Quotes by W. S. Gilbert

“Gilbert's response to being told they (the words 'ruddy' and 'bloody') meant the same thing was: "Not at all, for that would mean that if I said that I admired your ruddy countenance, which I do, I would be saying that I liked your bloody cheek, which I don't.””

“CHORUSWhat, never?CAPTAINNo, never!CHORUSWhat, CAPTAINWell, hardly ever!””

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

“The meaning doesn't matter if it's only idle chatter of a transcendental kind.””

“Is life a boon? If so, it must befall That Death, whene'er he call, Must call too soon. Though fourscore years he give, Yet one would pray to live Another moon! What kind of plaint have I, Who perish in July? I might have had to die, Perchance, in June! Is life a thorn? Then count it not a whit! Man is well done with it; Soon as he's born He should all means essay To put the plague away; And I, war-worn, Poor captured fugitive, My life most gladly give - I might have had to live, Another morn!””

“Lastly, remember what W. C. Fields had to say on this point: “It ain’t what they call you; it’s what you answer to.””

“This particularly rapid, unintelligible patterIsn't generally heard, and if it is it doesn't matter,This particularly rapid, unintelligible patterIsn't generally heard, and if it is it doesn't matter,matter, matter, matter, matter, matter,matter, matter, matter, matter, matter!””

“Wafted by a favouring galeAs one sometimes is in trances,To a height that few can scale,Save by long and weary dances””

“Crushed again!””

“Sing 'Hey to you”

“Marxist writers are generally either indifferent or mildly hostile to the anti-capitalist movement, which they see as no good substitute for the great projects of communism and social democracy. Now, in one sense this is quite justified[…] However, there seems very little reason to believe that a return to the tactics of the twentieth-century labour movement is going to achieve anything in the future… [W]hat is wrong with commodification is not commodification per se… Marxist tradition goes much further than simply recommending that the excessive power of capital be challenged and curbed. Historically, this tradition tends to assert that such a challenge can only be made by virtue of a direct challenge to the existing relations of production, conceived of as the basis for a social totality, and, crucially, that it can only be made by the proletariat, politically mobilizes as a ‘Class of Itself’. In concrete terms, this means that only the labour movement, being organized and mobilized on the basis of its class identity and demanding the socialization of the means of production, can mount such a challenge… This is where I, and the anti-capitalist movement, part company with classical Marxism… [A]nti-capitalist movement is characterized by a certain pluralism, an unwillingness to impose any one model of social organization, and a refusal of neoliberal hegemony not on the basis of a single class identity or even a single universal human identity, but precisely n the basis of a defence of such pluralism against neoliberalism’s tyrannical monomania.””

“There was an old man of St. Bees,Who was stung in the arm by a wasp; When they asked, "Does it hurt?"He replied, "No, it doesn't,But I thought all the while 'twas a Hornet.””

“remember what W. C. Fields had to say on this point: “It ain’t what they call you; it’s what you answer to.””