She wouldn’t have a Willie or a Sam. I’m her eighth old man named Henery I’m Henery the Eighth, I am!
‘I’m Henery the Eighth, I Am!’ (1911 song)
1.200 Ed Murrow (Edward Roscoe Murrow) 1908-65
This—is London.
Opening his broadcasts from London, 1938-45. E. R. Murrow ‘In Search of Light’ (1967) ‘1938-1945’
He [Winston Churchill] mobilized the English language and sent it into battle to steady his fellow countrymen and hearten those Europeans upon whom the long dark night of tyranny had descended.
Broadcast, 30 November 1954, in ‘In Search of Light’ (1967) p. 276
Anyone who isn’t confused doesn’t really understand the situation.
On the Vietnam War, in Walter Bryan ‘The Improbable Irish’ (1969) ch. 1
1.201 Alfred De Musset 1810-57
Mon verre n’est pas grand mais je bois dans mon verre.
The glass I drink from is not large, but at least it is my own.
‘La Coupe et les lévres’
Malgrè moi l’infini me tourmente.
I can’t help it, the idea of the infinite torments me.
‘Premiéres Poèsies’ ‘L’Espoir en Dieu’
Le seul bien qui me rest au monde Est d’avoir quelquefois pleurè.
The only good thing left to me is that I have sometimes wept.
‘Poémes’
Je suis venu trop tard dans un monde trop vieux.
I have come too late into a world too old.
‘Rollo’ (1833)
1.202 Benito Mussolini 1883-1945
Voglio partire in perfetto orario...D’ora innanzi ogni cosa deve camminare alla perfezione.
We must leave exactly on time...From now on everything must function to perfection.
Speaking to a station-master, in Giorgio Pini ‘Mussolini’ (1939) vol. 2, ch. 6, p. 251. HRH Infanta Eulalia of Spain ‘Courts and Countries after the War’ (1925) ch. 13: ‘The first benefit of Benito Mussolini’s direction in Italy begins to be felt when one crosses the Italian Frontier and hears “ Il treno arriva all’orario [the train is arriving on time]”’
1.203 A. J. Muste 1885-1967
There is no way to peace. Peace is the way.
In ‘New York Times’ 16 November 1967, p. 46
2.0N
2.1Vladimir Nabokov 1899-1977
Her exotic daydreams do not prevent her from being small-town bourgeois at heart, clinging to conventional ideas or committing this or that conventional violation of the conventional, adultery being a most conventional way to rise above the conventional.
‘Lectures on Literature’ (1980) ‘Madame Bovary’
Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.
‘Lolita’ (1955) ch. 1
Life is a great surprise. I do not see why death should not be an even greater one.
‘Pale Fire’ (1962) p. 225.
The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness.
‘Speak, Memory’ (1951) ch. 1
I think like a genius, I write like a distinguished author, and I speak like a child.
‘Strong Opinions’ (1973) foreword
A work of art has no importance whatever to society. It is only important to the individual, and only the individual reader is important to me.
‘Strong Opinions’ (1973) p. 33
2.2 Ralph Nader 1934—
Unsafe at any speed.
Title of book (1965)
2.3 Sarojini Naidu 1879-1949
If only Bapu [Gandhi] knew the cost of setting him up in poverty!
In A. Campbell-Johnson ‘Mission with Mountbatten’ (1951) ch. 12
2.4 Ian Nairn 1930—
If what is called development is allowed to multiply at the present rate, then by the end of the century Great Britain will consist of isolated oases of preserved monuments in a desert of wire, concrete roads, cosy plots and bungalows...Upon this new Britain the Review bestows a name in the hope that it will stick—SUBTOPIA.
‘Architectural Review’ June 1955 p. 365
2.5 Fridtjof Nansen 1861-1930
Never stop because you are afraid—you are never so likely to be wrong. Never keep a line of
retreat: it is a wretched invention. The difficult is what takes a little time; the impossible is what takes a little longer.
In ‘Listener’ 14 December 1939, p. 1153.
2.6 Napoleon I 1769-1821
The Channel is a mere ditch, and will be crossed as soon as someone has the courage to attempt it.
‘Correspondance de Napolèon Ier’ (1854-69) vol. 9 (16 November 1803)
A prince who gets a reputation for good nature in the first year of his reign, is laughed at in the second.
