--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Bourgeois morality is largely a system of…" description: "\"Bourgeois morality is largely a system of making cheap virtues a cloak for expensive vices.\" — George Bernard Shaw" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c2a/george-bernard-shaw-68_bourgeois_bourgeois-morality-is-largely-a-system-o_337698.png" --- # Bourgeois morality is largely a system of making cheap… ![“Bourgeois morality is largely a system of making cheap virtues a cloak for expensive vices.” quote by George Bernard Shaw](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c2a/george-bernard-shaw-68_bourgeois_bourgeois-morality-is-largely-a-system-o_337698.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c2a/george-bernard-shaw-68_bourgeois_bourgeois-morality-is-largely-a-system-o_337698.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c2a/george-bernard-shaw-68_bourgeois_bourgeois-morality-is-largely-a-system-o_337698.png) > “Bourgeois morality is largely a system of making cheap virtues a cloak for expensive vices.” [George Bernard Shaw](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-bernard-shaw/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Bourgeois morality hides costly vices behind cheap virtues. **In simple terms:** Middle-class morals disguise serious flaws with simple goodness. Key Takeaway Question moral hypocrisy. Themes morality hypocrisy class ethics social critique Mood critical analytical Type philosophical satirical When to use this quote - political analysis - ethical debates - social reform Key Concepts virtue signaling economic disparity cognitive dissonance Questions to Reflect On - What virtues are used to conceal vices? - Can morality be truly impartial? A Different Perspective May overgeneralize the bourgeois class. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Bourgeois](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/bourgeois/) [Bourgeois Morality](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/bourgeois-morality-3145768/) [Character](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/character/) [Cheap Virtues](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/cheap-virtues-3145771/) [Cloaks](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/cloaks/) [Expensive](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/expensive/) [Expensive Vices](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/expensive-vices-3145770/) [Morality](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/morality/) [Morality Largely](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/morality-largely-3145769/) [Vices](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/vices/) [Virtue](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/virtue/) ## Related quotes > [Life is so full of meaning and of purpose, so full of beauty - beneath its covering - that you will find that earth…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/giovanni-giocondo/life-is-so-full-of-meaning-and-of-purpose-so-full-of-beauty-beneath/) [Giovanni Giocondo](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/giovanni-giocondo/) > [Recognize negativism and inferiority attitudes as enemies - do not try to dress them as your friends. you will be tempted to look upon…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/e-stanley-jones/recognize-negativism-and-inferiority-attitudes-as-enemies-do-not-try/) [E. 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He eyed with disgust the doctor's filthy cloak. "Life," answered the doctor.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rick-yancey/good-god-man-what-is-that-smell-he-eyed-with-disgust-the-doctor-s/) [Rick Yancey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rick-yancey/) > [Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is momentary.It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mahatma-gandhi/victory-attained-by-violence-is-tantamount-to-a-defeat-for-it-is/) [Mahatma Gandhi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mahatma-gandhi/) > [Ambition is all very well, my lad, but you must cloak it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jonathan-stroud/ambition-is-all-very-well-my-lad-but-you-must-cloak-it/) [Jonathan Stroud](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jonathan-stroud/) > [Book burning is a charming old custom, hallowed by antiquity. It has been practiced for centuries by fascists, communists, atheists, school children, rival authors,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-armour/book-burning-is-a-charming-old-custom-hallowed-by-antiquity-it-has/) [Richard Armour](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-armour/) ## More by George Bernard Shaw > [I love little children too but I don't cut off their heads and stick them in vases.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-bernard-shaw/i-love-little-children-too-but-i-don-t-cut-off-their-heads-and-stick/) [George Bernard Shaw](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-bernard-shaw/) > [Blasphemy and sedition (meaning the truth about Church and State).](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-bernard-shaw/blasphemy-and-sedition-meaning-the-truth-about-church-and-state/) [George Bernard Shaw](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-bernard-shaw/) > [In the arts of life, man invents nothing; but in the arts of death he outdoes Nature herself, and produces by chemistry and machinery…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-bernard-shaw/in-the-arts-of-life-man-invents-nothing-but-in-the-arts-of-death-he/) [George Bernard Shaw](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-bernard-shaw/) > [“My religious convictions and scientific views cannot at present be more specifically defined than as those of a believer in creative evolution. 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Satisfaction is death.