4.110 Israel Putnam 1718-90
Men, you are all marksmen—don’t one of you fire until you see the white of their eyes.
At Bunker Hill, 1775; in R. Frothingham ‘History of the Siege of Boston’ (1873) ch. 5 n; also attributed to William Prescott (1726-95)
4.111 Mario Puzo 1920—
I’ll make him an offer he can’t refuse.
‘The Godfather’ (1969) ch. 1
A lawyer with his briefcase can steal more than a hundred men with guns.
‘The Godfather’ (1969) ch. 1
4.112 Pyrrhus 319-272 B.C.
One more such victory and we are lost.
After defeating the Romans at Asculum, 279 B.C., in Plutarch ‘Parallel Lives’ ‘Pyrrhus’ ch. 21, sect. 9
5.0Q
5.1Q
See Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch (5.5)
5.2 Francis Quarles 1592-1644
I wish thee as much pleasure in the reading, as I had in the writing.
‘Emblems’ (1635) ‘To the Reader’
The heart is a small thing, but desireth great matters. It is not sufficient for a kite’s dinner, yet the whole world is not sufficient for it.
‘Emblems’ (1635) bk. 1, no. 12 ‘Hugo de Anima’
We spend our midday sweat, our midnight oil; We tire the night in thought, the day in toil.
‘Emblems’ (1635) bk. 2, no. 2, l. 33
Be wisely worldly, be not worldly wise.
‘Emblems’ (1635) bk. 2, no. 2, l. 46
Man is Heaven’s masterpiece.
‘Emblems’ (1635) bk. 2, no. 6, epigram 6
Thou art my way; I wander, if thou fly; Thou art my light; if hid, how blind am I! Thou art my life; if thou withdraw, I die.
‘Emblems’ (1643) bk. 3, no. 7
Our God and soldiers we alike adore
Ev’n at the brink of danger; not before: After deliverance, both alike requited,
Our God’s forgotten, and our soldiers slighted.
‘Divine Fancies’ (1632) ‘Of Common Devotion’.
My soul, sit thou a patient looker-on; Judge not the play before the play is done: Her plot hath many changes; every day
Speaks a new scene; the last act crowns the play.
‘Epigram: Respice Finem’
He teaches to deny that faintly prays.
‘A Feast for Worms’ (1620) sect. 7, Meditation 7, l. 2
Man is man’s A.B.C. There is none that can Read God aright, unless he first spell Man.
‘Hieroglyphics of the Life of Man’ (1638) no. 1, l. 1
He that begins to live, begins to die.
‘Hieroglyphics of the Life of Man’ (1638) no. 1, epigram 1
Physicians of all men are most happy; what good success soever they have, the world proclaimeth, and what faults they commit, the earth covereth.
‘Hieroglyphics of the Life of Man’ (1638) no. 4
We’ll cry both arts and learning down, And hey! then up go we!
‘The Shepherd’s Oracles’ (1646) Eclogue 11 ‘Song of Anarchus’
5.3 Peter Quennell 1905—
An elderly fallen angel travelling incognito.
‘The Sign of the Fish’ (1960) ch. 2 (describing Andrè Gide)
5.4 François Quesnay 1694-1774
Vous ne connaissez qu’une seule régle du commerce; c’est (pour me servir de vos propres termes) de laisser passer et de laisser faire tous les acheteurs et tous les vendeurs quelconques.
You recognize but one rule of commerce; that is (to avail myself of your own terms) to allow
free passage and freedom of action to all buyers and sellers whoever they may be.
Attributed in a letter to Quesnay from M. Alpha, but not found elsewhere. L. Salleron ‘François Quesnay et la Physiocratie’ (1958) vol. 2, p. 940; attributed also to Marquis d’Argenson.
5.5 Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch (‘Q’) 1863-1944
The best is the best, though a hundred judges have declared it so.
‘Oxford Book of English Verse’ (1900) preface
Simple this tale!—but delicately perfumed
As the sweet roadside honeysuckle. That’s why,
Difficult though its metre was to tackle, I’m glad I wrote it.
‘Lady Jane. Sapphics’
O pastoral heart of England! like a psalm Of green days telling with a quiet beat.
‘Ode upon Eckington Bridge’
5.6 Josiah Quincy 1772-1864
As it will be the right of all, so it will be the duty of some, definitely to prepare for a separation, amicably if they can, violently if they must.
Abridgement of Debates of Congress vol. 4, p. 327, 14 January 1811.
5.7 Quintilian A.D. c.35-c.100
Satura quidem tota nostra est.
Verse satire indeed is entirely our own.
‘Institutio Oratoria’ bk. 10, ch. 1, sect. 93 (nostra meaning Roman as opposed to Greek)
6.0R
6.1François Rabelais c.1494-c.1553
L’appètit vient en mangeant.