‘Correspondance de Napolèon Ier’ (1854-69) vol. 15 (4 April 1807)
Religion is an all-important matter in a public school for girls. Whatever people say, it is the mother’s safeguard, and the husband’s. What we ask of education is not that girls should think, but that they should believe.
‘Correspondance de Napolèon Ier’ (1854-69) vol. 15 (15 May 1807)
A la guerre, les trois quarts sont des affaires morales, la balance des forces rèelles n’est que pour un autre quart.
In war, three-quarters turns on personal character and relations; the balance of manpower and
materials counts only for the remaining quarter.
‘Correspondance de Napolèon Ier’ vol. 17 (1865) no.14276 ‘Observations sur les affaires d’Espagne, SaintCloud, 27 août 1808’
It is a matter of great interest what sovereigns are doing; but as to what Grand Duchesses are doing—Who cares?
‘Lettres inèdits de Napolèon I’ (1897) vol. 2, p. 915 (17 December 1811)
Les savants conçurent une autre idèe tout-á-fait ètrangére au bienfait de l’unitè de poids et de mesures; ils y adaptérent la numèration dècimale, en prenant le métre pour unitè; ils supprimérent tous les nombres complexes. Rien n’est plus contraire á l’organisation de l’esprit, de la mèmoire et de l’imagination...Le nouveau systéme de poids et mesures sera un sujet d’embarras et de difficultès pour plusieurs gènèrations...C’est tourmenter le peuple par des vètilles!!!
The scientists had another idea which was totally at odds with the benefits to be derived from the standardization of weights and measures; they adapted to them the decimal system, on the basis of the metre as a unit; they suppressed all complicated numbers. Nothing is more contrary to the organization of the mind, of the memory, and of the imagination...The new system of weights and measures will be a stumbling block and the source of difficulties for several
generations...It’s just tormenting the people with trivia!!!
Referring to the introduction of the metric system, in ‘Mèmoires...ècrits á Ste-Hèléne’ bk. 4, ch. 21, pt. 4
It is easier to put up with unpleasantness from a man of one’s own way of thinking than from one who takes an entirely different point of view.
‘Mèmoires et Correspondance publiques et militaires du Roi Joseph’ (1855) vol. 3 (14 April 1807)
Du sublime au ridicule il n’y a qu’un pas.
There is only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.
To De Pradt, Polish ambassador, after the retreat from Moscow in 1812, in D. G. De Pradt ‘Histoire de l’Ambassade dans le grand-duchè de Varsovie en 1812’ (1815) p. 215.
Soldats, songez que, du haut de ces pyramides, quarante siécles vous contemplent.
Think of it, soldiers; from the summit of these pyramids, forty centuries look down upon you.
Speech to the Army of Egypt on 21 July 1798, before the Battle of the Pyramids in Gourgaud ‘Mèmoires, Guerre d’Orient’ 1, p. 160
Quant au courage moral, il avait trouvè fort rare, disait-il, celui de deux heures aprés minuit; c’est-á-dire le courage de l’improviste.
As to moral courage, I have very rarely met with two o’clock in the morning courage: I mean
instantaneous courage.
In E. A. de Las Cases ‘Mèmorial de Ste-Hèléne’ (1823) vol. 1, pt. 2, 4-5 December 1815
An army marches on its stomach.
Attributed, but probably condensed from a long passage in E. A. de Las Cases ‘Mèmorial de Ste-
Hèléne’ (1823) vol. 4, 14 November 1816. ‘Windsor Magazine’ 1904 p. 268. Also attributed to Frederick the Great, in ‘Notes and Queries’ 10 March 1866, p. 196
On s’engage, et aprés on voit.
One engages [with the enemy]—and then one sees.
Habitual mode of describing his system of warfare, in Caulincourt ‘Conversations with Napoleon’
La carriére ouverte aux talents.
The career open to talents.
In Barry E. O’Meara ‘Napoleon in Exile’ (1822) vol. 1, p. 103
L’Angleterre est une nation de boutiquiers.
England is a nation of shopkeepers.
Attributed by Barry E. O’Meara ‘Napoleon in Exile’ (1822) vol. 2, p. 81.
As though he had 200,000 men.
When asked how to treat the Pope, in J. M. Robinson ‘Cardinal Consalvi’ (1987) p. 65.
Has he luck?
