W.S. Gilbert Quotes

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

What is politics but persuading the public to vote for this and support that and endure these for the promise of those?

To sit in solemn silence on a dull, dark dock in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock awaiting the sensation of a short, sharp shock from a cheap and chippy chopper on a big, black block.

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."

The sceptics, like bees, give their one sting and die.

It is the decisive people who have become civilised; it is the indecisive, otherwise called the higher sceptics, or the idealistic doubters, who have remained barbarians.

I wanted to be a brain surgeon, but I had a bad habit of dropping things.

Right is Right even if nobody does it. Wrong is wrong even if everybody is wrong about it.

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

I dream of lost vocabularies that might express some of what we no longer can.

It's the people who try to be clever who never are; the people who are clever never think of trying to be.

Whenever you remove any fence, always pause long enough to ask why it was put there in the first place.

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

We weren't raised to take, we were raised to give the shirt off our back to anyone in need.

The heart lies to itself because it must.

Many people have played themselves to death. Many people have eaten and drunk themselves to death. Nobody ever thought himself to death.

All men are ordinary men; the extraordinary men are those who know it.

The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see.

Joys divided are increased.

We must have the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless furnace of this world.

We must unlearn the constellations to see the stars.

When you don't talk, there's a lot of stuff that ends up not getting said.

The only hope of preserving what is best, lies in the practice of an immense charity, a wide tolerance, a sincere respect for opinions that are not ours.

We are as near to heaven by sea as by land.

…and to all you other cats and chicks out there, sweet or otherwise, buried deep in wordy tombs, who never yet have walked from off the page, a shake and a hug and a kiss and a drink. Cheers!

Never forget that once upon a time, in an unguarded moment, you recognized yourself as a friend.

Why do we do basic research? To learn about ourselves.

What people call impartiality may simply mean indifference, and what people call partiality may simply mean mental activity.

If you are a garden plant you are regarded; well regarded, just as long as you stay in the garden.

If you're going to answer the call and you're going to transform and you're going to change, get ready. It is not a day at the beach.

You can't catch the big fish by skimming the surface.

The home is not the one tame place in the world of adventure. It is the one wild place in the world of rules and set tasks.

You'll never find the solution if you don't see the problem.

These are not books, lumps of lifeless paper, but minds alive on the shelves.

We "need" cancer because, by the very fact of its incurability, it makes all other diseases, however virulent, not cancer.

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

A thing constructed can only be loved after it is constructed; but a thing created is loved before it exists.

Stick to the man who looks out of the window and tries to understand the world. Keep clear of the man who looks in at the window and tries to understand you.

The only way to be sure of catching a train is to miss the one before it.

The word 'good' has many meanings. For example, if a man were to shoot his grandmother at a range of five hundred yards, I should call him a good shot, but not necessarily a good man.

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

I believe that Icarus was not failing as he fell, but just coming to the end of his triumph.

Everyone forgets Icarus also flew.

The most incredible thing about miracles is that they happen.

Life's a pudding full of plums.

Being content with what you have already is an art form that leads to a peace that can’t be replaced by anything else.

A society is in decay, final or transitional, when common sense really becomes uncommon.

We make our friends; we make our enemies; but God makes our next door neighbour.

The only thing more unthinkable than leaving was staying; the only thing more impossible than staying was leaving.

Our heart wanders lost in the dark woods. Our dream wrestles in the castle of doubt. But there’s music in us. Hope is pushed down but the angel flies up again taking us with her.