The appetite grows by eating.
‘Gargantua’ (1534) 1, 5
Fay ce que vouldras.
Do what you like.
‘Gargantua’ (1534) 1, 57
Quaestio subtilissima, utrum chimera in vacuo bombinans possit comedere secundas intentiones.
A most subtle question: whether a chimera bombinating in a vacuum can devour second
intentions.
‘Pantagruel’ 2, 7
Natura vacuum abhorret.
Nature abhors a vacuum.
‘Gargantua’ (1534) 1, 5, quoting, in Latin, an article of ancient wisdom. Compare Plutarch Moralia ‘De placitis philosophorum’ 1, 18
Je vais quèrir un grand peut-être...Tirez le rideau, la farce est jouèe.
I am going to seek a great perhaps...Bring down the curtain, the farce is played out.
Attributed last words. Jean Fleury ‘Rabelais et ses oeuvres’ (1877) vol. 1, ch. 3, pt. 15, p. 130, where it is said that none of his contemporaries authenticated the remarks, which have become part of the ‘Rabelasian legend’
6.2 Jean Racine 1639-99
Je l’ai trop aimè pour ne point haïr!
I have loved him too much not to feel any hatred for him.
‘Andromaque’ (1667) act 2, sc. 1
C’ètait pendant l’horreur d’une profonde nuit.
It was during the horror of a deep night.
‘Athalie’ (1691) act 2, sc. 5
Elle flotte, elle hèsite; en un mot, elle est femme.
She floats, she hesitates; in a word, she’s a woman.
‘Athalie’ (1691) act 3, sc. 3
Ce n’est plus une ardeur dans mes veines cachèe: C’est Vènus tout entiére á sa proie attachèe.
It’s no longer a warmth hidden in my veins: it’s Venus entire and whole fastening on her prey.
‘Phédre’ (1677) act 1, sc. 3
Tous les jours se levaient clairs et sereins pour eux.
Every day dawns clear and untroubled for them.
‘Phédre’ (1677) act 4, sc. 6
Point d’argent, point de Suisse, et ma porte était close.
No money, no service, and my door stayed shut.
‘Les Plaideurs’ (1668) act 1, sc. 1
Sans argent l’honneur n’est qu’une maladie.
Honour, without money, is just a disease.
‘Les Plaideurs’ (1668) act 1, sc. 1
6.3 James Rado 1939—and Gerome Ragni 1942—
When the moon is in the seventh house, And Jupiter aligns with Mars...
This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius.
‘Aquarius’ (1967 song; from the musical ‘Hair’)
6.4 John Rae 1931—
War is, after all, the universal perversion...war stories, the pornography of war.
‘The Custard Boys’ (1960) ch. 13
6.5 Thomas Rainborowe d. 1648
The poorest he that is in England hath a life to live as the greatest he.
During the Army debates at Putney, 29 October 1647, in C. H. Firth (ed.) ‘The Clarke Papers’ vol. 1, Camden Society, new series 49 (1891) p. 301
6.6 Sir Walter Ralegh c.1552-1618
If all the world and love were young, And truth in every shepherd’s tongue, These pretty pleasures might me move To live with thee, and be thy love.
‘Answer to Marlow’
Now what is love? I pray thee, tell. It is that fountain and that well,
Where pleasure and repentance dwell. It is perhaps that sauncing bell,
That tolls all in to heaven or hell: And this is love, as I hear tell.
‘A Description of Love’
Go, Soul, the body’s guest, Upon a thankless arrant: Fear not to touch the best;
The truth shall be thy warrant: Go, since I needs must die, And give the world the lie.
‘The Lie’
We die in earnest, that’s no jest.
‘On the Life of Man’
Give me my scallop-shell of quiet, My staff of faith to walk upon, My scrip of joy, immortal diet, My bottle of salvation,
My gown of glory, hope’s true gage, And thus I’ll take my pilgrimage.
‘The Passionate Man’s Pilgrimage’
As you came from the holy land Of Walsinghame,
Met you not with my true love By the way as you came?
How shall I know your true love, That have met many one
As I went to the holy land,
That have come, that have gone?
‘Walsinghame’
Fain would I climb, yet fear I to fall.
Line written on a window-pane, in Thomas Fuller ‘The History of the Worthies of England’ (1662)
‘Devonshire’ p. 261.
Even such is Time, which takes in trust Our youth, our joys, and all we have, And pays us but with age and dust; Who in the dark and silent grave, When we have wandered all our ways, Shuts up the story of our days:
And from which earth, and grave, and dust, The Lord shall raise me up, I trust.
Written the night before his death, and found in his Bible in the Gate-house at Westminster. V. B. Heltzel ‘Ralegh’s “Even such is time”’ in ‘Huntingdon Library Bulletin’ no. 10 (October 1936) p. 185
[History] hath triumphed over time, which besides it nothing but eternity hath triumphed over.