Attributed. Habitually asked, to assess a man’s probable practical value. A. J. P. Taylor ‘Politics in Wartime’ (1964) ch. 16
2.7 Ogden Nash 1902-1971
The turtle lives ’twixt plated decks Which practically conceal its sex. I think it clever of the turtle
In such a fix to be so fertile.
‘Autres Bêtes, Autres Moeurs’ (1931)
The camel has a single hump; The dromedary, two;
Or else the other way around,
I’m never sure. Are you?
‘The Camel’ (1936)
The cow is of the bovine ilk; One end is moo, the other, milk;
‘The Cow’ (1931)
One would be in less danger From the wiles of the stranger If one’s own kin and kith Were more fun to be with.
‘Family Court’ (1931)
Parsley
Is gharsley.
‘Further Reflections on Parsley’ (1842)
Beneath this slab John Brown is stowed. He watched the ads, And not the road.
‘Lather as You Go’ (1942)
I have a bone to pick with Fate. Come here and tell me, girlie,
Do you think my mind is maturing late, Or simply rotted early?
‘Lines on Facing Forty’ (1942)
He tells you when you’ve got on too much lipstick, And helps you with your girdle when your hips stick.
‘The Perfect Husband’ (1949)
Any kiddie in school can love like a fool, But hating, my boy, is an art.
‘Plea for Less Malice Toward None’ (1933)
Candy Is dandy
But liquor Is quicker.
‘Reflections on Ice-breaking’ (1931)
I test my bath before I sit,
And I’m always moved to wonderment That what chills the finger not a bit
Is so frigid upon the fundament.
‘Samson Agonistes’ (1942)
I think that I shall never see
A billboard lovely as a tree. Perhaps, unless the billboards fall, I’ll never see a tree at all.
‘Song of the Open Road’ (1933).
Sure, deck your lower limbs in pants; Yours are the limbs, my sweeting. You look divine as you advance— Have you seen yourself retreating?
‘What’s the Use?’ (1940)
Professional men, they have no cares; whatever happens, they get theirs.
‘I Yield to my Learned Brother’ (1935)
2.8 Thomas Nashe 1567-1601
O, tis a precious apothegmatical Pedant, who will find matter enough to dilate a whole day of the first invention of Fy, fa, fum, I smell the blood of an English-man.
‘Have with you to Saffron-walden’ (1596) F3 recto
Brightness falls from the air; Queens have died young and fair; Dust hath closed Helen’s eye.
I am sick, I must die. Lord have mercy on us.
‘In Time of Pestilence’
From winter, plague and pestilence, good lord, deliver us!
Songs from ‘Summer’s Last Will and Testament’ (performed c.1592, published 1600)
Spring, the sweet spring, is the year’s pleasant king; Then blooms each thing, then maids dance in a ring, Cold doth not sting, the pretty birds do sing:
Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo
‘Summer’s Last Will and Testament’ (1600) Song
2.9 Terry Nation
Exterminate! Exterminate!
The Daleks in ‘Dr Who’ (BBC television series) December 1963 onwards
2.10 James Ball Naylor 1860-1945
King David and King Solomon Led merry, merry lives,
With many, many lady friends, And many, many wives;
But when old age crept over them—
With many, many qualms!— King Solomon wrote the Proverbs And King David wrote the Psalms.
‘King David and King Solomon’ (1935)
2.11 Jawaharlal Nehru 1889-1964
The light has gone out of our lives and there is darkness everywhere.
In a broadcast, 30 January 1948, following Gandhi’s assassination; Richard J. Walsh ‘Nehru on Gandhi’ (1948) ch. 6
Democracy and socialism are means to an end, not the end itself.
‘Basic Approach’, written for private circulation and reprinted in Vincent Shean ‘Nehru: the Years of Power’ (1960) p. 294
Normally speaking, it may be said that the forces of a capitalist society, if left unchecked, tend to make the rich richer and the poor poorer and thus increase the gap between them.
‘Basic Approach’, reprinted in Vincent Shean ‘Nehru: the Years of Power’ (1960) p. 295
2.12 Horatio, Lord Nelson 1758-1805
It is my turn now; and if I come back, it is yours.
Exercising his privilege, as second lieutenant, to board a prize ship before the Master, in Robert Southey ‘Life of Nelson’ (1813) ch. 1
You must consider every man your enemy who speaks ill of your king: and...you must hate a Frenchman as you hate the devil.
