The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations

And I next acknowledge duly Manhood taken by the Son.

‘The Dream of Gerontius’ (1865)

Praise to the Holiest in the height, And in the depth be praise;

In all his words most wonderful, Most sure in all His ways.

‘The Dream of Gerontius’ (1865)

Softly and gently, in my most loving arms I now enfold thee.

‘The Dream of Gerontius’ (1865)

Lead, kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom, Lead thou me on;

The night is dark, and I am far from home, Lead thou me on.

Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see The distant scene; one step enough for me.

‘Lead, kindly Light’ (1834)

I loved the garish day, and spite of fears, Pride ruled my will: remember not past years.

‘Lead, kindly Light’ (1834).

We can believe what we choose. We are answerable for what we choose to believe.

Letter to Mrs William Froude, 27 June 1848

If I am obliged to bring religion into after-dinner roasts (which indeed does not seem quite the thing) I shall drink—to the Pope, if you please—still, to Conscience first, and to the Pope afterwards.

Letter to the Duke of Norfolk

Ex umbris et imaginibus in veritatem.

From shadows and types to the reality.

Motto on his memorial tablet, in Owen Chadwick ‘Newman’ (1983) p. 78

Cor ad cor loquitur.

Heart speaks to heart.

Motto adopted for his coat-of-arms as cardinal, 1879

2.19 Huey Newton 1942—

I suggested [in 1966] that we use the panther as our symbol and call our political vehicle the Black Panther Party. The panther is a fierce animal, but he will not attack until he is backed into a corner; then he will strike out.

‘Revolutionary Suicide’ (1973) ch. 16

2.20 Sir Isaac Newton 1642-1727

If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.

Letter to Robert Hooke, 5 February 1676.

Philosophy is such an impertinently litigous lady that a man has as good be engaged in law suits as have to do with her.

Letter to Edmond Halley, 20 June 1685, in ‘Correspondence’ vol. 2, p. 437

Whence is it that Nature does nothing in vain: and whence arises all that order and beauty which we see in the world?...does it not appear from phenomena that there is a Being incorporeal, living, intelligent, omnipresent, who in infinite space, as it were in his Sensory, sees the things themselves intimately, and thoroughly perceives them, and comprehends them wholly.

‘Opticks’ (1730 ed.) bk. 3, pt. 1, qu. 28

The changing of bodies into light, and light into bodies, is very conformable to the course of Nature, which seems delighted with transmutations.

‘Opticks’ (1730 ed.) bk. 3, pt. 1, qu. 30

Every body continues in its state of rest, or of uniform motion in a right line, unless it is compelled to change that state by forces impressed upon it.

‘Principia Mathematica’ (1687) Laws of Motion 1 (translated by Andrew Motte, 1729)

To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction: or, the mutual actions of two bodies upon each other are always equal, and directed to contrary parts.

‘Principia Mathematica’ (1687) Laws of Motion 3

Hypotheses non fingo.

I do not feign hypotheses.

‘Principia Mathematica’ (1713 ed.) ‘Scholium Generale’

O Diamond! Diamond! thou little knowest the mischief done!

Remark to a dog who knocked down a candle and so set fire to some papers and ‘destroyed the almost finished labours of some years’, in Thomas Maude ‘Wensley-Dale...a Poem’ (1772) st. 23 n. (probably apocryphal. D. Gjertsen ‘The Newton Handbook’ (1986) p. 177

I don’t know what I may seem to the world, but as to myself, I seem only to have been like a boy playing on the sea-shore and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.

In Joseph Spence ‘Anecdotes’ (ed. J. Osborn, 1966) no. 1259

2.21 Nicholas I 1796-1855

Turkey is a dying man. We may endeavour to keep him alive, but we shall not succeed. He will, he must die.

In F. Max Müller (ed.) ‘Memoirs of Baron Stockmar’ (translated by G. A. M. Müller, 1872) vol. 2, p. 107

Russia has two generals in whom she can confide—Generals Janvier [January] and Fèvrier [February].

Attributed. ‘Punch’ 10 March 1855

2.22 Vivian Nicholson 1936—

Spend, spend, spend.

Title of television drama (1977) by Jack Rosenthal, based on her life; on arriving to collect her husband’s football pools winnings of £152,000 she told reporters, ‘I want to spend, and spend, and spend’; in ‘Daily Herald’ 28 September 1961

2.23 Nicias c.470-413 B.C.

For a city consists in its men, and not in its walls nor ships empty of men.

