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Perhaps if you address the lady
Most politely, most politely,
Flatter and impress the lady
Most politely, most politely.
Humbly beg and humbly sue,
She may deign to look on you.

— W. S. Gilbert

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Topics

Romance

More quotes by W. S. Gilbert

Things are seldom what they seem;
Skim milk masquerades as cream.

H.M.S. Pinafore (1878)

I always voted at my party's call,
And I never thought of thinking for myself at all.

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

When your process of extermination begins, let our deaths be as swift and painless as you can conveniently make them.

The Pirates of Penzance (1879)

Man is a ribald—Man’s a rake,
Man is Nature’s sole mistake!

All W. S. Gilbert quotes →

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Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more,
Men were deceivers ever;
One foot in sea, and one on shore,
To one thing constant never.

William Shakespeare Much Ado About Nothing (1598)

She's beautiful, and therefore to be woo'd;
She is a woman, therefore to be won.

William Shakespeare Henry VI, Part 1 (1592)

Romance requires trust—and the deeper the trust, the deeper the possibility for romance.

Jordan Peterson Beyond Order (2021)

The surest way to hit a woman’s heart is to take aim kneeling.

Douglas William Jerrold

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: W. S. Gilbert (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.