The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations

will be behind me.

Letter to Munich critic Rudolph Louis, responding to a savage review in ‘Münchener Neueste Nachrichten’, 7 February 1906; in Nicolas Slonimsky ‘Lexicon of Musical Invective’ (1953) p. 139

6.23 Charles A. Reich 1928—

The greening of America.

Title of book (1970)

6.24 Keith Reid and Gary Brooker

Her face, at first it seemed just ghostly Then turned a whiter shade of pale.

‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’ (1967 song); performed by Procul Harum

6.25 Erich Maria Remarque 1898-1970

All quiet on the western front.

English title of his novel ‘Im Westen nichts Neues’ (1929).

6.26 Jules Renard 1864-1910

Les bourgeois, ce sont les autres.

The bourgeois are other people.

Journal, 28 January 1890

6.27 Montague John Rendall 1862-1950

Nation shall speak peace unto nation.

Motto of the BBC, adapted from Micah ch. 4, v. 3 ‘Nation shall not lift up sword against nation’

6.28 Jean Renoir 1894-1979

Is it possible to succeed without any act of betrayal?

‘My Life and My Films’ (1974) ‘Nana’

6.29 Pierre Auguste Renoir 1841-1919

I paint with my prick.

In Whitney Chadwick ‘Women, Art and Society’ (1990)

C’ètaient des fous, mais ils avaient cette petite flamme qui ne s’èteint pas.

They were madmen; but they had in them that little flame which is not to be snuffed out.

On the men of the French Commune, in Jean Renoir ‘Mon pére’ (translated by R. and D. Weaver, 1962) ch. 12

6.30 David Reuben 1933—

Everything you always wanted to know about sex, but were afraid to ask.

Title of book (1969)

6.31 Charles Revson 1906-75

And they all look just the same.

‘Little Boxes’ (1962 song); on the tract houses in the hills to the south of San Francisco

6.35 Cecil Rhodes 1853-1902

So little done, so much to do.

Said on the day of his death, in Lewis Michell ‘Life of Rhodes’ (1910) vol. 2, ch. 39

Remember that you are an Englishman, and have consequently won first prize in the lottery of life.

In Peter Ustinov ‘Dear Me’ (1977) ch. 4

6.36 Jean Rhys (Ella Gwendolen Rees Williams) c.1890-1979

We can’t all be happy, we can’t all be rich, we can’t all be lucky—and it would be so much less fun if we were...Some must cry so that others may be able to laugh the more heartily.

‘Good Morning, Midnight’ (1939) pt. 1

The perpetual hunger to be beautiful and that thirst to be loved which is the real curse of Eve.

‘The Left Bank’ (1927) ‘Illusion’

Only the hopeless are starkly sincere and...only the unhappy can either give or take sympathy.

‘The Left Bank’ (1927) ‘In the Rue de l’Arrivèe’

The feeling of Sunday is the same everywhere, heavy, melancholy, standing still. Like when they say ‘As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.’

‘Voyage in the Dark’ (1934) ch. 4, pt. 1

6.37 Grantland Rice 1880-1954

For when the One Great Scorer comes to mark against your name, He writes—not that you won or lost—but how you played the Game.

‘Alumnus Football’

All wars are planned by old men In council rooms apart.

‘The Two Sides of War’ (1955)

Outlined against a blue-grey October sky, the Four Horsemen rode again. In dramatic lore they were known as Famine, Pestilence, Destruction, and Death. These are only aliases. Their real names are Stuhldreher, Miller, Crowley, and Layden. They formed the crest of the South Bend cyclone before which another fighting Army football team was swept over the precipice.

Report of football match on 18 October 1924 between US Military Academy at West Point NY and University of Notre Dame, in ‘New York Tribune’ 19 October 1924

6.38 Sir Stephen Rice 1637-1715

I will drive a coach and six horses through the Act of Settlement.

In W. King ‘State of the Protestants of Ireland’ (1672) ch. 3, sect. 8, p. 6

6.39 Tim Rice 1944—

Prove to me that you’re no fool Walk across my swimming pool.

‘Herod’s Song’ (1970; music by Andrew Lloyd Webber)

6.40 Mandy Rice-Davies 1944—

He would, wouldn’t he?

At the trial of Stephen Ward, 29 June 1963, on being told that Lord Astor had made a statement to the police that her allegations were untrue; in ‘Guardian’ 1 July 1963

6.41 Frank Richards (Charles Hamilton) 1876-1961

The fat greedy owl of the Remove.

Describing Billy Bunter in the ‘Magnet’ (1909) vol. 3, no. 72 ‘The Greyfriars Photographer’

6.42 I. A. Richards 1893-1979

It [poetry] is capable of saving us; it is a perfectly possible means of overcoming chaos.

‘Science and Poetry’ (1926) ch. 7

6.43 Sir Ralph Richardson 1902-83

Acting is merely the art of keeping a large group of people from coughing.

