George Bernard Shaw was very capable of laughing at himself and didn’t take himself too seriously. He knew that while his reputation as a writer was important in terms of getting his books published, in reality it didn’t matter to him. Here are some of the best Shaw quotes on reputation:
Few people think more than two or three times a year; I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week.
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I do not know what I think until I write it.
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Life is no brief candle to me; it is a sort of splendid torch which I’ve got a hold of for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.
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I showed my appreciation of my native land in the usual Irish way by getting out of it as soon as I possibly could.
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George Bernard Shaw when asked on his deathbed:
“What would you do if you could live your life over again?”
Shaw: “I’d like to be the person I could have been but never was.”
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While browsing in a second-hand bookshop one day, George Bernard Shaw was amused to find a copy of one of his own works which he himself had inscribed for a friend:
“To —-, with esteem, George Bernard Shaw.”
He immediately purchased the book and returned it to the friend with a second inscription:
“With renewed esteem, George Bernard Shaw.”
I can forgive Alfred Nobel for having invented dynamite, but only a fiend in human form could have invented the Nobel Prize.
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All my life, affection has been showered upon me, and every forward step I have made has been taken in spite of it.
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People always get tired of one another. I grow tired of myself whenever I am left alone for ten minutes, and I am certain that I am fonder of myself than anyone can be of another person.
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“I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend … if you have one.”
George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill
“Cannot possibly attend first night; will attend second, if there is one.”
Churchill’s response
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I’ve posed nude for a photographer in the manner of Rodin’s Thinker, but I merely looked constipated.
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Human beings are the only animals of which I am thoroughly and cravenly afraid.
I often quote myself. It adds spice to my conversation.
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The longer I live the more I see that I am never wrong about anything, and that all the pains I have so humbly taken to verify my notions have only wasted my time.
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My reputation grows with every failure.
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Which painting in the National Gallery would I save if there was a fire?
The one nearest the door of course.
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Read about George Bernard Shaw’s life and career
george-bernard-shaw.html
quotes.html