‘The History of the World’ (1614) preface
Whosoever, in writing a modern history, shall follow truth too near the heels, it may haply strike out his teeth.
‘The History of the World’ (1614) preface
O eloquent, just, and mighty Death!...thou hast drawn together all the farstretched greatness, all the pride, cruelty, and ambition of man, and covered it all over with these two narrow words, Hic jacet.
‘The History of the World’ (1614) bk. 5, ch. 6, 12
’Tis a sharp remedy, but a sure one for all ills.
On feeling the edge of the axe prior to his execution, in David Hume ‘History of Great Britain’ (1754) vol. 1, ch. 4, p. 72
So the heart be right, it is no matter which way the head lies.
At his execution, on being asked which way he preferred to lay his head, in William Stebbing ‘Sir Walter Raleigh’ (1891) ch. 30
I have a long journey to take, and must bid the company farewell.
Parting words, in Edward Thompson ‘Sir Walter Raleigh’ (1935) ch. 26
6.7 Sir Walter Raleigh 1861-1922
In examinations those who do not wish to know ask questions of those who cannot tell.
‘Laughter from a Cloud’ (1923) ‘Some Thoughts on Examinations’
We could not lead a pleasant life, And ’twould be finished soon,
If peas were eaten with the knife, And gravy with the spoon.
Eat slowly: only men in rags And gluttons old in sin
Mistake themselves for carpet bags And tumble victuals in.
‘Stans Puer ad Mensam’ (1923)
I wish I loved the Human Race; I wish I loved its silly face;
I wish I liked the way it walks; I wish I liked the way it talks; And when I’m introduced to one I wish I thought What Jolly Fun!
‘Wishes of an Elderly Man’ (1923)
6.8 Srinivasa Ramanujan 1887-1920
No, it is a very interesting number; it is the smallest number expressible as a sum of two cubes in two different ways.
Replying to G. H. Hardy’s suggestion that the number of a cab—1729—was ‘dull’; in ‘Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society’ 26 May 1921, p. 57 (the two ways being 13+123 and 93+103)
6.9 John Crowe Ransom 1888-1974
Here lies a lady of beauty and high degree.
Of chills and fever she died, of fever and chills,
The delight of her husband, her aunts, an infant of three, And of medicos marvelling sweetly on her ills.
‘Here Lies a Lady’
6.10 Arthur Ransome 1884-1967
better drowned than duffers if not duffers wont drown. ‘Does that mean Yes?’ asked Roger.
‘I think so.’
‘Swallows and Amazons’ (1930) ch. 1
6.11 Frederic Raphael 1931—
Your idea of fidelity is not having more than one man in the bed at the same time.
‘Darling’ (1965) ch. 18
[Cambridge] is the city of perspiring dreams.
‘The Glittering Prizes’ (1976) ch. 3.
Oh no, of course. That’s the whole thing about England, isn’t it? Everything’s a preparation. A preparation for nothing. It’s not a preparation, it’s a postponement.
‘The Glittering Prizes’ (1976) ‘An Early Life’ pt. 2, sect. 3
I come from suburbia, Dan, personally, and I don’t ever want to go back. It’s the one place in the world that’s further away than anywhere else.
‘The Glittering Prizes’ (1976) ‘A Sex Life’ pt. 1, sect. 3
6.12 Terence Rattigan 1911-77
Do you know what ‘le vice Anglais’—the English vice—really is? Not flagellation, not
pederasty—whatever the French believe it to be. It’s our refusal to admit our emotions. We think they demean us, I suppose.
‘In Praise of Love’ (1973) act 2
You can be in the Horseguards and still be common, dear.
‘Separate Tables’ (1954) ‘Table Number Seven’ sc. 1
6.13 Gwen Raverat 1885-1957
Ladies were ladies in those days; they did not do things themselves.
‘Period Piece’ (1952)
6.14 Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank
The long hot summer.
Title of film (1958); based on stories by William Faulkner. ‘The Long Summer’ is the title of bk. 3 of Faulkner’s The Hamlet (1940)
6.15 Sir Herbert Read 1893-1968
Do not judge this movement kindly. It is not just another amusing stunt. It is defiant—the desperate act of men too profoundly convinced of the rottenness of our civilization to want to save a shred of its respectability.
International Surrealist Exhibition Catalogue, New Burlington Galleries, London, 11 June—4 July 1936, introduction
[Art is] pattern informed by sensibility.
‘The Meaning of Art’
6.16 Charles Reade 1814-84
Courage, mon ami, le diable est mort!
Take courage, my friend, the devil is dead!
‘The Cloister and the Hearth’ (1861) ch. 24, and passim
6.17 Ronald Reagan 1911—
Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.
