Arms and the Man

By George Bernard Shaw QUOTATION: I won the battle the wrong way when our worthy Russian generals were losing it the right way.
ATTRIBUTION: George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950), Anglo-Irish playwright, critic. (First produced 1894). Sergius, in Arms and the Man, act 2, The Bodley Head Bernard Shaw: Collected Plays with their Prefaces, vol. 1, ed. Dan H. Laurence (1970).

QUOTATION: Soldiering, my dear madam, is the coward’s art of attacking mercilessly when you are strong, and keeping out of harm’s way when you are weak. That is the whole secret of successful fighting. Get your enemy at a disadvantage; and never, on any account, fight him on equal terms.
ATTRIBUTION: George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950), Anglo-Irish playwright, critic. (First produced 1894). Sergius, in Arms and the Man, act 2, The Bodley Head Bernard Shaw: Collected Plays with their Prefaces, vol. 1, ed. Dan H. Laurence (1970).

QUOTATION: My rank is the highest known in Switzerland: I am a free citizen.
ATTRIBUTION: George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950), Anglo-Irish playwright, critic. (First produced 1894). Bluntschli, in Arms and the Man, act 3, The Bodley Head Bernard Shaw: Collected Plays with their Prefaces, vol. 1, ed. Dan H. Laurence (1970).

QUOTATION: That is the whole secret of successful fighting. Get your enemy at a disadvantage; and never, on any account, fight him on equal terms.
ATTRIBUTION: George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950), Anglo-Irish playwright, critic. Sergius, in Arms and the Man, act 2.

QUOTATION: I won the battle the wrong way when our worthy Russian generals were losing it the right way.
ATTRIBUTION: George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950), Anglo-Irish playwright, critic. (First produced 1894). Sergius, in Arms and the Man, act 2, The Bodley Head Bernard Shaw: Collected Plays with their Prefaces, vol. 1, ed. Dan H. Laurence (1970).

QUOTATION: Soldiering, my dear madam, is the coward’s art of attacking mercilessly when you are strong, and keeping out of harm’s way when you are weak. That is the whole secret of successful fighting. Get your enemy at a disadvantage; and never, on any account, fight him on equal terms.
ATTRIBUTION: George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950), Anglo-Irish playwright, critic. (First produced 1894). Sergius, in Arms and the Man, act 2, The Bodley Head Bernard Shaw: Collected Plays with their Prefaces, vol. 1, ed. Dan H. Laurence (1970).

QUOTATION: I have to get your room ready for you: to sweep and dust, to fetch and carry. How could that degrade me if it did not degrade you to have it done for you?
ATTRIBUTION: George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950), Anglo-Irish playwright, critic. (First produced 1894). Louka, in Arms and the Man, act 3, The Bodley Head Bernard Shaw: Collected Plays with their Prefaces, vol. 1, ed. Dan H. Laurence (1970).

QUOTATION: Don’t be so ready to defy everybody. Act as if you expected to have your own way, not as if you expected to be ordered about. The way to get on as a lady is the same as the way to get on as a servant: you’ve got to know your place.
ATTRIBUTION: George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950), Anglo-Irish playwright, critic. (First produced 1894). Nicola, in Arms and the Man, act 3, The Bodley Head Bernard Shaw: Collected Plays with their Prefaces, vol. 1, ed. Dan H. Laurence (1970).