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1c6aa29
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Self-sacrifice enables us to sacrifice other people without blushing.
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sacrifice
preface
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George Bernard Shaw |
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d73898e
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I know your head aches. I know you're tired. I know your nerves are as raw as meat in a butcher's window. But think what you're trying to accomplish - just think what you're dealing with. The majesty and grandeur of the English language; it's the greatest possession we have. The noblest thoughts that ever flowed through the hearts of men are contained in its extraordinary, imaginative and musical mixtures of sounds. And that's what you've s..
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language
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George Bernard Shaw |
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3cdcb03
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German and Spanish are accessible to foreigners: English is not accessible even to Englishmen.
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George Bernard Shaw |
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bed6b53
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All professions are conspiracies against the laity.
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George Bernard Shaw |
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a221ebd
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The truth sticks in our throats with all the sauces it is served with: it will never go down until we take it without any sauce at all.
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truth
saint-joan
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George Bernard Shaw |
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2b674a6
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Oh that. Men do fall in love with me. They seem to think me a creature with volcanic passions; I'm sure I don't know why. All the volcanic women I know are plain little creatures with sandy hair. I don't consider human volcanoes respectable. And I'm so tired of the subject. Our house is always full of women in love with my husband and men in love with me. We encourage it because it's pleasant to have company.
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George Bernard Shaw |
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57116d1
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I could do without my warhorse; I could drag about in a skirt; I could let the banners and the trumpets and the knights and soldiers pass me and leave me behind as they leave the other women, if only I could still hear the wind in the trees, the larks in the sunshine, the young lambs crying through the healthy frost, and the blessed blessed church bells that send my angel voices floating to me on the wind. But without these things I cannot ..
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George Bernard Shaw |
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397e743
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Who asked him to make a gentleman of me? I was happy. I was free. I touched pretty nigh everybody for money when I wanted it, same as I touched you, Henry Higgins. Now I am worrited; tied neck and heels; and everybody touches me for money. It's a fine thing for you, says my solicitor. Is it? says I. You mean it's a good thing for you, I says. When I was a poor man and had a solicitor once when they found a pram in the dust cart, he got me o..
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George Bernard Shaw |
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8b879a5
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The natural term of the affection of the human animal for its offspring is six years.
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parents
parents-and-children
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George Bernard Shaw |
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1a47d92
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Wicked people means people who have no love: therefore, they have no shame. They have the power to ask love because the don't need it: they have the power to offer it because they have none to give.
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George Bernard Shaw |
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a41d7fc
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She has even secret mischievous moments in which she wishes she could get him alone, on a desert island, away from all ties and with nobody else in the world to consider, and just drag him off his pedestal and see him making love like any common man.
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George Bernard Shaw |
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d05ce33
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Everybody has choices, Mother. The poorest girl alive may not be able to choose between being Queen of England or Principal of Newnham; but she can choose between rag-picking and flower-selling, according to her taste. People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't fin..
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George Bernard Shaw |
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a8cb7e8
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Man] progresses in all things by resolutely making a fool of himself.
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progress
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George Bernard Shaw |
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64c209a
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Heaven is the most angelically dull place in all creation
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heaven
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George Bernard Shaw |
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91f21f5
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Common people do not pray; they only beg.
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George Bernard Shaw |
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c2de9fa
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I try to follow his example, not to imitate him.
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George Bernard Shaw |
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6928290
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The word morality, if we met it in the Bible, would surprise us as much as the word telephone or motor car.
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morality
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George Bernard Shaw |
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baaca4a
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HOSTESS. Oh, nonsense! She speaks English perfectly. NEPOMMUCK. Too perfectly. Can you shew me any English woman who speaks English as it should be spoken? Only foreigners who have been taught to speak it speak it well.
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esl
pronunciation
language-learning
language
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George Bernard Shaw |
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a71c72d
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Greatness is one of the sensations of littleness
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irreverence
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George Bernard Shaw |
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e708b58
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An Irishman's heart is nothing but his imagination.
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George Bernard Shaw |
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58a1e10
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That is what all poets do: they talk to themselves out loud; and the world overhears them
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poets
writing
writers
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George Bernard Shaw |
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458899b
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You may remember that on earth--though of course we never confessed it--the death of anyone we knew, even those we liked best, was always mingled with a certain satisfaction at being finally done with them.
