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

H.M.S. Pinafore (1878)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Things are seldom what they seem; Skim milk masquerades as cream." by W. S. Gilbert?
W. S. Gilbert photo
W. S. Gilbert 67
English librettist of the Gilbert & Sullivan duo 1836–1911

Related quotes

Henry Ward Beecher photo

“It is not well for a man to pray, cream; and live, skim milk.”

Henry Ward Beecher (1813–1887) American clergyman and activist

Life Thoughts (1858)

Ruth Bader Ginsburg photo

“You're saying, no, State said two kinds of marriage: the full marriage, and then this sort of skim-milk marriage.”

Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933) Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

United States v. Windsor oral argument,

Robert A. Heinlein photo

“The whole principle is wrong; it's like demanding that grown men live on skim milk because the baby can't eat steak.”

Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) American science fiction author

On censorship, in The Man Who Sold the Moon (1950), p. 188; this may be the origin of a remark which in recent years has sometimes become misattributed to Mark Twain: Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it.
Context: How anybody expects a man to stay in business with every two-bit wowser in the country claiming a veto over what we can say and can't say and what we can show and what we can't show — it's enough to make you throw up. The whole principle is wrong; it's like demanding that grown men live on skim milk because the baby can't eat steak.

Gary L. Francione photo

“There is probably more suffering in a glass of milk or an ice cream cone than there is in a steak.”

Gary L. Francione (1954) American legal scholar

Veganism: The Fundamental Principle of the Abolitionist Movement, http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/veganism-the-fundamental-principle-of-the-abolitionist-movement/
Context: There is no meaningful distinction between eating flesh and eating dairy or other animal products. Animals exploited in the dairy industry live longer than those used for meat, but they are treated worse during their lives, and they end up in the same slaughterhouse after which we consume their flesh anyway. There is probably more suffering in a glass of milk or an ice cream cone than there is in a steak.

Zora Neale Hurston photo
Katherine Paterson photo

“I love revision. Where else can spilled milk be turned into ice cream?”

Katherine Paterson (1932) American children's writer born and mainly raised in China
Stephen Colbert photo

“Cynicism masquerades as wisdom, but it is the farthest thing from it.”

Stephen Colbert (1964) American political satirist, writer, comedian, television host, and actor

Knox College commencement address http://www.knox.edu/colbert.xml (3 June 2006)
Context: Don’t be afraid to be a fool. Remember, you cannot be both young and wise. Young people who pretend to be wise to the ways of the world are mostly just cynics. Cynicism masquerades as wisdom, but it is the farthest thing from it. Because cynics don’t learn anything. Because cynicism is a self-imposed blindness, a rejection of the world because we are afraid it will hurt us or disappoint us. Cynics always say no. But saying yes begins things. Saying yes is how things grow. Saying yes leads to knowledge. "Yes" is for young people. So for as long as you have the strength to, say yes.

Richard Lovelace photo

“Here we’ll strip and cool our fire
In cream below, in milk-baths higher;
And when all wells are drawn dry,
I’ll drink a tear out of thine eye.”

Richard Lovelace (1617–1658) English writer and poet

To Amarantha, That She Would Dishevel Her Hair (l. 21–24).
Lucasta (1649)

Related topics