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-bernard-shaw/as-long-as-i-have-a-want-i-have-a-reason-for-living-satisfaction-is/) [George Bernard Shaw](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-bernard-shaw/) > [The camera can represent flesh so superbly that, if I dared, I would never photograph a figure without asking that figure to take its…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-bernard-shaw/the-camera-can-represent-flesh-so-superbly-that-if-i-dared-i-would/) [George Bernard Shaw](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-bernard-shaw/) > [A man who is not a communist at the age of twenty is a fool. Any man who is still communist at the age…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-bernard-shaw/a-man-who-is-not-a-communist-at-the-age-of-twenty-is-a-fool-any-man/) [George Bernard Shaw](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-bernard-shaw/) > [But to admire a strong person and to live under that strong person’s thumb are two different things.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-bernard-shaw/but-to-admire-a-strong-person-and-to-live-under-that-strong-person-s/) [George Bernard Shaw](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-bernard-shaw/) > [Socialism is the same as Communism, only better English.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-bernard-shaw/socialism-is-the-same-as-communism-only-better-english/) [George Bernard Shaw](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-bernard-shaw/) > [The person who is ignorant enough to believe that his nourishment depends on meat is in a horrible dilemma.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-bernard-shaw/the-person-who-is-ignorant-enough-to-believe-that-his-nourishment/) [George Bernard Shaw](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-bernard-shaw/) > [In the arts of peace Man is a bungler.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-bernard-shaw/in-the-arts-of-peace-man-is-a-bungler/) [George Bernard Shaw](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-bernard-shaw/) [Explore all 1,640 George Bernard Shaw quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-bernard-shaw/) ## More Bourgeois quotes > [“Economists have a singular method of procedure. 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Even great women artists, like Louise Bourgeois and Lee…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/siri-hustvedt/with-almost-no-exceptions-art-by-men-is-much-more-expensive-than-art/) [Siri Hustvedt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/siri-hustvedt/) > [The bourgeois thinkers of the eighteenth century thus turned Aristotle's formula on its head: satisfactions which the Greek philosopher had identified with leisure were…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alain-de-botton/the-bourgeois-thinkers-of-the-eighteenth-century-thus-turned/) [Alain de Botton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alain-de-botton/) > [Where there is no danger of overt action there is rarely any interference with freedom. That is why there has so often been amazing…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-lippmann/where-there-is-no-danger-of-overt-action-there-is-rarely-any/) [Walter Lippmann](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-lippmann/) > [Advancing bourgeois society liquidates memory, time, recollection as irrational leftovers of the past.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/theodor-adorno/advancing-bourgeois-society-liquidates-memory-time-recollection-as/) [Theodor Adorno](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/theodor-adorno/) > [ Avant-garde theatre, with its distrust of the individual (that bourgeois invention), tends to go beyond \[character\] and the psychological approach in search of a… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/patrice-pavis/avant-garde-theatre-with-its-distrust-of-the-individual-that/) [Patrice Pavis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/patrice-pavis/) > [One's existence should be in two parts: one should live like a bourgeois and think like a demigod.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gustave-flaubert/one-s-existence-should-be-in-two-parts-one-should-live-like-a/) [Gustave Flaubert](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gustave-flaubert/) > [I think of myself as being a bit of a wimp deep down - a bourgeois wimp - and I'm fighting that. 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We have allowed petty, bourgeois regimes in which everything is average, mediocre.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tahar-ben-jelloun/what-have-we-achieved-since-the-end-of-the-second-world-war-we-have/) [Tahar Ben Jelloun](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tahar-ben-jelloun/) [Browse all 304 Bourgeois quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/bourgeois/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Bourgeois morality is largely a system of making cheap virtues a cloak for expensive vices.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "George Bernard Shaw" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-bernard-shaw/bourgeois-morality-is-largely-a-system-of-making-cheap-virtues-a/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Bourgeois" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-bernard-shaw/bourgeois-morality-is-largely-a-system-of-making-cheap-virtues-a/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c2a/george-bernard-shaw-68_bourgeois_bourgeois-morality-is-largely-a-system-o_337698.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c2a/george-bernard-shaw-68_bourgeois_bourgeois-morality-is-largely-a-system-o_337698.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c2a/george-bernard-shaw-68_bourgeois_bourgeois-morality-is-largely-a-system-o_337698.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Bourgeois morality is largely a system of making cheap virtues a cloak for expensive vices.” — George Bernard Shaw", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "George Bernard Shaw", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-bernard-shaw/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Bourgeois morality is largely a system...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-bernard-shaw/bourgeois-morality-is-largely-a-system-of-making-cheap-virtues-a/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-bernard-shaw/bourgeois-morality-is-largely-a-system-of-making-cheap-virtues-a/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```