W. S. Gilbert Quotes

Quotes about:

• It isn't so much what's on the table that matters, as what's on the chairs.

  W. S. Gilbert

  Food, Cooking, Tables

  13 Copy quote

• Oh, wouldn't the world seem dull and flat with nothing whatever to grumble at?

  W. S. Gilbert

  World, Dull, Flats

  30 Copy quote

• He did nothing in particular, and did it very well.

  W. S. Gilbert

  Work, Peers, Wells

  'Iolanthe' (1882) act 2

  53 Copy quote

• It's love that makes the world go round.

  W. S. Gilbert

  World, Criminal Mind, Rounds

  W. S. Gilbert, Ian C. Bradley (2016). “The Complete Annotated Gilbert and Sullivan”, p.504, Oxford University Press

  37 Copy quote

• When everyone is somebody, then no one's anybody.

  W. S. Gilbert

  Men, Assessment

  William Schwenck Gilbert, “King Goodheart”

  61 Copy quote

• I'm really very sorry for you all, but it's an unjust world, and virtue is triumphant only in theatrical performances.

  W. S. Gilbert

  Sorry, World, Unjust

  W. S. Gilbert, Ian C. Bradley (2016). “The Complete Annotated Gilbert and Sullivan”, p.703, Oxford University Press

  51 Copy quote

• Merely corroborative detail, intended to give artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative.

  W. S. Gilbert

  Giving, Details, Statistics

  The Mikado act 2 (1885)

  43 Copy quote

• Life's a pudding full of plums.

  W. S. Gilbert

  Life, Pudding, Plums

  W. S. Gilbert, Ian C. Bradley (2016). “The Complete Annotated Gilbert and Sullivan”, p.965, Oxford University Press

  41 Copy quote

• Oh, don't the days seem lank and long When all goes right and nothing goes wrong, And isn't your life extremely flat With nothing whatever to grumble at!

  W. S. Gilbert

  Life, Long, Flats

  W. S. Gilbert, Ian C. Bradley (2016). “The Complete Annotated Gilbert and Sullivan”, p.607, Oxford University Press

  31 Copy quote

• Deerstalking would be a very fine sport if only the deer had guns.

  W. S. Gilbert

  Sports, Animal, Gun

  53 Copy quote

• No one can have a higher opinion of him than I have; and I think he's a dirty little beast.

  W. S. Gilbert

  Sarcastic, Dirty, Thinking

  41 Copy quote

• I'm very good at integral and differential calculus, I know the scientific names of beings animalculous; In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral, I am the very model of a modern Major-General.

  W. S. Gilbert

  Math, Animal, Vegetables

  'The Pirates of Penzance' (1879) act 1

  69 Copy quote

• Faint heart never won fair lady!
  Nothing venture, nothing win
  Blood is thick, but water's thin
  In for a penny, in for a pound
  It's Love that makes the world go 'round!

  W. S. Gilbert

  Heart, Winning, Blood

  W. S. Gilbert, Ian C. Bradley (2016). “The Complete Annotated Gilbert and Sullivan”, p.505, Oxford University Press

  12 Copy quote

• When in that House MPs divide/If they've a brain and cerebellum, too/They've got to leave that brain outside/And vote just as their leaders tell 'em to.

  W. S. Gilbert

  Mps, House, Leader

  Arthur Sullivan, W. S. Gilbert (2008). “The Savoy Operas: The Complete Gilbert and Sullivan: The Complete Gilbert and Sullivan”, p.457, Penguin UK

  34 Copy quote

• I am the Captain of the Pinafore ; And a right good captain too! . . . . And I'm never, never sick at sea! What, never? No, never! What never? Hardly ever! He's hardly ever sick at sea! Then give three cheers, and one cheer more, For the hardy Captain of the Pinafore!

  W. S. Gilbert

  Cheer, Sea, Sick

  H.M.S. Pinafore act 1 (1878)

  26 Copy quote

• Man is nature's sole mistake.

  W. S. Gilbert

  Mistake, Men, Sole

  'Princess Ida' (1884) act 2

  12 Copy quote

• Life is a joke that's just begun.

  W. S. Gilbert

  Life Is, Jokes

  'The Mikado' (1885) act 1

  16 Copy quote

• Life's perhaps the only riddle That we shrink from giving up.

  W. S. Gilbert

  Life, Giving Up, Riddle

  W. S. Gilbert, Ian C. Bradley (2016). “The Complete Annotated Gilbert and Sullivan”, p.965, Oxford University Press

  7 Copy quote

• I am, in point of fact, a particularly haughty and exclusive person, of pre-Adamite ancestral descent. You will understand this when I tell you that I can trace my ancestry back to a protoplasmal primordial atomic globule.

  W. S. Gilbert

  Facts, Ancestry, Descent

  W. S. Gilbert, Ian C. Bradley (2016). “The Complete Annotated Gilbert and Sullivan”, p.637, Oxford University Press

  34 Copy quote

• As is gloriously sung in the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta "H.M.S. Pinafore," in the words of W. S. Gilbert: "Things are seldom as they seem, Skim milk masquerades as cream."

  W. S. Gilbert

  Milk, Masquerade, Cream

  52 Copy quote

• Saturday afternoon, although occurring at regular and well-foreseen intervals, always takes this railway by surprise.

  W. S. Gilbert

  Luck, Afternoon, Surprise

  28 Copy quote

• No good play is a success; fine writing and high morals are useless on the stage. I have been scribbling twaddle for thirty-five years to suit the public taste, and I should know.

  W. S. Gilbert

  Writing, Years, Play

  6 Copy quote

• Wherever valor true is found, true modesty will there abound.

  W. S. Gilbert

  Humility, Pride, Modesty

  15 Copy quote

• I've an irritating chuckle, I've a celebrated sneer,
  I've an entertaining snigger, I've a fascinating leer;
  To everybody's prejudice I know a thing or two;
  I can tell a woman's age in half a minute--and I do

  W. S. Gilbert

  Two, Age, Prejudice

  'Princess Ida' (1884) act 1

  13 Copy quote

• Let the punishment fit the crime.

  W. S. Gilbert

  Punishment, Fit, Crime

  The Mikado act 2 (1885)

  4 Copy quote

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