In Robert Southey ‘Life of Nelson’ (1813) ch. 3
Before this time to-morrow I shall have gained a peerage, or Westminster Abbey.
Before the battle of the Nile, in Robert Southey ‘Life of Nelson’ (1813) ch. 5
I have only one eye,—I have a right to be blind sometimes...I really do not see the signal!
At the battle of Copenhagen, in Robert Southey ‘Life of Nelson’ (1813) ch. 7
In honour I gained them, and in honour I will die with them.
When asked to cover the stars on his uniform, in Robert Southey ‘Life of Nelson’ (1813) ch. 9
I believe my arrival was most welcome, not only to the Commander of the Fleet but almost to every individual in it; and when I came to explain to them the ‘Nelson touch’, it was like an electric shock. Some shed tears, all approved—’It was new—it was singular—it was simple!’
Letter to Lady Hamilton, 1 October 1805, in Robert Southey ‘Life of Nelson’ (1813) ch. 9
England expects that every man will do his duty.
At the battle of Trafalgar, in Robert Southey ‘Life of Nelson’ (1813) ch. 9
This is too warm work, Hardy, to last long.
At the battle of Trafalgar, in Robert Southey ‘Life of Nelson’ (1813) ch. 9
Thank God, I have done my duty.
At the battle of Trafalgar, in Robert Southey ‘Life of Nelson’ (1813) ch. 9
Kiss me, Hardy.
At the battle of Trafalgar, in Robert Southey ‘Life of Nelson’ (1813) ch. 9
2.13 Emperor Nero A.D. 37-68
Qualis artifex pereo!
What an artist dies with me!
In Suetonius ‘Lives of the Caesars’ ‘Nero’ sect. 49
2.14 Gèrard de Nerval 1808-55
Dieu est mort! le ciel est vide—
Pleurez! enfants, vous n’avez plus de pére.
God is dead! Heaven is empty—Weep, children, you no longer have a father.
‘Les Chiméres’ (1854) ‘Le Christ aux Oliviers’ epigraph (summarising a passage in Jean Paul’s Blumen- Frucht-und Dornstücke (1796-7) in which God’s children are referred to as ‘orphans’)
Je suis le tènèbreux,—le veuf,—l’inconsolè, Le prince d’Aquitaine á la tour abolie:
Ma seule ètoile est morte, et mon luth constellè Porte le soleil noir de la mèlancolie.
I am the darkly shaded, the bereaved, the inconsolate, the prince of Aquitaine, with the blasted
tower. My only star is dead, and my star-strewn lute carries on it the black sun of melancholy.
‘El Desdichado’
En quoi un homard est-il plus ridicule qu’un chien...ou [que] toute autre bête dont on se fait suivre? J’ai le goût des homards, qui sont tranquilles, sèrieux, savent les secrets de la mer, n’aboient pas et n’avalent pas la monade des gens comme les chiens, si antipathiques á Goethe, lequel pourtant n’ètait pas fou.
Why should a lobster be any more ridiculous than a dog...or any other animal that one chooses to take for a walk? I have a liking for lobsters. They are peaceful, serious creatures. They know the secrets of the sea, they don’t bark, and they don’t gnaw upon one’s monadic privacy like dogs
do. And Goethe had an aversion to dogs, and he wasn’t mad.
In justification of his walking a lobster, on a lead, in the gardens of the Palais Royal, in T. Gautier ‘Portraits et Souvenirs Littèraires’ (1875) (translated by Richard Holmes in T. Gautier ‘My Phantoms’ (1976) p. 149)
2.15 Allan Nevins 1890-1971
The former Allies had blundered in the past by offering Germany too little, and offering even that too late, until finally Nazi Germany had become a menace to all mankind.
In ‘Current History’ (New York) May 1935, p. 178
2.16 Sir Henry Newbolt 1862-1938
‘Take my drum to England, hang et by the shore, Strike et when your powder’s runnin’ low;
If the Dons sight Devon, I’ll quit the port o’ Heaven,
An’ drum them up the Channel as we drummed them long ago.’
‘Drake’s Drum’
Drake he’s in his hammock till the great Armadas come. (Capten, art tha sleepin’ there below?)
Slung atween the round shot, listenin’ for the drum, An’ dreamin’ arl the time o’ Plymouth Hoe.
