The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations

Still standing for some false impossible shore.

‘A Summer Night’ l. 68

The signal-elm, that looks on Ilsley downs,

The Vale, the three lone weirs, the youthful Thames.

‘Thyrsis’ (1866) l. 14

And that sweet City with her dreaming spires, She needs not June for beauty’s heightening.

‘Thyrsis’ (1866) l. 19

So have I heard the cuckoo’s parting cry,

From the wet field, through the vext garden-trees, Come with the volleying rain and tossing breeze: ‘The bloom is gone, and with the bloom go I.’

‘Thyrsis’ (1866) l. 57

Too quick despairer, wherefore wilt thou go? Soon will the high Midsummer pomps come on, Soon will the musk carnations break and swell.

‘Thyrsis’ (1866) l. 61

For Time, not Corydon, hath conquered thee.

‘Thyrsis’ (1866) l. 80

The foot less prompt to meet the morning dew, The heart less bounding at emotion new,

And hope, once crushed, less quick to spring again.

‘Thyrsis’ (1866) l. 138

Who saw life steadily, and saw it whole: The mellow glory of the Attic stage; Singer of sweet Colonus, and its child.

Lines on Sophocles in ‘To a Friend’ (1849)

France, famed in all great arts, in none supreme.

‘To a Republican Friend, 1848. Continued’

Yes! in the sea of life enisled,

With echoing straits between us thrown, Dotting the shoreless watery wild,

We mortal millions live alone.

‘To Marguerite—Continued’ (1852) l. 1

A God, a God their severance ruled! And bade betwixt their shores to be The unplumbed, salt, estranging sea.

‘To Marguerite—Continued’ (1852) l. 22

Nor bring, to see me cease to live, Some doctor full of phrase and fame,

To shake his sapient head and give The ill he cannot cure a name.

‘A Wish’ (1867)

And sigh that one thing only has been lent To youth and age in common—discontent.

‘Youth’s Agitations’ (1852)

Our society distributes itself into Barbarians, Philistines, and Populace; and America is just ourselves, with the Barbarians quite left out, and the Populace nearly.

‘Culture and Anarchy’ (1869) preface

The pursuit of perfection, then, is the pursuit of sweetness and light....He who works for sweetness and light united, works to make reason and the will of God prevail.

‘Culture and Anarchy’ (1869) ch. 1.

The men of culture are the true apostles of equality.

‘Culture and Anarchy’ (1869) ch. 1

When I want to distinguish clearly the aristocratic class from the Philistines proper, or middle class, [I] name the former, in my own mind the Barbarians.

‘Culture and Anarchy’ (1869) ch. 3

That vast portion...of the working-class which, raw and half-developed, has long lain halfhidden amidst its poverty and squalor, and is now issuing from its hiding-place to assert an Englishman’s heaven-born privilege of doing as he likes, and is beginning to perplex us by marching where it likes, meeting where it likes, bawling what it likes, breaking what it likes—to this vast residuum we may with great propriety give the name of Populace.

‘Culture and Anarchy’ (1869) ch. 3

Hebraism and Hellenism—between these two points of influence moves our World.

‘Culture and Anarchy’ (1869) ch. 4

‘He knows’ says Hebraism, ‘his Bible!’—whenever we hear this said, we may, without any elaborate defence of culture, content ourselves with answering simply: ‘No man, who knows nothing else, knows even his Bible.’

‘Culture and Anarchy’ (1869) ch. 5

Nothing could moderate, in the bosom of the great English middle class, their passionate, absorbing, almost blood-thirsty clinging to life.

‘Essays in Criticism’ First Series (1865) preface

Beautiful city! so venerable, so lovely, so unravaged by the fierce intellectual life of our century, so serene!...whispering from her towers the last enchantments of the Middle Age....

Home of lost causes, and forsaken beliefs, and unpopular names, and impossible loyalties!

