# George Bernard Shaw - Quotes: 106 - Author page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw ## Books - [Arms and the Man](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw/arms-and-the-man.md) — 3 quotes - [Back to Methuselah](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw/back-to-methuselah.md) — 33 quotes - [Caesar and Cleopatra](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw/caesar-and-cleopatra.md) — 5 quotes - [Heartbreak House](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw/heartbreak-house.md) — 3 quotes - [John Bull's Other Island](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw/john-bulls-other-island.md) — 4 quotes - [Love Among The Artists](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw/love-among-the-artists.md) — 11 quotes - [Major Barbara](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw/major-barbara.md) — 13 quotes - [Man and Superman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw/man-and-superman.md) — 5 quotes - [Pygmalion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw/pygmalion.md) — 16 quotes - [Saint Joan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw/saint-joan.md) — 5 quotes - [The Doctor's Dilemma](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw/the-doctors-dilemma.md) — 8 quotes ## Recently added quotes > I had patience with them for many ages: they tried me very sorely. They did terrible things: they embraced death, and said that eternal life was a fable. I stood amazed at the malice and destructiveness of the things I had made... [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw/back-to-methuselah/i-had-patience.md) > They have redeemed themselves from their vileness, and turned away from their sins. Best of all, they are still not satisfied: the impulse I gave them in that day when I sundered myself in twain and launched Man and Woman on the earth still urges them: after passing a million goals they press on to the goal of redemption from the flesh, to the vortex freed from matter, to the whirlpool in pure intelligence that, when the world began, was a whirlpool in pure force. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw/back-to-methuselah/they-have-redeemed.md) > The body was the slave of the vortex; but the slave has become the master; and we must free ourselves from that tyranny. It is this stuff [indicating her body], this flesh and blood and bone and all the rest of it, that is intolerable. Even prehistoric man dreamed of what he called an astral body, and asked who would deliver him from the body of this death. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw/back-to-methuselah/the-body-was.md) > I can wait: waiting and patience mean nothing to the eternal. I gave the woman the greatest of gifts: curiosity. By that her seed has been saved from my wrath; for I also am curious; and I have waited always to see what they will do tomorrow. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw/back-to-methuselah/i-can-wait.md) > They have accepted the burden of eternal life. They have taken the agony from birth; and their life does not fail them even in the hour of their destruction. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw/back-to-methuselah/they-have-accepted.md) > I am justified. For I chose wisdom and the knowledge of good and evil; and now there is no evil; and wisdom and good are one. It is enough. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw/back-to-methuselah/i-am-justified.md) > I say, let them dread, of all things, stagnation; for from the moment I, Lilith, lose hope and faith in them, they are doomed. In that hope and faith I have let them live for a moment; and in that moment I have spared them many times. But mightier creatures than they have killed hope and faith, and perished from the earth; and I may not spare them for ever. I am Lilith: I brought life into the whirlpool of force, and compelled my enemy, Matter, to obey a living soul. But in enslaving Life's enemy I made him Life's master; for that is the end of all slavery; and now I shall see the slave set free and the enemy reconciled, the whirlpool become all life and no matter. And because these infants that call themselves ancients are reaching out towards that, I will have patience with them still; though I know well that when they attain it they shall become one with me and supersede me, and Lilith will be only a legend and a lay that has lost its meaning. Of Life only is there no end; and though of its million starry mansions many are empty and many still unbuilt, and though its vast domain is as yet unbearably desert, my seed shall one day fill it and master its matter to its uttermost confines. And for what may be beyond, the eyesight of Lilith is too short. It is enough that there is a beyond. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw/back-to-methuselah/i-say-let.md) > When the master has come to do everything through the slave, the slave becomes his master, since he cannot live without him. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw/back-to-methuselah/when-the-master.md) > Art is the magic mirror you make to reflect your invisible dreams in visible pictures. You use a glass mirror to see your face: you use works of art to see your soul. But we who are older use neither glass mirrors nor works of art. We have a direct sense of life. When you gain that you will put aside your mirrors and statues, your toys and your dolls. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw/back-to-methuselah/art-is-the.md) > Life is not meant to be easy, my child but take courage: it can be delightful. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw/back-to-methuselah/life-is-not.md) > Love is a simple thing and a deep thing: it is an act of life and not an illusion. Art is an illusion. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw/back-to-methuselah/love-is-a-simple.md) > Even a vortex is a vortex in something. You can't have a whirlpool without water; and you can't have a vortex without gas, or molecules or atoms or ions or electrons or something, not nothing. [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw/back-to-methuselah/even-a-vortex.md)