Pygmalion Quotes

Quote 1: "If the play makes the public aware that there are such people as phoneticians, and that they are among its most important people in England at present, it will serve its turn." Preface, pg. 9

Quote 2: "Nah then, Freddy: look wh' y' gowin, deah," Act 1, pg. 15

Quote 3: "Garn! Oh do buy a flower off me, Captain. I can change a half-a-crown." Act 1, pg. 19

Quote 4: "copper's nark." Act 1, pg. 21

Quote 5: "A woman who utters such depressing and disgusting sounds has no right to be anywhere - no right to live. Remember that you are a human being with a soul and the divine gift or articulate speech: that your native language is the language of Shakespear and Milton and The Bible; and don't sit there crooning like a bilious pigeon." Act 1, pg. 27

Quote 6: "He is, in fact, but for his years and size, rather like a very impetuous baby 'taking notice' eagerly and loudly, and requiring almost as much watching to keep him out of unintended mischief." Act 2, pg. 34

Quote 7: "It's almost irresistible. She is so deliciously low - so horribly dirty" Act 2, pg. 40

Quote 8: "The moment I let a woman make friends with me, she becomes jealous, exacting, suspicious, and a damned nuisance. I find that the moment I let myself make friends with a woman, I become selfish and tyrannical. Women upset everything. When you let them into your life, you find that the woman is driving at one thing and youre driving at another." Act 2, pg. 50

Quote 9: "Only this morning you applied it to your boots, to the butter, and to the brown bread." Act 2, pg. 51

Quote 10: "I'm willing to tell you. I'm wanting to tell you. I'm waiting to tell you." Act 2, pg. 55

Quote 11: "Well whats a five-pound note to you? And whats Eliza to me?" Act 2, pg. 57

Quote 12: "genteel poverty." Act 3, pg. 70

Quote 13: "Walk! Not bloody likely [Sensation]. I am going to take a taxi." Act 3, pg. 78

Quote 14: "You have no idea how frightfully interesting it is to take a human being and change her into a quite different human being by creating a new speech for her. It's filling up the deepest gulf that separates class from class and soul from soul." Act 3, pg. 82

Quote 15: "It was a silly notion: the whole thing has been a bore." Act 4, pg. 98

Quote 16: " Higgins: [formally] Damn Mrs. Pearce; and damn the coffee; and damn you; and [wildly] damn my own folly in having lavished my hard-earned knowledge and the treasure of my regard and intimacy on a heartless guttersnipe. [ He goes out with impressive decorum, and spoils it by slamming the door savagely.]" Act 4, pg. 105

Quote 17: "The constable shakes his head, reflecting on his own courtship and on the vanity of human hopes." Act 4, pg. 106

Quote 18: "the most original moralist at present in England, to the best of [his] knowledge, was Alfred Doolittle, a common dustman?" Act 5, pg. 115

Quote 19: "you took the money for the girl; and you have no right to take her as well." Act 5, pg. 117

Quote 20: "You find me cold, unfeeling, selfish, don't you? Very well: be off with you to the sort of people you like. Marry some sentimental hog or other with lots of money, and a thick pair of lips to kiss you with and a thick pair of boots to kick you with." Act 5, pg. 130