As a teacher, as a propagandist, Mr. Shaw is no good at all, even in his own generation. But as a personality, he is immortal.
— Max Beerbohm
I have known no man of genius who had not to pay, in some affliction or defect either physical or spiritual, for what the gods had given him.
We must stop talking about the American dream and start listening to the dreams of Americans.
No fine work can be done without concentration and self-sacrifice and toil and doubt.
No Roman ever was able to say, 'I dined last night with the Borgias'.
When hospitality becomes an art it loses its very soul.
People are either born hosts or born guests.
Good sense about trivialities is better than nonsense about things that matter.
Men of genius are not quick judges of character. Deep thinking and high imagining blunt that trivial instinct by which you and I size people up.
Anything that is worth doing has been done frequently. Things hitherto undone should be given, I suspect, a wide berth.
Most women are not as young as they are painted.
To give and then not feel that one has given is the very best of all ways of giving.
It seems to be a law of nature that no man, unless he has some obvious physical deformity, ever is loth to sit for his portrait.
To mankind in general Macbeth and Lady Macbeth stand out as the supreme type of all that a host and hostess should not be.
I need no dictionary of quotations to remind me that the eyes are the windows of the soul.
Some people are born to lift heavy weights, some are born to juggle golden balls.
Of all the objects of hatred, a woman once loved is the most hateful.
All fantasy should have a solid base in reality.
To destroy is still the strongest instinct in nature.
To give an accurate and exhaustive account of that period would need a far less brilliant pen than mine.
The Non-Conformist Conscience makes cowards of us all.
You will find my last words in the blue folder.
The delicate balance between modesty and conceit is popularity.
Nobody ever died of laughter.
I was a modest, good-humoured boy. It is Oxford that has made me insufferable.
You will find that the woman who is really kind to dogs is always one who has failed to inspire sympathy in men.
People who insist on telling their dreams are among the terrors of the breakfast table.
A hundred eyes were fixed on her, and half as many hearts lost to her.
It is easier to confess a defect than to claim a quality.
Incongruity is the mainspring of laughter.
Only mediocrity can be trusted to be always at its best.
One might well say that mankind is divisible into two great classes: hosts and guests.
To say that a man is vain means merely that he is pleased with the effect he produces on other people.
There is much to be said for failure. It is much more interesting than success.
Humility is a virtue, and it is a virtue innate in guests.
