"It has taken me nearly twenty years..." - Quote by George Bernard Shaw
It has taken me nearly twenty years of studied self-restraint, aided by the natural decay of my faculties, to make myself dull enough to be accepted as a serious person by the British public; and I am not sure that I am not still regarded as a suspicious character in some quarters.
More by George Bernard Shaw
“It is courage, courage, courage, that raises the blood of life to crimson splendor.”
“In your dread of dictators you established a state of society in which every ward boss is a dictator, every private employer a dictator, every financier a dictator, all with the livelihood of the workers at his mercy, and no public responsibility.”
“It is the mark of a truly intelligent person to be moved by statistics.”
More on Self Perception
“When you think that you are beautiful, you are liable to think that you are more beautiful than others, and such a thought is not a beautiful thought. To recognize or criticize ugliness and inferiority in others is to create the inferior and the ugly in yourself, and what you create in yourself will sooner or later be expressed through your mind and personality.”
“I'm a dull person.”
“Style is less the man than the way a man takes himself.”
More on Reputation
“Most of our faults are more pardonable than the means we use to conceal them.”
“We can afford to lose money - even a lot of money. But we can't afford to lose reputation - even a shred of reputation.”
“There is no vice or folly that requires so much nicety and skill to manage as vanity; nor any which by ill management makes so contemptible a figure.”