In ‘New York Herald Tribune’ 19 May 1946, pt. 5, p. 1

6.44 Samuel Richardson 1689-1781

I have known a bird actually starve itself, and die with grief, at its being caught and caged— But never did I meet with a lady who was so silly...And yet we must all own that it is more difficult to catch a bird than a lady.

‘Clarissa’ (1747-8) letter 170 (Lovelace to Belford)

Mine is the most plotting heart in the world.

‘Clarissa’ (1747-8) letter 171 (Lovelace to Belford)

I love to write to the moment.

‘Clarissa’ (1747-8) letter 224 (Lovelace to Belford)

Let this expiate.

‘Clarissa’ (1747-8) letter 537 (De La Tour to Belford)

A verse may find him who a sermon flies And turn delight into a sacrifice.

‘Clarissa’ (1747-8) postscript

What, my Lord, is ancestry? I live to my own heart.

‘The History of Sir Charles Grandison’ (1754) vol. 3, letter 26

A feeling heart is a blessing that no one, who has it, would be without; and it is a moral security of innocence; since the heart that is able to partake of the distress of another, cannot wilfully give it.

‘The History of Sir Charles Grandison’ (1754) vol. 3, letter 32

This world, if we can enjoy it with innocent cheerfulness, and be serviceable to our fellowcreatures, is not to be despised, even by a Philosopher.

‘The History of Sir Charles Grandison’ (1754) vol. 5, letter 37

6.45 Hans Richter 1843-1916

Up with your damned nonsense will I put twice, or perhaps once, but sometimes always, by God, never.

Attributed

6.46 Johann Paul Friedrich Richter (‘Jean Paul’) 1763-1825

Providence has given to the French the empire of the land, to the English that of the sea, and to the Germans that of—the air!

In Thomas Carlyle ‘Jean Paul Friedrich Richter’ in ‘Edinburgh Review’ no. 91 (1827)

6.47 George Ridding 1828-1904

I feel a feeling which I feel you all feel.

Sermon in the London Mission, 1885; in G. W. E. Russell ‘Collections and Recollections’ (1898) ch. 29

6.48 Rainer Maria Rilke 1875-1926

Kunst-Werke sind von einer unendlichen Einsamkeit und mit nichts so wenig erreichbar als mit Kritik. Nur Liebe kann sie erfassen und halten und kann gerecht sein gegen sie.

Works of art are of an infinite solitariness, and nothing is less likely to bring us near to them

than criticism. Only love can apprehend and hold them, and can be just towards them.

‘Briefe an einem jungen Dichter’ (Letters to a Young Poet, 1929) 23 April 1903 (translation by Reginald Snell)

Wer hat uns also umgedreht, dass wir, was wir auch tun, in jener Haltung sind von einem, welcher fortgeht? Wie er auf den letzten Hügel, der ihm ganz sein Tal noch einmal zeigt, sich wendet, anhält, weilt—, so leben wir und nehmen immer Abschied.

Who’s turned us around like this, so that we always, do what we may, retain the attitude of someone who’s departing? Just as he, on the last hill, that shows him all his valley for the last

time, will turn and stop and linger, we live our lives, for ever taking leave.

‘Duineser Elegien’ (Duino Elegies, translated by J. B. Leishman and Stephen Spender, 1948) no. 8

Ich für die höchste Aufgabe einer Verbindung zweier Menschen diese halte: dass einer dem andern seine Einsamkeit bewache.

I hold this to be the highest task for a bond between two people: that each protects the solitude

of the other.

Letter to Paula Modersohn-Becker, 12 February 1902, in ‘Gesammelte Briefe’ (Collected Letters, 1904) vol. 1, p. 204

6.49 Martin Rinkart 1586-1649

Nun danket alle Gott,

Mit Herzen, Mund, und Händen,

Der grosse Dinge tut

An uns und allen Enden;

Der uns von Mutterleib

Und Kindesbeinen an

Unzählig viel zu gut

Bis hieher hat getan.

Der ewig reiche Gott

Woll’ uns in diesem Leben

Ein immer fröhlich Herz

Und edlen Frieden geben,

Und uns in seiner Gnad

Erhalten fort und fort,

Und uns aus aller Not

Erlösen hier und dort.

Now thank we all our God,

With heart and hands and voices,

Who wondrous things hath done,

In whom his world rejoices;

Who from our mother’s arms

Hath blessed us on our way

With countless gifts of love,

And still is ours to-day.

O may this bounteous God Through all our life be near us, With ever joyful hearts

And blesséd peace to cheer us; And keep us in his grace,

And guide us when perplexed, And free us from all ills

In this world and the next.

‘Nun danket alle Gott’ (c.1636); translated by Catherine Winkworth q.v. in her ‘Lyrica Germanica’ (1858)

6.50 Arthur Rimbaud 1854-91

Je m’en allais, les poings dans mes poches crevèes; Mon paletot aussi devenait idèal.

I was walking along, hands in holey pockets; my overcoat also was entering the realms of the ideal.

‘Ma Bohéme’

‘Dèclaration des droits de l’homme’ 24 April 1793, article 6; this article, in slightly different form, is recorded as having figured in Robespierre’s Projet of 21 April 1793

Toute institution qui ne suppose pas le peuple bon, et le magistrat corruptible, est vicieuse.

