W. S. Gilbert - The Mikado

23 Sourced Quotes

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Merely corroborative detail, intended to give artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative.

W. S. Gilbert
Pooh Bah: This professional conscientiousness is highly creditable to you, but it places us in a very awkward position.
Koko: My good sir, the awkwardness of your position is grace itself compared with that of a man engaged in the act of cutting off his own head.

W. S. Gilbert
See how the Fates their gifts allot, For A is happy-B is not. Yet B is worthy, I dare say, Of more prosperity than A.

W. S. Gilbert
The idiot who praises, with enthusiastic tone,
All centuries but this and every country but his own.

W. S. Gilbert
I can trace my ancestry back to a protoplasmal primordial atomic globule. Consequently, my family pride is something in-conceivable. I can't help it. I was born sneering.

W. S. Gilbert
On a cloth untrue With a twisted cue
And elliptical billiard balls.

W. S. Gilbert
As someday it may happen that a victim must be found
I've got a little list, I've got a little list
Of society offenders who might well be underground,
And who never would be missed—who never would be missed!

W. S. Gilbert
[Koko is negotiating the terms by which he can behead Nanki-Poo in his place, and they involve letting the latter be married to his fiance until he is executed]
Koko: But my position during the next month will be most unpleasant, most unpleasant!
Nanki-Poo: Not nearly so unpleasant as mine at the end of it.

W. S. Gilbert
To sit in solemn silence in 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!

W. S. Gilbert
The flowers that bloom in the spring,
Tra la,
Have nothing to do with the case.

W. S. Gilbert
I seized him by his little pig-tail,
And on his knees fell he,
As he squirmed and struggled,
And gurgled and guggled,
I drew my snickersnee!

W. S. Gilbert
I have a left shoulder-blade that is a miracle of loveliness. People come miles to see it. My right elbow has a fascination that few can resist.

W. S. Gilbert
Three little maids from school are we,
Pert as a schoolgirl well can be,
Filled to the brim with girlish glee.

W. S. Gilbert
I am, in point of fact, a particularly haughty and exclusive person, of pre-Adamite ancestral descent. You will understand this when I tell you that I can trace my ancestry back to a protoplasmal primordial atomic globule. Consequently, my family pride is something inconceivable. I can't help it. I was born sneering.

W. S. Gilbert
Here's a pretty state of things!
Here's a pretty how-de-do!

W. S. Gilbert
A wandering minstrel I—
A thing of shreds and patches.
Of ballads, songs and snatches,
And dreamy lullaby!

W. S. Gilbert
Ah, pray make no mistake,
We are not shy;
We're very wide awake,
The moon and I!

W. S. Gilbert
My object all sublime
I shall achieve in time—
To let the punishment fit the crime,
The punishment fit the crime.

W. S. Gilbert
There's a fascination frantic
In a ruin that's romantic;
Do you think you are sufficiently decayed?

W. S. Gilbert
Three little maids who, all unwary,
Come from a ladies' seminary.

W. S. Gilbert
…in the first place, self decapitation is an extremely difficult, not to say dangerous, thing to attempt; and, in the second, it's suicide, and suicide is a capital offence.

W. S. Gilbert
As some day it may happen that a victim must be found,
I've got a little list—I've got a little list
Of society offenders who might well be under ground
And who never would be missed—who never would be missed!

W. S. Gilbert
... but it's an unjust world, and virtue is triumphant only in theatrical performances.

W. S. Gilbert