The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
.pdfThe age demanded an image
Of its accelerated grimace,
Something for the modern stage,
Not, at any rate, an Attic grace;
Not, not certainly, the obscure reveries Of the inward gaze;
Better mendacities
Than the classics in paraphrase!
‘Hugh Selwyn Mauberley’ (1920) ‘E. P. Ode pour l’èlection de son sèpulcre’ pt. 2
The tea-rose tea-gown, etc. Supplants the mousseline of Cos, The pianola ‘replaces’
Sappho’s barbitos.
Christ follows Dionysus,
Phallic and ambrosial
Made way for macerations;
Caliban casts out Ariel.
All things are a flowing,
Sage Heracleitus says;
But a tawdry cheapness
Shall outlast our days.
Even the Christian beauty Defects—after Samothrace; We see
Decreed in the market place.
‘Hugh Selwyn Mauberley’ (1920) ‘E. P. Ode pour l’èlection de son sèpulcre’ pt. 3
O bright Apollo,
What god, man, or hero
Shall I place a tin wreath upon!
‘Hugh Selwyn Mauberley’ (1920) ‘E. P. Ode pour l’èlection de son sèpulcre’ pt. 3
Some quick to arm, some for adventure,
some from fear of weakness, some from fear of censure,
some for love of slaughter, in imagination, learning later...
some in fear, learning love of slaughter;
Died some, pro patria,
non ‘dulce’ non ‘et decor’...
walked eye-deep in hell
believing in old men’s lies, the unbelieving
came home, home to a lie.
‘Hugh Selwyn Mauberley’ (1920) ‘E. P. Ode pour l’èlection de son sèpulcre’ pt. 4
hysterias, trench confessions, laughter out of dead bellies.
‘Hugh Selwyn Mauberley’ (1920) ‘E. P. Ode pour l’èlection de son sèpulcre’ pt. 4
There died a myriad,
And of the best, among them, For an old bitch gone in the teeth, For a botched civilization,
Charm, smiling at the good mouth,
Quick eyes gone under earth’s lid,
For two gross of broken statues,
For a few thousand battered books.
‘Hugh Selwyn Mauberley’ (1920) ‘E. P. Ode pour l’èlection de son sèpulcre’ pt. 5
The tip’s a good one, as for literature It gives no man a sinecure.
And no one knows, at sight, a masterpiece. And give up verse, my boy,
There’s nothing in it.
‘Hugh Selwyn Mauberley’ (1920) ‘Mr Nixon’
The apparition of these faces in the crowd; Petals on a wet, black bough.
‘In a Station of the Metro’ (1916)
O woe, woe,
People are born and die,
We also shall be dead pretty soon
Therefore let us act as if we were dead already.
‘Mr Housman’s Message’ (1911)
The ant’s a centaur in his dragon world. Pull down thy vanity, it is not man
Made courage, or made order, or made grace, Pull down thy vanity, I say pull down.
Learn of the green world what can be thy place In scaled invention or true artistry,
Pull down thy vanity, Paquin pull down!
The green casque has outdone your elegance.
Parents—especially step-parents—are sometimes a bit of a disappointment to their children. They don’t fufil the promise of their early years.
‘A Buyer’s Market’ (1952) ch. 2
A dance to the music of time.
Title of novel sequence (1951-75), after ‘Le 4 stagioni che ballano al suono del tempo’, the title given by Giovanni Pietro Bellori to a painting by Nicolas Poussin.
He’s so wet you could shoot snipe off him.
‘A Question of Upbringing’ (1951) ch. 1
Growing old is like being increasingly penalized for a crime you haven’t committed.
‘Temporary Kings’ (1973) ch. 1
4.88 Enoch Powell 1912—
History is littered with the wars which everybody knew would never happen.
Speech to Conservative Party Conference, 19 October 1967, in ‘The Times’ 20 October 1967
As I look ahead, I am filled with foreboding. Like the Roman, I seem to see ‘the River Tiber foaming with much blood’.
Speech at Annual Meeting of West Midlands Area Conservative Political Centre, Birmingham, 20 April 1968, in ‘Observer’ 21 April 1968
4.89 Sir John Powell 1645-1713
Let us consider the reason of the case. For nothing is law that is not reason.
Coggs v. Bernard, 2 Lord Raymond Reports, p. 911
4.90 John O’Connor Power
The mules of politics: without pride of ancestry, or hope of posterity.
In H. H. Asquith ‘Memories and Reflections’ (1928) vol. 1, ch. 16 (referring to the Liberal Unionists)
4.91 Winthrop Mackworth Praed 1802-39
Of science and logic he chatters As fine and as fast as he can;
Though I am no judge of such matters, I’m sure he’s a talented man.
‘The Talented Man’
4.92 Elvis Presley 1935-77
Love me tender, love me true, All my dreams fulfill.
‘Love Me Tender’ (1956 song; with Vera Matson)
4.93 The Book of Common Prayer 1662
It hath been the wisdom of the Church of England, ever since the first compiling of her Publick