(1) George Bernard Shaw, The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism (1928)

Equal division is not only a possible plan, but one which has been tested by long experience. The great bulk of the daily work of the civilized work is done, and always has been done, by bodies of persons receiving equal pay whether they are tall or short, fair or dark, quick or slow, young or getting on in years, teetotalers or beer drinkers, Protestants or Catholics, married or single, short tempered or sweet tempered, pious or worldly; in short, without the slightest regard to the differences that make one person unlike another.

Therefore when some inconsiderate person repeats like a parrot that if you gave everybody the same money, before a year was out you would have rich and poor again just as before, all you have to do is to tell them to look round him and see millions of people who get the same money and remain in the same position all their lives without any such change taking place.

Equal distribution is then quite possible and practicable, not only momentarily but permanently. It is also simple and intelligible. It gets rid of all squabbling as to how much each person should have. It is already in operation and familiar over great masses of human beings. And it has the tremendous advantage of securing promotion by merit for the more capable.

 

Arms and the Man

Man and Superman

 

 

(2) George Bernard Shaw, Freedom for Women (1891)

Unless woman repudiates her womanliness, her duty to her husband, to her children, to society, to the law, and to everyone but herself, she cannot emancipate herself. It is false to say that woman is now directly the slave of man: she is the immediate slave of duty; and as man's path to freedom is strewn with the wreckage of the duties and ideals he has trampled on, so must hers be.

 

(3) Philip Snowden, An Autobiography (1934)

By the end of 1892 it was felt that the various Labour Unions should be merged into a National Party. So steps were taken to call a Conference, which met at Bradford in January 1893. To this Conference delegates from the local unions, the Fabian Society (which at the time was doing considerable propaganda work among the Radical Clubs), and the Social Democratic Federation, were invited. There were 115 delegates present at this conference, and among them was Mr. George Bernard Shaw, representing the Fabian Society. He played a conspicuous part in the Conference. Mr. Keir Hardie, fresh from his success at West Ham, was elected Chairman of the Conference.

 

(4) Beatrice Webb, diary entry (17th September, 1893)

Bernard Shaw is a marvellously smart witty fellow with a crank for not making money. I have never known a man use his pen in such a workmanlike fashion or acquire such a thoroughly technical knowledge of any subject upon which he gives an opinion. As to his character, I do not understand it. He has been for twelve years a devoted propagandist, hammering away at the ordinary routine of Fabian Executive work with as much persistence as Graham Wallas or Sidney (Webb). He is an excellent friend - at least to men - but beyond this I know nothing. I am inclined to think that he has a 'slight' personality - agile, graceful and even virile, but lacking in weight. Adored by many women, he is a born philanderer. A vegetarian, fastidious but unconventional in his clothes, six foot in height with a lithe, broad-chested figure and laughing blue eyes. Above all a brilliant talker, and, therefore, a delightful companion.

 

(5) J. R. Clynes, Memoirs (1937)

George Bernard Shaw agreed to take the chair for me at a Fabian Society meeting. The meeting was a great success. Shaw has always been a brilliant speaker as well as a provocative writer. During the early years of the Fabian Society he spoke constantly at public meetings, drawing crowded audiences. He always gave of his best, whether there were two thousand listeners or only twenty. That is the hallmark of the true artist.

 

(6) Edith Nesbit, letter to Ada Breakell (19th August, 1884)

The Fabian Society is getting rather large now and includes some very nice people, of whom Mr. Stapelton is the nicest and a certain George Bernard Shaw the most interesting. G.B.S. has a fund of dry Irish humour that is simply irresistible. He is a clever writer and speaker - is the grossest flatterer I ever met, is horribly untrustworthy as he repeats everything he hears, and does not always stick to the truth, and is very plain like a long corpse with dead white face - sandy sleek hair, and a loathsome small straggly beard, and yet is one of the most fascinating men I ever met.

 

(7) Charles Trevelyan, letter to Caroline Trevelyan (12th April, 1895)

George Bernard Shaw is very much what I hoped and expected, excessively talkative, genial and amusing, and not unduly aggressive or cynical. He is not full of praise for anything or anybody - but is the perfection of real good nature.

 

(8) George Bernard Shaw, letter to Henry James (17th January, 1909)

I, as a Socialist, have had to preach, as much as anyone, the enormous power of the environment. We can change it; we must change it; there is absolutely no other sense in life than the task of changing it. What is the use of writing plays, what is the use of writing anything, if there is not a will which finally moulds chaos itself into a race of gods.

 

(9) Kingsley Martin went to hear George Bernard Shaw speak at a meeting just after the end of the First World War.

He made an indelible impression on me at this first meeting. I cannot recall what he spoke about. It mattered little. It was George Bernard Shaw you remembered; his physical magnificence, splendid bearing, superb elocution, unexpected Irish brogue, and continuous wit were the chief memories of his speech. He would give his nose a thoughtful twitch between his thumb and finger while the audience laughed. He was one of the best speakers I ever heard. Speaking for Labour candidates at elections, it was said he would fill every hall and lose scores of votes. In those days he did not suffer from the vanity that did so much to ruin his work in the thirties.

 

(10) In his book My Seven Selves, Henry Hamilton Fyfe described the abilities of his friend, George Bernard Shaw.

He has always been the kindest and truest as well as the wittiest of men. When I read his thirty volumes, as I do often, I think he must be the wittiest man that ever lived. Certainly he has had a greater flow of wit than any other. Yet behind there is always the prophet, the reformer - would it be an exaggeration to say, the fanatic? Long ago I twitted him with his trick of turning everything to ridicule, and he declared in grim earnest: "If I said what I really mean without making people laugh, they would stone me." Since then they have paid him well for making them laugh, and blandly refuse to pay any heed to what he has "really meant".

 

Arms and the Man

Pygmalion