Books Quotes by George Bernard Shaw

When you read a biography remember that the truth is never fit for publication.

— George Bernard Shaw

All great art and literature is propaganda.

— George Bernard Shaw

Only in books has mankind known perfect truth, love and beauty.

— George Bernard Shaw

Make it a rule never to give a child a book you would not read yourself.

— George Bernard Shaw

“Literature is too full of 'acknowledgments' and squabbles about originality...”

— George Bernard Shaw

“Reading made Don Quixote a gentleman. Believing what he read made him mad.”

— George Bernard Shaw

People get nothing out of books but what they bring to them.

— George Bernard Shaw

Literature is like any other trade; you will never sell anything unless you go to the right shop.

— George Bernard Shaw

I must ... warn my readers that my attacks are directed against themselves, not against my stage figures.

— George Bernard Shaw

Censorship ends in logical completeness when nobody is allowed to read any books except the books that nobody reads.

— George Bernard Shaw

A pornographic novelist is one who exploits the sexual instinct as a prostitute does. A legitimate sex novel elucidates it or brings…

— George Bernard Shaw

For nearly twenty years I have been a published author... But I have never yet seen a book of mine offered for…

— George Bernard Shaw

The lesson intended by an author is hardly ever the lesson the world chooses to learn from his book.

— George Bernard Shaw

The road to ignorance is paved with good editions. Only the illiterate can afford to buy good books now.

— George Bernard Shaw

I have never admitted the right of an elderly author to alter the work of a young author, even when the young…

— George Bernard Shaw

As 99 per cent of English authors and 100 per cent of American ones [authors] are just such imbeciles, managers and publishers…

— George Bernard Shaw

“Censorship ends in logical completeness when nobody is allowed to read any books except the books that nobody can read." [As quoted…

— George Bernard Shaw

All classes in proportion to their lack of travel and familiarity with foreign literature are bellicose, prejudiced against foreigners, fond of fighting…

— George Bernard Shaw

“All classes in proportion to their lack of travel and familiarity with foreign literature are bellicose, prejudiced against foreigners, fond of fighting…

— George Bernard Shaw

There is nothing on earth more exquisite than a bonny book, with well-placed columns of rich black writing in beautiful borders, and…

— George Bernard Shaw

You don't expect me to know what to say about a play when I don't know who the author is, do you?…

— George Bernard Shaw

To endure the pain of living, we all drug ourselves more or less with gin, with literature, with superstitions, with romance, with…

— George Bernard Shaw

“An author who gives a manager or publisher any rights in his work except those immediately and specifically required for its publication…

— George Bernard Shaw

Perhaps I had better inform my Protestant readers that the famous Dogma of Papal Infallibility is by far the most modest pretension…

— George Bernard Shaw

“I owe all my originality, such as it is, to my determination not to be a literary man. Instead of belonging to…

— George Bernard Shaw

Just as the historian can teach no real history until he has cured his readers of the romantic delusion that the greatness…

— George Bernard Shaw

“The world shown us in books, whether the books be confessed epics or professed gospels, or in codes, or in political orations,…

— George Bernard Shaw

Censorship ends in logical completeness when nobody is allowed to read any books except the books that nobody can read.

— George Bernard Shaw

The fact is that the intrinsic worth of the book, play or whatever the author is trying to sell is the least,…

— George Bernard Shaw

Vulgarity is a necessary part of a complete author's equipment; and the clown is sometimes the best part of the circus.

— George Bernard Shaw

I have made it so perfectly clear in my tracts, articles, and books what was to be done that all Parliament has…

— George Bernard Shaw

“Wilde's permanent celebrity belongs to literature, and only his transient notoriety to police news.”

— George Bernard Shaw

You may well ask me why...I took the time to write [books]. I can only reply that I do not know. There…

— George Bernard Shaw

My main reason for adopting literature as a profession was that, as the author is never seen by his clients, he need…

— George Bernard Shaw

Two people getting together to write a book is like three people getting together to have a baby. One of them is…

— George Bernard Shaw

A book is like a child: it is easier to bring it into the world than to control it when it is…

— George Bernard Shaw

Keep away from books and from men who get their ideas from books, and your own books will always be fresh.

— George Bernard Shaw

In literature the ambition of the novice is to acquire the literary language; the struggle of the adept is to get rid…

— George Bernard Shaw

It is clear that a novel cannot be too bad to be worth publishing. . . . It certainly is possible for…

— George Bernard Shaw

People must not be forced to adopt me as their favourite author, even for their own good.

— George Bernard Shaw