Speech to the defeated Athenian army at Syracuse, 413 B.C. in Thucydides ‘History of the Peloponnesian Wars’ bk. 7, sect. 77

2.24 Sir Harold Nicolson 1886-1968

Ponderous and uncertain is that relation between pressure and resistance which constitutes the balance of power. The arch of peace is morticed by no iron tenons: the monoliths of which it is composed are joined by no cement...One night a handful of dust will patter from the vaulting: the bats will squeak and wheel in sudden panic: nor can the fragile fingers of man then stay the rush and rumble of destruction.

‘Public Faces’ (1932) ch. 6

We shall have to walk and live a Woolworth life hereafter.

Predicting the outcome of World War II, in Nigel Nicolson (ed.) ‘Harold Nicolson: Diaries and Letters 193945’ (1967) 4 June 1941

I am haunted by mental decay such as I saw creeping over Ramsay MacDonald. A gradual dimming of the lights.

In Nigel Nicolson (ed.) ‘Harold Nicolson: Diaries and Letters 1945-62’ (1968) 28 April 1947

For seventeen years he did nothing at all but kill animals and stick in stamps.

On King George V, in Nigel Nicolson (ed.) ‘Harold Nicolson: Diaries and Letters 1945-62’ (1968) 17 August 1949

2.25 Reinhold Niebuhr 1892-1971

Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.

‘Children of Light and Children of Darkness’ (1944) foreword

God, give us the serenity to accept what cannot be changed; Give us the courage to change what should be changed; Give us the wisdom to distinguish one from the other.

In Richard Wightman Fox ‘Reinhold Niebuhr’ (1985) ch. 12 (prayer said to have been first published in 1951)

2.26 Carl Nielsen 1865-1931

Musik er liv, som dette und slukkelig.

Music is life, and like it is inextinguishable.

‘4th Symphony’ (‘The Inextinguishable’, 1916) preface

2.27 Martin Niemöller 1892-1984

When Hitler attacked the Jews I was not a Jew, therefore, I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the Catholics, I was not a Catholic, and therefore, I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the unions and the industrialists, I was not a member of the unions and I was not concerned. Then, Hitler attacked me and the Protestant church—and there was nobody left to be concerned.

In ‘Congressional Record’ 14 October 1968, p. 31636; often attributed in the form ‘In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist...’ and so on

2.28 Friedrich Nietzsche 1844-1900

Ich lehre euch den Übermenschen. Der Mensch ist Etwas, das überwunden werden soll.

I teach you the superman. Man is something to be surpassed.

‘Also Sprach Zarathustra’ (1883) prologue, sect. 3

Auf Andere warte ich...auf Höhere, Stärkere, Sieghaftere, Wohlgemutere, Solche, die rechtwinklig gebaut sind an Leib und Seele: lachende Löwen müssen kommen.

For others do I wait...for higher ones, stronger ones, more triumphant ones, merrier ones, for

such as are built squarely in body and soul: laughing lions must come.

‘Also Sprach Zarathustra’ (1883) bk. 4 ‘Die Begrüssung’

You are going to women? Do not forget the whip.

‘Also Sprach Zarathustra’ (1883)

Das Erbarmen Gottes mit der einzigen Not, die alle Paradiese an sich haben, kennt keine Grenzen: er schuf alsbald noch andere Tiere. Erster Fehlgriff Gottes: der Mensch fand die Tiere nicht unterhaltend,—er herrschte über sie, er wollte nicht einmal ‘Tier’ sein.

[Man found a solitary existence tedious.] There are no limits to God’s compassion with Paradises over their one universally felt want: he immediately created other animals besides. God’s first blunder: Man didn’t find the animals amusing,—he dominated them, and didn’t even want to be an ‘animal’.

‘Umwerthung aller Werthe’ (1888) bk. 1 ‘Der Antichrist’ aphorism 48

Das Weib war der zweite Fehlgriff Gottes.

Woman was God’s second blunder.

‘Umwerthung aller Werthe’ (1888) bk. 1 ‘Der Antichrist’ aphorism 48

Wie ich den Philosophen verstehe, als einen furchtbaren Explosionsstoff, vor dem Alles in Gefahr ist.

What I understand by ‘philosopher’: a terrible explosive in the presence of which everything is

in danger.

‘Ecce Homo’ (1908) ‘Die Unzeitgemässen’ sect. 3

Gott ist tot: aber so wie die Art der Menschen ist, wird es vielleicht noch Jahrtausende lang Höhlen geben, in denen man seinen Schatten zeigt.

God is dead: but considering the state the species Man is in, there will perhaps be caves, for

ages yet, in which his shadow will be shown.

‘Die fröhliche Wissenschaft’ (1882) bk. 3, sect. 108

Moralität ist Heerden-Instinkt in Einzelnen.

Morality is the herd-instinct in the individual.

‘Die fröhliche Wissenschaft’ (1882) bk. 3, sect. 116

Der christliche Entschluss, die Welt hässlich und schlecht zu finden, hat die Welt hässlich und schlecht gemacht.

