The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
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Ruinis imminentibus musculi praemigrant.
When a building is about to fall down, all the mice desert it.
‘Historia Naturalis’ bk. 8, ch. 103
Optimumque est, ut volgo dixere, aliena insania frui.
And the best plan is, as the popular saying was, to profit by the folly of others.
‘Historia Naturalis’ bk. 18, ch. 31
Addito salis grano
With the addition of a grain of salt.
‘Historia Naturalis’ bk. 23, ch. 149; commonly quoted in the form Cum grano salis With a grain of salt
4.71 William Plomer 1903-73
Out of that bungled, unwise war An alp of unforgiveness grew.
‘The Boer War’ (1960)
A family portrait not too stale to record Of a pleasant old buffer, nephew to a lord,
Who believed that the bank was mightier than the sword, And that an umbrella might pacify barbarians abroad: Just like an old liberal
Between the wars.
‘Father and Son: 1939’ (1945)
With first-rate sherry flowing into second-rate whores, And third-rate conversation without one single pause: Just like a young couple
Between the wars.
‘Father and Son: 1939’ (1945)
On a sofa upholstered in panther skin Mona did researches in original sin.
‘Mews Flat Mona’ (1960)
A rose-red sissy half as old as time.
‘Playboy of the Demi-World: 1938’ (1945).
4.72 Plutarch A.D. c.50-c.120
He who cheats with an oath acknowledges that he is afraid of his enemy, but that he thinks little of God.
‘Parallel Lives’ ‘Lysander’ ch. 8.
4.73 Edgar Allan Poe 1809-49
This maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.
‘Annabel Lee’ (1849)
I was a child and she was a child, In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love which was more than love— I and my Annabel Lee.
‘Annabel Lee’ (1849)
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side Of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride In her sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the side of the sea.
‘Annabel Lee’ (1849)
Keeping time, time, time, In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells From the bells, bells, bells, bells.
‘The Bells’ (1849) st. 1
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.
‘A Dream within a Dream’ (1849)
The fever called ‘Living’ Is conquered at last.
‘For Annie’ (1849)
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
‘The Raven’ (1845) st. 1
Eagerly I wished the morrow,—vainly had I sought to borrow From my books surcease of sorrow—sorrow for the lost Lenore— For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore— Nameless here for evermore.
‘The Raven’ (1845) st. 2
Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door! Quoth the Raven, ‘Nevermore’.
‘The Raven’ (1845) st. 17
Helen, thy beauty is to me
Like those Nicean barks of yore, That gently, o’er a perfumed sea, The weary, wayworn wanderer bore