On Oxford in ‘Essays in Criticism’ First Series (1865) preface

‘Our unrivalled happiness’;—what an element of grimness, bareness, and hideousness mixes with it and blurs it; the workhouse, the dismal Mapperly Hills,—how dismal those who have seen them will remember;—the gloom, the smoke, the cold, the strangled illegitimate child!...And the

final touch,—short, bleak and inhuman: Wragg is in custody. The sex lost in the confusion of our unrivalled happiness; or (shall I say?) the superfluous Christian name lopped off by the straightforward vigour of our old Anglo-Saxon breed!

Prompted by a newspaper report of the murder of her illegitimate child by a girl named Wragg; ‘Essays in Criticism’ First Series (1865) ‘The Function of Criticism at the Present Time’

I am bound by my own definition of criticism: a disinterested endeavour to learn and propagate the best that is known and thought in the world.

‘Essays in Criticism’ First Series (1865) ‘The Function of Criticism at the Present Time’

Philistinism!—We have not the expression in English. Perhaps we have not the word because we have so much of the thing.

‘Essays in Criticism’ First Series (1865) ‘Heinrich Heine’

The great apostle of the Philistines, Lord Macaulay.

‘Essays in Criticism’ First Series (1865) ‘Joubert’

The absence, in this country, of any force of educated literary and scientific opinion.

‘Essays in Criticism’ First Series (1865) ‘The Literary Influence of Academies’

In poetry, no less than in life, he is ‘a beautiful and ineffectual angel, beating in the void his luminous wings in vain’.

‘Essays in Criticism’ Second Series (1888) ‘Shelley’; Arnold is quoting from his own essay on Byron in the same work.

More and more mankind will discover that we have to turn to poetry to interpret life for us, to console us, to sustain us. Without poetry our science will appear incomplete; and most of what now passes for religion and philosophy will be replaced by poetry.

‘Essays in Criticism’ Second Series (1888) ‘The Study of Poetry’

The difference between genuine poetry and the poetry of Dryden, Pope, and all their school, is briefly this: their poetry is conceived and composed in their wits, genuine poetry is conceived and composed in the soul.

‘Essays in Criticism’ Second Series (1888) ‘Thomas Gray’

Poetry is at bottom a criticism of life.

‘Essays in Criticism’ Second Series (1888) ‘Wordsworth’

His expression may often be called bald...but it is bald as the bare mountain tops are bald, with a baldness full of grandeur.

‘Wordsworth’ in ‘Essays in Criticism’ Second Series (1888)

I am past thirty, and three parts iced over.

Howard Foster Lowry (ed.) ‘The Letters of Matthew Arnold to Arthur Hugh Clough’ (1932) 12 February 1853

Culture, the acquainting ourselves with the best that has been known and said in the world, and thus with the history of the human spirit.

‘Literature and Dogma’ (1873) preface

Terms like grace, new birth, justification...terms, in short, which with

St Paul are literary terms, theologians have employed as if they were scientific terms.

Letter to Revd John Tucker, 2 March 1828, on appointment to the Headmastership of Rugby School, in Arthur Penrhyn Stanley ‘The Life and Correspondence of Thomas Arnold’ (1844) vol. 1, ch. 2

What we must look for here is, 1st, religious and moral principles: 2ndly, gentlemanly conduct: 3rdly, intellectual ability.

Address to the Praeposters of Rugby School, in Arthur Penrhyn Stanley ‘The Life and Correspondence of Thomas Arnold’ (1844) vol. 1, ch. 3

As for rioting, the old Roman way of dealing with that is always the right one; flog the rank and file, and fling the ringleaders from the Tarpeian rock.

From an unpublished letter written before 1828, quoted by Matthew Arnold in ‘Cornhill Magazine’ August 1868 ‘Anarchy and Authority’

1.98 Raymond Aron 1905—

La pensèe politique, en France, est rètrospective ou utopique.

Political thought, in France, is retrospective or utopian.

‘L’opium des intellectuels’ (1955) ch. 1

1.99 Antonin Artaud 1896-1948

Il faut nous laver de la littérature. Nous voulons être hommes avant tout, être humains.

We must wash literature off ourselves. We want to be men first of all; to be human.