The Christian resolution to find the world ugly and bad has made the world ugly and bad.

‘Die fröhliche Wissenschaft’ (1882) bk. 3, sect. 130

Glaubt es mir!—das Geheimniss, um die grösste Fruchtbarkeit und den grössten Genuss vom Dasein einzuernten, heisst: gefährlich leben!

Believe me! The secret of reaping the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment from life

is to live dangerously!

‘Die fröhliche Wissenschaft’ (1882) bk. 4, sect. 283

Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, dass er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird. Und wenn du lange in einen Abgrund blickst, blickt der Abgrund auch in dich hinein.

He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you

gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.

‘Jenseits von Gut und Böse’ [Beyond Good and Evil] (1886) ch. 4, no. 146

Der Gedanke an den Selbstmord ist ein starkes Trostmittel: mit ihm kommt man gut über manche böse Nacht hinweg.

The thought of suicide is a great source of comfort: with it a calm passage is to be made across

many a bad night.

‘Jenseits von Gut und Böse’ [Beyond Good and Evil] (1886) ch. 4, no. 157

Herren-Moral und Sklaven-Moral.

Master-morality and slave-morality.

‘Jenseits von Gut und Böse’ [Beyond Good and Evil] (1886) ch. 9, no. 260

Der Witz ist das Epigramm auf den Tod eines Gefühls.

Wit is the epitaph of an emotion.

‘Menschliches, Allzumenschliches’ (1867-80) vol. 2, sect. 1, no. 202

Auf dem Grunde aller dieser vornehmen Rassen ist das Raubtier, die prachtvolle nach Beute und Sieg lüstern schweifende blonde Bestie nicht zu verkennen.

At the base of all these aristocratic races the predator is not to be mistaken, the splendorous

blond beast, avidly rampant for plunder and victory.

‘Zur Genealogie der Moral’ (1887) 1st treatise, no. 11

2.29 Florence Nightingale 1820-1910

companies it gives me true pleasure to declare, that, as a people, the English are very little indeed inferior to the Scotch.

‘Noctes Ambrosianae’ no. 28 (October 1826)

His Majesty’s dominions, on which the sun never sets.

‘Noctes Ambrosianae’ no. 20 (April 1829)

Laws were made to be broken.

‘Noctes Ambrosianae’ no. 24 (May 1830)

Insultin’ the sun, and quarrellin wi’ the equawtor.

‘Noctes Ambrosianae’ no. 24 (May 1830)

Animosities are mortal, but the Humanities live for ever.

‘Noctes Ambrosianae’ no. 35 (August 1834)

I cannot sit still, James, and hear you abuse the shopocracy.

‘Noctes Ambrosianae’ no. 39 (February 1835)

2.35 Lord Northcliffe (Alfred Charles William Harmsworth, Viscount Northcliffe) 1865-1922

When I want a peerage, I shall buy it like an honest man.

Attributed

2.36 Caroline Norton 1808-77

For death and life, in ceaseless strife, Beat wild on this world’s shore, And all our calm is in that balm— Not lost but gone before.

‘Not Lost but Gone Before’

2.37 Jack Norworth 1879-1959

Oh, shine on, shine on, harvest moon Up in the sky.

I ain’t had no lovin’

Since April, January, June, or July.

‘Shine On, Harvest Moon’ (1908 song)

2.38 Novalis (Friedrich Von Hardenberg) 1772-1801

Oft fühl ich jetzt...[und] je tiefer ich einsehe, dass Schicksal und Gemüt Namen eines Begriffes sind.

I often feel, and ever more deeply I realize, that fate and character are the same conception.

‘Heinrich von Ofterdingen’ (1802) bk. 2. Often quoted as ‘Character is destiny’ or ‘Character is fate’.

Ein Gott-betrunkener Mensch.

A God-intoxicated man.

On Spinoza; attributed

2.39 Alfred Noyes 1880-1958

The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees, The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas, The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor, And the highwayman came riding—

Riding—riding—

The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.

‘The Highwayman’ (1907)

He whistled a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there The landlord’s black-eyed daughter,

Bess, the landlord’s daughter,

Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.

‘The Highwayman’ (1907)

Look for me by moonlight; Watch for me by moonlight;

I’ll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way!

‘The Highwayman’ (1907)

2.40 Bill Nye (Edgar Wilson Nye)

I have been told that Wagner’s music is better than it sounds.

In Mark Twain ‘Autobiography’ (1924) vol. 1, p. 338

2.41 Captain Lawrence Oates 1880-1912

I am just going outside and may be some time.

Last words, in Scott’s diary entry for 16-17 March 1912; ‘Scott’s Last Expedition’ (1913) p. 593

2.42 Edna O’Brien 1932—

August is a wicked month.

