The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Preface

All thinking for themselves is what
No man can face with equanimity.
‘Iolanthe’ (1882) act 2
The House of Peers, throughout the war,
Did nothing in particular,
And did it very well.
‘Iolanthe’ (1882) act 2
When you’re lying awake with a dismal headache, and repose is taboo’d by anxiety,
I conceive you may use any language you choose to indulge in, without impropriety.
‘Iolanthe’ (1882) act 2
For you dream you are crossing the Channel, and tossing about in a steamer from Harwich—
Which is something between a large bathing machine and a very small second class carriage.
‘Iolanthe’ (1882) act 2
And bound on that journey you find your attorney (who started that morning from Devon);
He’s a bit undersized, and you don’t feel surprised when he tells you he’s only eleven.
‘Iolanthe’ (1882) act 2
In your shirt and your socks (the black silk with gold clocks), crossing Salisbury
Plain on a bicycle.
‘Iolanthe’ (1882) act 2
The shares are a penny, and ever so many are taken by Rothschild and Baring,
And just as a few are allotted to you, you awake with a shudder despairing.
‘Iolanthe’ (1882) act 2
A wandering minstrel I—
A thing of shreds and patches.
Of ballads, songs and snatches,
And dreamy lullaby!
‘The Mikado’ (1885) act 1.
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.
‘The Mikado’ (1885) act 1
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!
‘The Mikado’ (1885) act 1
The idiot who praises, with enthusiastic tone,
All centuries but this, and every country but his own.
‘The Mikado’ (1885) act 1.
Three little maids from school are we,
Pert as a schoolgirl well can be,