Any institution which does not suppose the people good, and the magistrate corruptible, is evil.

‘Dèclaration des droits de l’homme’ 24 April 1793, article 25

Le salut public est la loi suprême.

The public good is the supreme law.

Speech in Constituent Assembly, 23 August 1790; in A. Cobban ‘Aspects of the French Revolution’ (1968)

L’immoralitè est la base du despotisme comme la ventu est l’essence de la Rèpublique.

Wickedness is the root of despotism as virtue is the essence of the Republic.

In the Convention, 7 May 1794; in A. Cobban ‘Aspects of the French Revolution’ (1968)

Une volontè une.

One single will.

Private note, in S. A. Berville and J. F. Barriére ‘Papiers inèdits trouvès chez Robespierre’ (1828); in A. Cobban ‘Aspects of the French Revolution’ (1968)

La volontè gènèrale gouverne la sociètè comme la volontè particuliére gouverne chaque individu isolè.

The general will rules in society as the private will governs each separate individual.

‘Lettres á ses commettans’ (2nd series) 5 January 1793; in A. Cobban ‘Aspects of the French Revolution’ (1968)

Je ne suis pas ni le courtisan, ni le modèrateur, ni le tribun, ni le dèfenseur du peuple, je sais peuple moi-même.

I am no courtesan, nor moderator, nor Tribune, nor defender of my people: I am myself the

people.

Speech in Jacobin Club, 27 April 1792; in A. Cobban ‘Aspects of the French Revolution’ (1968)

6.57 Leo Robin 1900—

Diamonds are a girl’s best friend.

Title of song (1949); music by Jule Styne

6.58 Leo Robin 1900—and Ralph Rainger

Thanks for the memory.

Title of song (1937); adopted by Bob Hope as his theme song

6.59 Edwin Arlington Robinson 1869-1935

I shall have more to say when I am dead.

‘John Brown’ (1920)

Miniver loved the Medici, Albeit he had never seen one;

He would have sinned incessantly

Could he have been one.

‘Miniver Cheevy’ (1910)

So on we worked, and waited for the light, And went without meat, and cursed the bread; And Richard Cory, one calm summer night, Went home and put a bullet through his head.

‘Richard Cory’ (1897)

The world is not a ‘prison house’, but a kind of kindergarten, where millions of bewildered infants are trying to spell God with the wrong blocks.

‘Literature in the Making’ (1917) p. 266

6.60 John Robinson 1919-83

Honest to God.

Title of book

I think Lawrence tried to portray this [sex] relation as in a real sense an act of holy communion. For him flesh was sacramental of the spirit.

As defence witness in the case against Penguin Books for publishing ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’; in ‘The Times’ 28 October 1960

6.61 Mary Robinson 1758-1800

Pavement slippery, people sneezing, Lords in ermine, beggars freezing; Title gluttons dainties carving, Genius in a garret starving.

‘January, 1795’

6.62 Sir Boyle Roche 1743-1807

He regretted that he was not a bird, and could not be in two places at once.

Attributed. Thomas Jevon ‘Devil of a Wife’ (1686) act 3

Mr Speaker, I smell a rat; I see him forming in the air and darkening the sky; but I’ll nip him in the bud.

Attributed

6.63 John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester 1647-80

Tell me no more of constancy, that frivolous pretence,

Of cold age, narrow jealousy, disease and want of sense.

‘Against Constancy’

Then bring my bath, and strew my bed, as each kind night returns,

I’ll change a mistress till I’m dead, and fate change me for worms.

‘Against Constancy’ (1676)

Kindness only can persuade;

It gilds the lover’s servile chain

And makes the slave grow pleased and vain.

‘Give me leave to rail at you’ (1680)

‘Is there then no more?’ She cries. ‘All this to love and rapture’s due; Must we not pay a debt to pleasure too?’

‘The Imperfect Enjoyment’

May’st thou ne’er piss, who didst refuse to spend When all my joys did on false thee depend.

‘The Imperfect Enjoyment’

Here lies a great and mighty king Whose promise none relies on; He never said a foolish thing, Nor ever did a wise one.

‘The King’s Epitaph’; an alternative first line reads: ‘Here lies our sovereign lord the King.’

Love...That cordial drop heaven in our cup has thrown To make the nauseous draught of life go down.

‘A Letter from Artemisia in the Town to Chloe in the Country’

All my past life is mine no more: The flying hours are gone

Like transitory dreams given o’er, Whose images are kept in store By memory alone.

‘Love and Life’ (1680)

An age in her embraces passed Would seem a winter’s day,

Where life and light with envious haste Are torn and snatched away.

‘The Mistress: A Song’ (1691)

Kind jealous doubts, tormenting fears, And anxious cares, when past,

Prove our hearts’ trasure fixed and dear, And make us blest at last.

‘The Mistress: A Song’ (1691)

Natural freedoms are but just:

There’s something generous in mere lust.