Poems List

It is impossible for an Englishman to open his mouth without making some other Englishman hate or despise him.

Pygmalion (1916) preface

2

The secret of being miserable is to have leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not. The cure for it is occupation.

Parents and Children (1914) ‘Children’s Happiness’

3

A perpetual holiday is a good working definition of hell.

Parents and Children (1914) ‘Children’s Happiness’

3

You’ll never have a quiet world till you knock the patriotism out of the human race.

O’Flaherty V.C. (1919)

1

Anarchism is a game at which the police can beat you.

Misalliance (1914)

2

You will never find an Englishman in the wrong. He does everything on principle. He

… supports his king on loyal principles and cuts off his king’s head on republican principles.

1

Self-sacrifice enables us to sacrifice other people without blushing.

Man and Superman (1903) ‘Maxims: Self-Sacrifice’

2

Take care to get what you like or you will be forced to like what you get.

Man and Superman (1903) ‘Maxims: Stray Sayings’

3

Youth, which is forgiven everything, forgives itself nothing: age, which forgives itself everything, is forgiven nothing.

Man and Superman (1903) ‘Maxims: Stray Sayings’

3

Every man over forty is a scoundrel.

Man and Superman (1903) ‘Maxims: Stray Sayings’

2

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