‘Les Oeuvres et les Hommes’ unpublished MS, 17 May 1922

1.100 George Asaf 1880-1951

What’s the use of worrying? It never was worth while,

So, pack up your troubles in your old kit-bag, And smile, smile, smile.

‘Pack up your Troubles’ (1915 song)

1.101 Roger Ascham 1515-68

I said...how, and why, young children, were sooner allured by love, than driven by beating, to attain good learning.

‘The Schoolmaster’ (1570) preface

There is no such whetstone, to sharpen a good wit and encourage a will to learning, as is praise.

‘The Schoolmaster’ (1570) bk. 1

Inglese Italianato, é un diavolo incarnato, that is to say, you remain men in shape and fashion, but become devils in life and condition.

‘The Schoolmaster’ (1570) bk. 1 (referring to Englishmen travelling in Italy)

He that will write well in any tongue, must follow this counsel of Aristotle, to speak as the common people do, to think as wise men do; and so should every man understand him, and the judgment of wise men allow him.

Phrased used repeatedly in speeches in 1910, referring to the rumour that the House of Lords was to be flooded with new Liberal peers to ensure the passage of the Finance Bill. Roy Jenkins ‘Asquith’ (1964) ch. 14

We shall never sheath the sword which we have not lightly drawn until Belgium recovers in full measure all and more than all that she has sacrificed, until France is adequately secured against the menace of aggression, until the rights of the smaller nationalities of Europe are placed upon an unassailable foundation, and until the military domination of Prussia is wholly and finally destroyed.

Speech at the Guildhall, London, 9 November 1914, in ‘The Times’ 10 November 1914

It is fitting that we should have buried the Unknown Prime Minister by the side of the Unknown Soldier.

Referring to Bonar Law, in Robert Blake ‘The Unknown Prime Minister’ (1955) p. 531

[The War Office kept three sets of figures:] one to mislead the public, another to mislead the Cabinet, and the third to mislead itself.

In Alistair Horne ‘Price of Glory’ (1962) ch. 2

1.106 Margot Asquith (Countess of Oxford and Asquith) 1864-1945

The t is silent, as in Harlow.

To Jean Harlow, who had been calling her Margot (as in argot), in T. S. Matthews ‘Great Tom’ (1973) ch. 7

Lord Birkenhead is very clever but sometimes his brains go to his head.

In ‘Listener’ 11 June 1953 ‘Margot Oxford’ by Lady Violet Bonham Carter

She tells enough white lies to ice a wedding cake.

Referring to Lady Desborough, in ‘Listener’ 11 June 1953 ‘Margot Oxford’ by Lady Violet Bonham Carter

He can’t see a belt without hitting below it.

Referring to Lloyd George, in ‘Listener’ 11 June 1953 ‘Margot Oxford’ by Lady Violet Bonham Carter

1.107 Mary Astell 1668-1731

Their sophistry I can control

Who falsely say that women have no soul.

‘Ambition’ l. 7

Happy am I who out of danger sit,

Can see and pity them who wade thro it; Need take no thought my treasure to dispose, What I ne’re had I cannot fear to lose.

‘Awake my Lute’ l. 18

Our opposers usually miscall our quickness of thought, fancy and flash, and christen their own heaviness by the specious names of judgement and solidity; but it is easy to retort upon them the reproachful ones of dullness and stupidity.

‘An Essay in Defence of the Female Sex’ (1696) p. 19

Fetters of gold are still fetters, and the softest lining can never make them so easy as liberty.

‘An Essay in Defence of the Female Sex’ (1696) p. 25

If all men are born free, how is it that all women are born slaves?

‘Some Reflections upon Marriage’ (1706 ed.) preface

1.108 Sir Jacob Astley 1579-1652

O Lord! thou knowest how busy I must be this day: if I forget thee, do not thou forget me.

Prayer before the Battle of Edgehill, in Sir Philip Warwick ‘Memoires’ (1701) p. 229

1.109 Nancy Astor (Viscountess Astor) 1879-1964

I married beneath me, all women do.

In ‘Dictionary of National Biography 1961-1970’ (1981) p. 43

1.110 Brooks Atkinson 1894-1984

After each war there is a little less democracy to save.

