W. S. Gilbert
W. S. Gilbert
Sir William Schwenck Gilbertwas an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for the fourteen comic operasproduced in collaboration with the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan. The most famous of these include H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and one of the most frequently performed works in the history of musical theatre, The Mikado. These, as well as several of the other Savoy operas, continue to be frequently performed in the English-speaking world and beyond by opera companies, repertory companies,...
men shining lines
If you're anxious to shine in the high aesthetic line as a man of culture rare, you must get up all the germs of the transcendental terms, and plant them everywhere.
born treats virtuous
Spurn not the nobly born with love affected; nor treat with virtuous scorn the well connected.
block dark long
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.
luck afternoon surprise
Saturday afternoon, although occurring at regular and well-foreseen intervals, always takes this railway by surprise.
boys thinking alive
I often think it's comical How Nature always does contrive That every boy and every gal That's born into the world alive Is either a little Liberal Or else a little Conservative!
death boon ifs
Is life a boon? If so, it must befall That Death, whene'er he call, Must call too soon.
funny heart long
Bless your heart, they don't mind--they're exceedingly kind-- They don't blame you--as long as you're funny!
life long flats
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!
cracks wages crowns
If the jests that you crack have an orthodox smack, You may get a bland smile from these sages; But should it, by chance, be imported from France, Half-a-crown is stopped out of your wages!
life giving-up riddle
Life's perhaps the only riddle That we shrink from giving up.
blue bills looks
It's true I've got no shirts to wear; It's true my butcher's bill is due; It's true my prospects all look blue-- But don't let that unsettle you
men monkeys evolution-of-man
Darwinian man, though well-behaved, at best is only a monkey shaved.
poverty hunger obsolete
poverty is obsolete and hunger is abolished
humility pride modesty
Wherever valor true is found, true modesty will there abound.