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don-juan-in-hell
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George Bernard Shaw |
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1ed0b41
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HIGGINS [aggrieved] Do you mean that my language is improper? MRS HIGGINS. No, dearest: it would be quite proper - say on a canal barge...
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language
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George Bernard Shaw |
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80d54c5
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When you vote, you only change the names of the cabinet. When you shoot, you pull down governments, inaugurate new epochs, abolish old orders and set up new.
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George Bernard Shaw |
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b4cdb6e
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We must face the fact that society is founded on intolerance. [. . .] We may prate of toleration as we will; but society must always draw a line somewhere between allowable conduct and insanity or crime, in spite of the risk of mistaking sages for lunatics and saviours for blasphemers. We must persecute, even to the death; and all we can do to mitigate the danger of persecution is, first, to be very careful what we persecute, and second, to..
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George Bernard Shaw |
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efa1b00
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Not that I disclaim the fullest responsibility for his opinions and for those of all my characters, pleasant and unpleasant. They are all right from their several points of view; and their points of view are, for the dramatic moment, mine also. This may puzzle the people who believe that there is such a thing as an absolutely right point of view, usually their own.
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George Bernard Shaw |
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f409d6b
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Except during the nine months before he draws his first breath, no man manages his affairs as well as a tree does.
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George Bernard Shaw |
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b496d63
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MRS PEARCE. Mr Higgins: youre tempting the girl. It's not right. She should think of the future. HIGGINS. At her age! Nonsense! Time enough to think of the future when you havnt any future to think of.
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future-plans
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George Bernard Shaw |
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c9381e6
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Physically there is nothing to distinguish human society from the farm-yard except that children are more troublesome and costly than chickens and calves and that men and women are not so completely enslaved as farm stock.
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humankind
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George Bernard Shaw |
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399a66b
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You don't get tired of muffins. But you don't find inspiration in them
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George Bernard Shaw |
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fe10482
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the beauty and nobility, the august mission and destiny, of human handwriting.
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penmanship
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George Bernard Shaw |
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8d19d9b
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O God that madest this beautiful earth, when will it be ready to receive Thy saints? How long, O Lord, how long?
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George Bernard Shaw |
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6b793cb
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The primitive idea of justice is partly legalized revenge and partly expiation by sacrifice. It works out from both sides in the notion that two blacks make a white, and that when a wrong has been done, it should be paid for by an equivalent suffering. It seems to the Philistine majority a matter of course that this compensating suffering should be inflicted on the wrongdoer for the sake of its deterrent effect on other would-be wrongdoers;..
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death-penalty
wrongdoing
punishment
justice
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George Bernard Shaw |
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386a91f
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No, really: I can't fight, I never could. I can't bring myself to dislike anyone enough.
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George Bernard Shaw |
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ccf5f8f
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BROADBENT [stiffly]. Devil is rather a strong expression in that connexion, Mr Keegan. KEEGAN. Not from a man who knows that this world is hell. But since the word offends you, let me soften it, and compare you simply to an ass. [Larry whitens with anger]. BROADBENT [reddening]. An ass! KEEGAN [gently]. You may take it without offence from a madman who calls the ass his brother--and a very honest, useful and faithful brother too. The ass, s..
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religion
humor
inspirational
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George Bernard Shaw |
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8ec138c
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I'm only a beer teetotaler, not a champagne teetotaler. I don't like beer.
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George Bernard Shaw |
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53e4a39
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The great advantage of a hotel is that it's a refuge from home life.
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George Bernard Shaw |
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65d0ca7
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My specialty is being right when other people are wrong.
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George Bernard Shaw |
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5f8284b
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There is only one religion, though there are a hundred versions of it.
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George Bernard Shaw |
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456254a
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It's well to be off with the Old Woman before you're on with the New.
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George Bernard Shaw |
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b02fae6
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The test of a man or woman's breeding is how they behave in a quarrel.
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George Bernard Shaw |
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0d70406
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There are no secrets better kept than the secrets everybody guesses.
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George Bernard Shaw |
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3af2fa0
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I know Miss Warren is a great devotee of the Gospel of Getting On.
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George Bernard Shaw |
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e04f498
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The novelties of one generation are only the resuscitated fashions of the generation before last.
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George Bernard Shaw |