An ardent socialist, Shaw was angered by what he perceived to be the exploitation of the working class. He wrote many brochures and speeches for the Fabian Society. He became an accomplished orator in the furtherance of its causes, which included gaining equal rights for men and women, alleviating abuses of the working class, rescinding private ownership of productive land, and promoting healthy lifestyles. For a short time he was active in local politics, serving on the London County Council.
In 1898, Shaw married Charlotte Payne-Townshend, a fellow Fabian, whom he survived. They settled in Ayot St. Lawrence in a house now called Shaw's Corner.
He is the only person to have been awarded both a Nobel Prize for Literature (1925) and an Oscar (1938). The former for his contributions to literature and the latter for his work on the film "Pygmalion" (adaptation of his play of the same name). Shaw wanted to refuse his Nobel Prize outright, as he had no desire for public honours, but he accepted it at his wife's behest. She considered it a tribute to Ireland. He did reject the monetary award, requesting it be used to finance translation of Swedish books to English.
Shaw died at Shaw's Corner, aged 94, from chronic health problems exacerbated by injuries incurred by falling.
“Professor Henry Higgins: Oh, Pickering, for God's sake stop being dashed and do something! ”
“Professor Henry Higgins: She's an owl, sickened by a few days of *my* sunshine. ”
“You see things; you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say 'Why not?”
“When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty.”
“Youth is wasted on the young.”
“Pasteboard pies and paper flowers are being banished from the stage by the growth of that power of accurate observation which is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it....”
“The thought of two thousand people crunching celery at the same time horrified me.”
“Your weak side, my diabolic friend, is that you have always been a gull: you take Man at his own valuation. Nothing would flatter him more than your opinion of him. He loves to think of himself as bold and bad. He is neither one nor the other: he is only a coward. Call him tyrant, murderer, pirate, bully; and he will adore you, and swagger about with the consciousness of having the blood of the old sea kings in his veins. Call him liar and thief; and he will only take an action against you for libel. But call him coward; and he will go mad with rage: he will face death to outface that stinging truth. Man gives every reason for his conduct save one, every excuse for his crimes save one, every plea for his safety save one: and that one is his cowardice. Yet all his civilization is founded on his cowardice, on his abject tameness, which he calls his respectability. There are limits to what a mule or an ass will stand; but Man will suffer himself to be degraded until his vileness becomes so loathsome to his oppressors that they themselves are forced to reform it.”
“Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”
“There is no love sincerer than the love of food.”
“Without art, the crudeness of reality would make the world unbearable.”
“There are those who look at things the way they are and ask why... I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?”
“There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why? I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?”
“Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.”
“I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the community and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.”
“Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”
“My religious convictions and scientific views cannot at present be more specifically defined than as those of a believer in creative evolution. I desire that no public monument or work of art or inscription or sermon or ritual service commemorating me shall suggest that I accepted the tenets peculiar to any established church or denomination nor take the form of a cross or any other instrument of torture or symbol of blood sacrifice.[From the will of GBS]”
“Banyak orang mengeluh tentang problem-problem yang selalu menghadang mereka untuk mencapai kesuksesan. Tetapi aku tidak percaya akan adanya problem-problem didunia ini justru yang mencari-cari problem yang mereka inginkan, dan bila tidak mereka temukan, mereka menciptakan problem-problem itu”
“This is the true joy in life, the being used 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.”
“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.”
“If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance.”
“In heaven an angel is no one in particular.”
“All great truths begin as blasphemies.”
“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 continuously until death do them part.”
“Gentle Jesus, meek and mild' is a snivelling modern invention, with no warrant in the gospels.”
“The liar's punishment is, not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else.”
“Do not do unto others as you would that they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same.”
“While we ourselves are the living graves of murdered beasts, how can we expect any ideal conditions on this earth?”
“The man who writes about himself and his own time is the only man who writes about all people and all time.”
“Make it a rule never to give a child a book you would not read yourself.”
“Animals are my friends...and I don't eat my friends.”
“A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.”