Call him on the deep sea, call him up the Sound, Call him when ye sail to meet the foe;
Where the old trade’s plyin’ an’ the old flag flyin’
They shall find him ware an’ wakin’, as they found him long ago!
‘Drake’s Drum’
Now the sunset breezes shiver, And she’s fading down the river, But in England’s song for ever She’s the Fighting Tèmèraire.
‘The Fighting Tèmèraire’
There’s a breathless hush in the Close to-night— Ten to make and the match to win—
A bumping pitch and a blinding light, An hour to play and the last man in.
And it’s not for the sake of a ribboned coat, Or the selfish hope of a season’s fame,
But his Captain’s hand on his shoulder smote— ‘Play up! play up! and play the game!’
‘Vitaï Lampada’
2.17 Anthony Newley 1931—and Leslie Bricusse 1931—
Stop the world, I want to get off.
Title of musical (1961)
2.18 Cardinal Newman 1801-90
It is very difficult to get up resentment towards persons whom one has never seen.
‘Apologia pro Vita Sua’ (1864) ‘Mr Kingsley’s Method of Disputation’
There is such a thing as legitimate warfare: war has its laws; there are things which may fairly be done, and things which may not be done...He has attempted (as I may call it) to poison the wells.
‘Apologia pro Vita Sua’ (1864) ‘Mr Kingsley’s Method of Disputation’
I will vanquish, not my Accuser, but my judges.
‘Apologia pro Vita Sua’ (1864) ‘True Mode of meeting Mr Kingsley’
Two and two only supreme and luminously self-evident beings, myself and my Creator.
‘Apologia pro Vita Sua’ (1864) ‘History of My Religious Opinions to the Year 1833’
It would be a gain to the country were it vastly more superstitious, more bigoted, more gloomy, more fierce in its religion than at present it shows itself to be.
‘Apologia pro Vita Sua’ (1864) ‘History of My Religious Opinions from 1833 to 1839’
From the age of fifteen, dogma has been the fundamental principle of my religion: I know no other religion; I cannot enter into the idea of any other sort of religion; religion, as a mere sentiment, is to me a dream and a mockery.
‘Apologia pro Vita Sua’ (1864) ‘History of My Religious Opinions from 1833 to 1839’
This is what the Church is said to want, not party men, but sensible, temperate, sober, welljudging persons, to guide it through the channel of no-meaning, between the Scylla and Charybdis of Aye and No.
‘Apologia pro Vita Sua’ (1864) ‘History of My Religious Opinions from 1833 to 1839’
Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt.
‘Apologia pro Vita Sua’ (1864) ‘Position of my Mind since 1845’
The all-corroding, all-dissolving scepticism of the intellect in religious enquiries.
‘Apologia pro Vita Sua’ (1864) ‘Position of my Mind since 1845’
It is almost a definition of a gentleman to say that he is one who never inflicts pain.
‘The Idea of a University’ (1852) ‘Knowledge and Religious Duty’
She [the Catholic Church] holds that it were better for sun and moon to drop from heaven, for the earth to fail, and for all the many millions who are upon it to die of starvation in extremest agony, as far as temporal affliction goes, than that one soul, I will not say, should be lost, but should commit one single venial sin, should tell one wilful untruth...or steal one poor farthing without excuse.
‘Lectures on Anglican Difficulties’ (1852) Lecture 8
And this is all that is known, and more than all—yet nothing to what the angels know—of the life of a servant of God, who sinned and repented, and did penance and washed out his sins, and became a Saint, and reigns with Christ in heaven.
‘Lives of the English Saints’ (1844-5) ‘The Legend of Saint Bettelin’; though attributed to Newman the phrase ‘and more than all’ may have been added by J. A. Froude
It is as absurd to argue men, as to torture them, into believing.
‘The Usurpations of Reason’ (1831), in ‘Oxford University Sermons’ (1843) no. 4
When men understand what each other mean, they see, for the most part, that controversy is either superfluous or hopeless.
‘Faith and Reason, contrasted as Habits of Mind’ (Epiphany, 1839), in ‘Oxford University Sermons’ (1843) no. 10
May He support us all the day long, till the shades lengthen, and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done! Then in His mercy may He give us a safe lodging, and a holy rest, and peace at the last.
‘Wisdom and Innocence’ (19 February 1843), in ‘Sermons Bearing on Subjects of the Day’ (1843) no. 20
Firmly I believe and truly God is Three, and God is One;
