W.S. Gilbert Quotes

Earth will grow worse till men redeem it, And wars more evil, ere all wars cease.

There is also an insulting speech about 'one grey day just like another'. You might as well talk about one green tree like another.

A faith is that which is able to survive a mood.

The hands that had made the sun and stars were too small to reach the huge heads of the cattle. Upon this paradox, we might almost say upon this jest, all the literature of our faith is founded.

If the world becomes pagan and perishes, the last man left alive would do well to quote the Iliad and die.

Though I believe in liberalism, I find it difficult to believe in liberals.

I am concerned with a certain way of looking at life, which was created in me by the fairy tales, but has since been meekly ratified by the mere facts.

Theology is simply that part of religion that requires brains.

The objection to fairy stories is that they tell children there are dragons. But children have always known there are dragons. Fairy stories tell children that dragons can be killed.

We talk of wild animals, but the wildest animal is man.

It is very good for a man to talk about what he does not understand; as long as he understands that he does not understand it.

The noble temptation to see too much in everything.

Russian fighters are always bouncing around and using a lot of effort with the punches they throw and grinding for takedowns. Anyone would get tired with that style.

Your success as a writer will probably not depend on how well you write so much as in how you handle rejections.

Funny thing, every time an angel appeared to someone in the Bible, the first thing he'd say was, "Fear not."... I guess they were pretty spectacular.

The fact is that much misunderstanding is often caused by our modern attempts to limit too strictly the meaning of a Greek word.

The fashions of the ages vary in this direction and that, but they vary for the most part from a central road which was struck out by the imagination of Greece.

Ah, lady, when I gave my heart to thee, It passed into thy lifelong regency.

... my today's self perpetually slips out of any hold of it that I may try to take.

All I do know, for certain, after 53 years in this business, is that writers who sincerely think that their language can represent reality ought to be plumbers.

The maimings of love are endlessly funny.

Rapacity plus taste is a formidable combination, since it so often passes for intelligence. One pities the artist in a world of such predators, all of whom are deeply engaged in the arts too.

Your Cans must always be bigger than your can NOTS!

To hear the faint sound of oars in the silence as a rowboat comes slowly out and then goes back is truly worth all the years of sorrow that are to come.

Question the bravery. Say it's not courage. Call it a passion.

Being called a sophisticated snake oil salesman was a low point in my personal career.

I think the economy in the US has surprised. The old adage is that if America sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold. If the US economy does well, the global economy will do well.

To me, at forty-four years old, my book was a search for truth and identity.

Painting does not come from intelligence so much, as from sight and feeling and invention.

Unless a man works he cannot find out what he is able to do.

Avowed work, even when uncongenial, is far less trying to patience than feigned pleasure.

I wonder how it is that so cheerful-looking a tree as the willow should ever have become associated with ideas of sadness.

The opinions of men who think are always growing and changing, like living children.

You may have a cat in the room with you without anxiety about anything except eatables. The presence of a cat is positively soothing to a student.

Conversation is interesting in proportion to the originality of the central ideas which serve as pivots and the fitness of the little facts and observations which are contributed by the talkers.

Society is, and must be, based upon appearances, and not upon the deepest appearances, and not realities.

There are natures that go to the streams of life in great cities as the hart goes to the water brooks.

I'd to do more stuff with less sarcasm.

I do like to hang out in the corner and keep my eye on the party, or be outside in a smaller group.

I'm super shy, especially at parties.

I think I really see myself doing TV more than ever.

A good place to start initially would be school plays.

It may be hard on some fathers not to have a son, but it is much harder on a boy not to have a father.

Fast pitch softball is just as dangerous as baseball. The ball is bigger so you can see it better, but the size also makes for a bigger space to move out of its way.

You know what you are best at, and writing is just not my thing, but I like it.

I tell people I'm big in the music business like a barnacle is big in shipping.

The music pot is broad. It's just unfortunate that the record companies cry the blues as frequently as they do.

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.

In short, whoever you may be, To this conclusion you'll agree, When every one is somebodee, Then no one's anybody!

Utopia's quite another land; In her enterprising movements, She is England--with improvements