At a conference in Los Angeles, 2 March 1977, in Bill Adler ‘Reagan Wit’ (1981) ch. 5
You can tell a lot about a fellow’s character by his way of eating jellybeans.
In ‘New York Times’ 15 January 1981
So in your discussions of the nuclear freeze proposals, I urge you to beware the temptation of pride—the temptation blithely to declare yourselves above it all and label both sides equally at fault, to ignore the facts of history and the aggressive impulses of an evil empire.
Speech to National Association of Evangelicals, 8 March 1983, in ‘New York Times’ 9 March 1983. The phrase ‘evil empire’ was borrowed from the film ‘Star Wars’ (1977) written by George Lucas
We are especially not going to tolerate these attacks from outlaw states run by the strangest
collection of misfits, Looney Tunes and squalid criminals since the advent of the Third Reich.
Speech following the hi-jack of a US plane, 8 July 1985, in ‘New York Times’ 9 July 1985
This mad dog of the Middle East.
Of Col Gadaffi at a press conference, 9 April 1986; in ‘New York Times’ 10 April 1986, p. A 22
6.18 Erell Reaves
Lady of Spain, I adore you.
Right from the night I first saw you, Mu heart has been yearning for you, What else could any heart do?
‘Lady of Spain’ (1913 song)
6.19 Henry Reed 1914-86
As we get older we do not get any younger. Seasons return, and today I am fifty-five, And this time last year I was fifty-four, And this time next year I shall be sixty-two.
‘Chard Whitlow (Mr Eliot’s Sunday Evening Postscript)’ (1946)
It is, we believe,
Idle to hope that the simple stirrup-pump Can extinguish hell.
‘Chard Whitlow (Mr Eliot’s Sunday Evening Postscript)’ (1946)
Today we have naming of parts. Yesterday, We had daily cleaning. And tomorrow morning, We shall have what to do after firing. But today, Today we have naming of parts. Japonica
Glistens like coral in all of the neighbour gardens, And today we have naming of parts.
‘Lessons of the War: 1, Naming of Parts’ (1946)
They call it easing the Spring: it is perfectly easy
If you have any strength in your thumb: like the bolt,
And the breech, and the cocking-piece, and the point of balance, Which in our case we have not got; and the almond blossom
Silent in all of the gardens and the bees going backwards and forwards, For today we have naming of parts.
‘Lessons of the War: 1, Naming of Parts’ (1946)
And the various holds and rolls and throws and breakfalls Somehow or other I always seemed to put
In the wrong place. And as for war, my wars Were global from the start.
‘Lessons of the War: 3, Unarmed Combat’ (1946)
I think it may justly be said that English women in general are very common diatonic little numbers.
‘Emily Butler’ (radio play)
Henry has always led what could be called a sedentary life, if only he’d ever got as far as actually sitting up.
‘Not a Drum was Heard: The War Memoirs of General Gland’ (radio play)
In a civil war, a general must know—and I’m afraid it’s a thing rather of instinct than of practice—he must know exactly when to move over to the other side.
‘Not a Drum was Heard: The War Memoirs of General Gland’ (radio play)
Gland: I would say it’s somehow redolent, and full of vitality.
Hilda: Well, I would say it’s got about as much life in it as a potted shrimp.
Gland: Well, I think we’re probably both trying to say the same thing in different words.
‘The Primal Scene, as it were’ (radio play)
And the sooner the tea’s out of the way, the sooner we can get out the gin, eh?
‘Private Life of Hilda Tablet’ (1954 radio play) in ‘Hilda Tablet and Others: four pieces for radio’ (1971) p. 60
Of course we’ve all dreamed of reviving the castrati; but it’s needed Hilda to take the first practical steps towards making them a reality...She’s drawn up a list of well-known singers who she thinks would benefit...It’s only a question of getting them to agree.
‘Private Life of Hilda Tablet’ (1954 radio play) in ‘Hilda Tablet and Others: four pieces for radio’ (1971) p. 72
Modest? My word, no...He was an all-the-lights-on man.
‘A Very Great Man Indeed’ (radio play)
I have known her pass the whole evening without mentioning a single book, or in fact anything unpleasant at all.
‘A Very Great Man Indeed’ (radio play)
6.20 John Reed 1887-1920
Ten days that shook the world.
Title of book (1919)
6.21 Joseph Reed 1741-85
I am not worth purchasing, but such as I am, the King of Great Britain is not rich enough to do
it.
US Congress, 11 August 1878, Reed having understood himself to have been offered a bribe on behalf of the British Crown
6.22 Max Reger 1873-1916
Ich sitze in dem kleinsten Zimmer in meinem Hause. Ich habe Ihre Kritik vor mir. Im nächsten Augenblick wird sie hinter mir sein.
I am sitting in the smallest room of my house. I have your review before me. In a moment it