Title of novel (1965)

2.43 Flann O’Brien (Brian O’Nolan or O Nuallain) 1911-66

The Pooka MacPhellimey, a member of the devil class, sat in his hut in the middle of a firwood meditating on the nature of the numerals and segregating in his mind the odd ones from the even.

‘At Swim-Two-Birds’ (1939) ch. 1

The conclusion of your syllogism, I said lightly, is fallacious, being based upon licensed premises.

‘At Swim-Two-Birds’ (1939) ch. 1

A pint of plain is your only man.

‘At Swim-Two-Birds’ (1939) ‘The Workman’s Friend’

It is not that I half knew my mother. I knew half of her: the lower half—her lap, legs, feet, her

hands and wrists as she bent forward.

‘The Hard Life’ (1961) p. 11

People who spend most of their natural lives riding iron bicycles over the rocky roadsteads of this parish get their personalities mixed up with the personalities of their bicycles as a result of the interchanging of the atoms of each of them and you would be surprised at the number of people in these parts who nearly are half people and half bicycles.

‘The Third Policeman’ (1967) p. 85

3.0O

3.1Sean O’Casey 1884-1964

I killin’ meself workin’, an’ he struttin’ about from mornin’ till night like a paycock!

‘Juno and the Paycock’ (1925) act 1

He’s an oul’ butty o’ mine—oh, he’s a darlin’ man, a daarlin’ man.

‘Juno and the Paycock’ (1925) act 1

The whole worl’s in a state o’ chassis!

‘Juno and the Paycock’ (1925) act 1

I often looked up at the sky an’ assed meself the question—what is the stars, what is the stars?

‘Juno and the Paycock’ (1925) act 1

Sacred Heart of the Crucified Jesus, take our hearts o’ stone...an’ give us hearts o’ flesh!...Take away this murdherin’ hate...an’ give us Thine own eternal love!

‘Juno and the Paycock’ (1925) act 2

The Polis as Polis, in this city, is Null an’ Void!

‘Juno and the Paycock’ (1925) act 3

There’s no reason to bring religion into it. I think we ought to have as great a regard for religion as we can, so as to keep it out of as many things as possible.

‘The Plough and the Stars’ (1926) act 1

It’s my rule never to lose me temper till it would be dethrimental to keep it.

‘The Plough and the Stars’ (1926) act 2

English literature’s performing flea.

On P. G. Wodehouse, in P. G. Wodehouse ‘Performing Flea’ (1953) p. 217

3.2 William of Occam (or Ockham) c.1285-1347

Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem.

No more things should be presumed to exist than are absolutely necessary.

‘Occams’s Razor’, an ancient philosophical principle often attributed to Occam but earlier in origin; not found in this form in his writings, though he frequently used similar expressions, e.g. Pluralitas non est ponenda sine necessitate [Plurality should not be assumed unnecessarily] in ‘Quodlibeta’ (c.1324) no. 5, question 1, art. 2.

J. C. Way (ed.) ‘Opera Theologica’ (1980) vol. 9, p. 476

3.3 Adolph S. Ochs 1858-1935

All the news that’s fit to print.

Motto of the New York Times, from 1896

3.4 David Ogilvy 1911—

The consumer isn’t a moron; she is your wife.

‘Confessions of an Advertising Man’ (1963) ch. 5

3.5 James Ogilvy, first Earl of Seafield 1664-1730

Now there’s ane end of ane old song.

As he signed the engrossed exemplification of the Act of Union, 1706, in ‘The Lockhart Papers’ (1817) vol. 1,

p.223

3.6Geoffrey O’Hara 1882-1967

K-K-K-Katy, beautiful Katy,

You’re the only g-g-g-girl that I adore;— When the m-m-m-moon shines,

Over the cow shed,

I’ll be waiting at the k-k-k-kitchen door.

‘K-K-K-Katy’ (1918 song)

3.7 John O’Hara 1905-70

An artist is his own fault.

‘The Portable F. Scott Fitzgerald’ (1945) introduction

3.8 Theodore O’Hara 1820-67

Sons of the dark and bloody ground.

‘The Bivouac of the Dead’ (1847) st. 1

3.9 Patrick O’Keefe 1872-1934

Say it with flowers.

Slogan for the Society of American Florists, in ‘Florists’ Exchange’ 15 December 1917, p. 1268

3.10 John O’Keeffe 1747-1833

Amo, amas, I love a lass, As a cedar tall and slender; Sweet cowslip’s grace

Is her nom’native case,

And she’s of the feminine gender.

‘The Agreeable Surprise’ (1781) act 2, sc. 2

Fat, fair and forty were all the toasts of the young men.

‘The Irish Mimic’ (1795) sc. 2