William Gilbert
William Gilbert
Famed dramatist and librettist whose comic operettas with composer Arthur Sullivan include The Mikado, H.M.S. Pinafore, and The Pirates of Penzance. As a playwright of non-musical works, he is known for Pygmalion and Galatea, The Wicked World, and Broken Hearts.
NationalityBritish
ProfessionPlaywright
Date of Birth18 November 1836
fear
We will hang you, never fear, Most politely, most politely.
manners morals
He combines the manners of a Marquis with the morals of a Methodist.
thinking voted
And I always voted at my party's call,And I never thought of thinking for myself at all.
born family help pride
My family pride is something inconceivable. I can't help it. I was born sneering.
greatly himself
He is an Englishman! / For he himself has said it, / And it's greatly to his credit, / That he is an Englishman!
crazy science mind
O that the gods would bring to a miserable end such fictitious, crazy, deformed labours, with which the minds of the studious are blinded!
sea fishing rivers
I am never, never, sick at sea. What never? No never! What never? Hardly ever.
ideas inferiority littles
You have no idea what a poor opinion I have of myself and how little I deserve it.
science soul body
The magnetic force is animate, or imitates a soul; in many respects it surpasses the human soul while it is united to an organic body.
philosophy
Philosophy is for the few.
names grew observation
The magnet's name the observing Grecians drew. From the magnetic region where it grew.
fashion drug abuse
Humor is a drug which it's the fashion to abuse.
life stars moon
A lodestone is a wonderful thing in very many experiments, and like living things. And one of its remarkable virtues in that which the ancients considered to be a living soul in the sky, in the globes and in the stars, in the sun and in the moon.
book looks
Look for knowledge not in books but in things themselves.