W. S. Gilbert Quotes

English dramatist, poet and illustrator (1836–1911)

Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (18 November 1836 – 29 May 1911) was an English dramatist and librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his operatic collaborations with the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan.

From: Wikiquote (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Birth Name: William Schwenck Gilbert

Alternative Names: Sir William Schwenck Gilbert • William S. Gilbert • William Schwenk Gilbert • Bab • Bab Gilbert • William Gilbert

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A pallid and thin young man,
A haggard and lank young man,
A greenery-yallery, Grosvenor Gallery,
Foot-in-the-grave young man!

I know what love is. There was a happy time when I didn't, but bitter experience has taught me.

Archibald: To understand this, it is not necessary to think of anything at all.
Saphir: Let us think of nothing at all!

Yes, I am the Apostle of Simplicity. I am called Archibald the All-Right, for I am infallible.

Then a sentimental passion of a vegetable fashion must excite your languid spleen,
An attachment à la Plato for a bashful young potato, or a not-too-French French bean!
Though the Philistines may jostle, you will rank as an apostle in the high aesthetic band,
If you walk down Piccadilly with a poppy or a lily in your medieval hand.

Art stopped short at the cultivated court of the Empress Josephine.

If you want a receipt for that popular mystery,
Known to the world as a Heavy Dragoon -
Take all the remarkable people in history,
Rattle them off to a popular tune!

Yes, but you don't go!

Exactly – you said "often" ('frequently') only once.

Against our wills, papa—against our wills!

No, Frederic, it cannot be. I don’t think much of our profession, but, contrasted with respectability, it is comparatively honest.

When your process of extermination begins, let our deaths be as swift and painless as you can conveniently make them.

The last three ships we took proved to be manned entirely by orphans, and so we had to let them go. One would think that Great Britain’s mercantile navy was recruited solely from her orphan asylums – which we know is not the case.

In spite of all temptations
To belong to other nations,
He remains an Englishman!

When I was a lad I served a term
As office boy to an attorney's firm.
I cleaned the wndows and I swept the floor,
And I polished up the handle of the big front door.
I polished up that handle so carefullee
That now I am the Ruler of the Queen's Navee!