“Away on the hilltop sat combing her hair
His fair Hippopotamine maid.
The Hippopotamus was no ignoramus
And sang her this sweet serenade:
Mud! Mud! Glorious mud!
Nothing quite like it for cooling the blood.
So, follow me, follow, down to the hollow,
And there let us wallow in glorious mud.</i”
The Hippopotamus Song
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Michael Flanders 8
English writer and performer 1922–1975Related quotes

“As a general rule philosophy is like stirring mud or not letting a sleeping dog lie.”
Philosophy
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part XX - First Principles
Context: As a general rule philosophy is like stirring mud or not letting a sleeping dog lie. It is an attempt to deny, circumvent or otherwise escape from the consequences of the interlacing of the roots of things with one another.
“Though the sun beat all day upon the mud,
Still foul the mud remains and bright the sun.”
Fere lo sol lo fango tutto ’l giorno;
Vil riman, ne il sol perde colore.
Canzone. (Poeti del Primo Secolo, Firenze, 1816, p. 92).
Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 302.

“Writing in English is like throwing mud at a wall.”

“You gave me your mud and I have turned it to gold.”
Tu m’as donné ta boue et j’en ai fait de l’or.
"Ébauche d’un épilogue pour la 2e édition," Les Fleurs du Mal (1861), Appendice II: Autres pièces http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Les_Fleurs_du_mal_-_Ebauche_d'un_%C3%A9pilogue_pour_la_2e_%C3%A9dition