George Bernard Shaw was one of the greatest writers Ireland has ever produced. He was also one of the best philosophers and thinkers of his day. Here are some of Shaw’s best quotes on philosophy:
The only secrets are the secrets that keep themselves.
There are no secrets better kept than the secrets that everybody guesses.
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Take care to get what you like or you will be forced to like what you get.
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The best way to get your point across is to entertain.
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What is life but a series of inspired follies? The difficulty is to find them to do. Never lose a chance: it doesn’t come every day.
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It is not pleasure that makes life worth living. It is life that makes pleasure worth having.
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The only way to avoid being miserable is not to have enough leisure to wonder whether you are happy or not. The secret of being miserable is to have leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not. The cure for it is occupation, because occupation means pre-occupation; and the pre-occupied person is neither happy nor unhappy, but simply alive and active. That is why it is necessary to happiness that one should be tired.
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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.
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Give a man health and a course to steer, and he’ll never stop to trouble about whether he’s happy or not.
Nothing is worth doing unless the consequences may be serious.
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He who has never hoped can never despair.
Thus, I blush to add, you can not be a philosopher and a good man, though you may be a philosopher and a great one.
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Greatness is one of the sensations of littleness.
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People become attached to their burdens sometimes more than the burdens are attached to them.
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Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.
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You cannot have power for good without having power for evil too. Even mother’s milk nourishes murderers as well as heroes.
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The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
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Man can climb to the highest summits, but he cannot dwell there long.
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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. Doing what needs to be done may not make you happy, but it will make you great.
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Read about George Bernard Shaw’s life and career
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