By George!

One down, three to go. Earlier today I took my British Literature examination. I wrote on George Orwell and George Bernard Shaw. As part of the preparation process I memorized several quotations to use during the exam and am sharing a sampling of my favorites, no favourites, below.

I absolutely love GBS and everything about him. I love his LSE, his library at the LSE, his plays, and, most of all, his wit and insight. Believe it or not, I hadn't read Pygmalion until a few weeks ago and I'm actually glad I unintentionally waited until now. For several reasons, it was the PERFECT point in my life to read such a play.

Instead of giving Orwell quotations from a variety of works, I'll only share a gem from his Homage to Catalonia. I should preface this by saying that I do NOT enjoy seeing people suffer. In fact, I'm horrible at it. Whenever I see someone choke, faint, seriously bleed, etc. I freeze and experience what you could call sympathetic trauma. However, despite this, I found Orwell's description of receiving a bullet during the Spanish Civil War to be a most enjoyable read.

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SHAW
"The difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she's treated. I shall always be a flower girl to Professor Higgins, because he always treats me as a flower girl, and always will; but I know I can be a lady to you, because you always treat me as a lady, and always will" (Liza to Pickering, Pygmalion).

"I am one of the undeserving poor. I do not need less than a deserving man: I need more" (Doolittle, Pygmalion).

"If you can't appreciate what you've got, you'd better get what you can appreciate" (Higgins, Pygmalion).

"Petkoff: But of course we saw to it that the treaty was honorable. It declares peace--
Catherine [outraged]: Peace!
Petkoff [appeasing her]--but not friendly relations: remember that. They wanted to put that in but I insisted on it being struck out" (Arms and the Man).

"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 find them, make them" (Vivie, Mrs. Warren's Profession).

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ORWELL
"The whole experience of being hit by a bullet is very interesting and I think it is worth describing in detail."
...
"Not being in pain, I felt a vague satisfaction. This ought to please my wife, I thought"
...
There must have been about two minutes during which I assumed that I was killed. And that too was interesting"
...
"No one I met at this time--doctors, nurses, practicantes, or fellow-patients--failed to assure me that a man who is hit through the neck and surives is the luckiest creature alive. I could not help thinking that it would be even luckier not to be hit at all"
(Orwell, Homage to Catalonia)