Polemicist Quotes

“That is the injustice of a woman's lot. A woman has to bring up her children; and that means to restrain them, to deny them things they want, to set them tasks, to punish them when they do wrong, to do all the unpleasant things. And then the father, who has nothing to do but pet them and spoil them, comes in when all her work is done and steals their affection from her.”

“We should find ourselves committed to killing a great many people whom we now leave living, and to leave living a great many people whom we at present kill. We should have to get rid of all ideas about capital punishment.”

“It is the highest creatures who take the longest to mature, and are the most helpless during their immaturity.”

“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.”

“The road to ignorance is paved with good editors.”

“The secret to success is to offend the greatest number of people.”

“Vulgarity in a king flatters the majority of the nation.”

“A critic recently described me, with deadly acuteness, as having 'a kindly dislike of my fellow-creatures.' Perhaps dread would have been nearer the mark than dislike; for man is the only animal of which I am thoroughly and cravenly afraid.”

“They tell me that So-and-So, who does not write prefaces, is no charlatan. Well, I am. I first caught the ear of the British public on a cart in Hyde Park, to the blaring of brass bands,and this . . . because . . . I am a natural-born mountebank.”

“A drama critic is a man who leaves no turn unstoned.”

“A pessimist is a man who thinks everybody is as nasty as himself, and hates them for it.”

“I hope you have lost your good looks, for while they last any fool can adore you, and the adoration of fools is bad for the soul.”

“Our necessities are few, but our wants are endless.”

“Always strive to find out what to do by thinking, without asking anybody. If you continually do this, you will soon act like a grown-up woman. For want of doing this, a very great number of grown-up people act like children.”

“I never expect a soldier to think.”

“Kings are not born: they are made by artificial hallucination.”

“All professions are conspiracies against the laity.”

“We are the only real aristocracy in the world: the aristocracy of money.”

“I tell you that as long as I can conceive something better than myself I cannot be easy unless I am striving to bring it into existence or clearing the way for it.”

“If Despotism failed only for want of a capable benevolent despot, what chance has Democracy, which requires a whole population of capable voters.”

“Worst of all, there is no sign of any relaxation of antisemitism. Logically it has nothing to do with Fascism. But the human raceis imitative rather than logical; and as Fascism spreads antisemitism spreads.”

“Decency cannot be discussed without indecency!”

“Without music we shall surely perish of drink, morphia, and all sorts of artificial exaggerations of the cruder delights of the senses.”

“We throw the whole drudgery of creation on one sex, and then imply that no female of any delicacy would initiate any effort in that direction.”

“Human beings are the only animals of which I am thoroughly and cravenly afraid.”