‘Once Around the Sun’ (1951) 7 January

1.111 E. L. Atkinson 1882-1929 and Apsley Cherry-Garrard 1882-1959

Hereabouts died a very gallant gentleman, Captain L. E. G. Oates of the Inniskilling Dragoons. In March 1912, returning from the Pole, he walked willingly to his death in a blizzard to try and save his comrades, beset by hardships.

Epitaph on cairn erected in the Antarctic, 15 November 1912, in Apsley Cherry-Garrard ‘The Worst Journey in the World’ (1922) p. 487

1.112 Clement Attlee (first Earl Attlee) 1883-1967

The voice we heard was that of Mr Churchill but the mind was that of Lord Beaverbrook.

Speech on radio, 5 June 1945, in Francis Williams ‘A Prime Minister Remembers’ (1961) ch. 6

I think the British have the distinction above all other nations of being able to put new wine into old bottles without bursting them.

‘Hansard’ 24 October 1950, col. 2705

Few thought he was even a starter

There were many who thought themselves smarter But he ended PM

CH and OM

An earl and a knight of the garter.

Describing himself in a letter to Tom Attlee, 8 April 1956; in Kenneth Harris ‘Attlee’ (1982) p. 545

[Russian Communism is] the illegitimate child of Karl Marx and Catherine the Great.

Speech at Aarhus University, 11 April 1956, in ‘The Times’ 12 April 1956

Democracy means government by discussion, but it is only effective if you can stop people talking.

Speech at Oxford, 14 June 1957, in ‘The Times’ 15 June 1957

A monologue is not a decision.

To Winston Churchill, who had complained that a matter had been brought up several times in Cabinet, in Francis Williams ‘A Prime Minister Remembers’ (1961) ch. 7

1.113 John Aubrey 1626-97

The Bishop sometimes would take the key of the wine-cellar, and he and his chaplain would go and lock themselves in and be merry. Then first he lays down his episcopal hat—There lies the Doctor. Then he puts off his gown—There lies the Bishop. Then ’twas, Here’s to thee, Corbet, and Here’s to thee, Lushington.

‘Brief Lives’ ‘Richard Corbet’

How these curiosities would be quite forgot, did not such idle fellows as I am put them down.

‘Brief Lives’ ‘Venetia Digby’

Extreme pleasant in his conversation, and at dinner, supper, etc; but satirical. (He pronounced the letter R (littera canina) very hard—a certain sign of a satirical wit).

‘Brief Lives’ ‘John Dryden’

He had read much, if one considers his long life; but his contemplation was much more than his reading. He was wont to say that if he had read as much as other men, he should have known no more than other men.

‘Brief Lives’ ‘Thomas Hobbes’

As they were reading of inscribing and circumscribing figures, said he, I will show you how to inscribe a triangle in a quadrangle. Bring a pig into the quadrangle and I will set the college dog at him, & he will take the pig by the ear, then I come & take the dog by the tail & the hog by the tail, and so there you have a triangle in a quadrangle; quod erat faciendum.

‘Brief Lives’ ‘Ralph Kettel’

He was so fair that they called him the lady of Christ’s College.

‘Brief Lives’ ‘John Milton’

His harmonical and ingenious soul did lodge in a beautiful and well proportioned body. He was a spare man.

‘Brief Lives’ ‘John Milton’

Sciatica: he cured it, by boiling his buttock.

‘Brief Lives’ ‘Sir Jonas Moore’

She was when a child much against the Bishops, and prayed to God to take them to him, but afterwards was reconciled to them. Prayed aloud, as the hypocritical fashion then was, and was overheard.

‘Brief Lives’ ‘Katherine Philips’

Sir Walter, being strangely surprised and put out of his countenance at so great a table, gives his son a damned blow over the face. His son, as rude as he was, would not strike his father, but strikes over the face the gentleman that sat next to him a nd said ‘Box about: ’twill come to my father anon’.

‘Brief Lives’ ‘Sir Walter Raleigh’

When he killed a calf he would do it in a high style, and make a speech.