The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations

‘New Scientist’ 21 May 1964

7.103 Christopher Smart 1722-71

Now the winds are all composure, But the breath upon the bloom, Blowing sweet o’er each enclosure, Grateful off’rings of perfume.

Tansy, calaminth and daisies On the river’s margin thrive; And accompany the mazes

Of the stream that leaps alive.

‘Hymns and Spiritual Songs’ (1765) ‘St Mark’

Nature’s decorations glisten Far above their usual trim; Birds on box and laurels listen, As so near the cherubs hymn.

‘Hymns and Spiritual Songs’ (1765) ‘The Nativity of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ’

God all-bounteous, all-creative, Whom no ills from good dissuade, Is incarnate, and a native

Of the very world he made.

‘Hymns and Spiritual Songs’ (1765) ‘The Nativity of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ’

For in my nature I quested for beauty, but God, God hath sent me to sea for pearls.

‘Jubilate Agno’ Fragment B, l. 30

For sincerity is a jewel which is pure and transparent, eternal and inestimable.

‘Jubilate Agno’ Fragment B, l. 40

For Charity is cold in the multitude of possessions, and the rich are covetous of their crumbs.

‘Jubilate Agno’ Fragment B, l. 154

For I will consider my Cat Jeoffrey.

For he is the servant of the Living God duly and daily serving him.

For at the first glance of the glory of God in the East he worships in his way. For this is done by wreathing his body seven times round with elegant quickness.

‘Jubilate Agno’ Fragment B, l. 695

For when his day’s work is done his business more properly begins. For he keeps the Lord’s watch in the night against the adversary.

For he counteracts the powers of darkness by his electrical skin and glaring eyes. For he counteracts the Devil, who is death, by brisking about the life.

‘Jubilate Agno’ Fragment B, l. 717

Ye beauties! O how great the sum Of sweetness that ye bring;

On what a charity ye come To bless the latter spring! How kind the visit that ye pay, Like strangers on a rainy day.

‘On a Bed of Guernsey Lilies’

Lo, through her works gay nature grieves How brief she is and frail,

As ever o’er the falling leaves Autumnal winds prevail.

Yet still the philosophic mind Consolatory food can find,

And hope her anchorage maintain: We never are deserted quite;

’Tis by succession of delight That love supports his reign.

‘On a Bed of Guernsey Lilies’

He sung of God—the mighty source Of all things—the stupendous force On which all strength depends;

From whose right arm, beneath whose eyes, All period, pow’r, and enterprize Commences, reigns, and ends.

‘A Song to David’ (1763) st. 18

Strong is the lion—like a coal

His eye-ball—like a bastion’s mole His chest against his foes:

Strong, the gier-eagle on his sail, Strong against tide, th’ enormous whale Emerges as he goes.

‘A Song to David’ (1763) st. 76

But stronger still, in earth and air, And in the sea, the man of pray’r; And far beneath the tide;

And in the seat to faith assign’d, Where ask is have, where seek is find, Where knock is open wide.

‘A Song to David’ (1763) st. 77

Beauteous the fleet before the gale; Beauteous the multitudes in mail, Ranked arms and crested heads;

Beauteous the garden’s umbrage mild, Walk, water, meditated wild,

And all the bloomy beds.

‘A Song to David’ (1763) st. 78

Glorious the northern lights astream; Glorious the song, when God’s the theme; Glorious the thunder’s roar:

Glorious hosanna from the den; Glorious the catholic amen; Glorious the martyr’s gore.

Glorious—more glorious is the crown Of Him that brought salvation down By meekness, called thy Son;

Thou that stupendous truth believed, And now the matchless deed’s achieved,

Determined, dared, and done.

‘A Song to David’ (1763) st. 85

Ah! Posthumus, the years, the years Glide swiftly on, nor can our tears Or piety the wrinkled age forefend,

Or for one hour retard th’inevitable end.

Translation of Horace Odes bk. 2, no. 14.

7.104 Elizabeth Smart 1913-86

By Grand Central Station I sat down and wept.

Title of book (1945).

7.105 Samuel Smiles 1812-1904

We each day dig our graves with our teeth.

‘Duty’ (1880) p. 418

This extraordinary metal [iron], the soul of every manufacture, and the mainspring perhaps, of civilised society.

‘Invention and Industry’ ch. 4

The shortest way to do many things is to do only one thing at once.

‘Self-Help’ (1859) ch. 9

Cheerfulness gives elasticity to the spirit; spectres fly before it.

‘Self-Help’ (1859)

Middle class people are apt to live up to their incomes, if not beyond them: affecting a degree of ‘style’ which is most unhealthy in its effects upon society at large.

‘Self-Help’ (1859)

As respects the great contrivances and inventions which have conferred so much power and wealth upon the nation, it is unquestionable that for the greater part of them we have been indebted to men of the humblest rank. Deduct what they have done in this particular line of action, and it will be found that very little indeed remains for other men to have accomplished.

‘Self-Help’ (1859)

The spirit of self-help is the root of all genuine growth in the individual.

‘Self-Help’ (1859)

7.106 Adam Smith 1723-90

Wonder...and not any expectation of advantage from its discoveries, is the first principle which prompts mankind to the study of Philosophy, of that science which pretends to lay open the concealed connections that unite the various appearances of nature.

‘Essays on Philosophical Subjects’ (1795) ‘The History of Astronomy’ sect. 3, para. 3

And thus, Place, that great object which divides the wives of aldermen, is the end of half the labours of human life; and is the cause of all the tumult and bustle, all the rapine and injustice, which avarice and ambition have introduced into this world.

‘The Theory of Moral Sentiments’ 1, 3, 2, 8

Though our brother is on the rack, as long as we ourselves are at our ease, our senses will never inform us of what he suffers...It is by imagination that we can form any conception of what are his sensations.

‘The Theory of Moral Sentiments’ (2nd ed., 1762) p. 2

Consumption is the sole end and purpose of production; and the interest of the producer ought to be attended to only so far as it may be necessary for promoting that of the consumer.

‘Wealth of Nations’ (1776) bk. 4, ch. 8

People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.

‘Wealth of Nations’ (1776)

With the greater part of rich people, the chief enjoyment of riches consists in the parade of riches, which in their eyes is never so complete as when they appear to possess those decisive marks of opulence which nobody can possess but themselves.

‘Wealth of Nations’ (1776)

To found a great empire for the sole purpose of raising up a people of customers, may at first sight appear a project fit only for a nation of shopkeepers. It is, however, a project altogether unfit for a nation of shopkeepers; but extremely fit for a nation whose government is influenced by shopkeepers.

‘Wealth of Nations’ (1776).

The discipline of colleges and universities is in general contrived, not for the benefit of the students, but for the interest, or more properly speaking, for the ease of the masters.

‘Wealth of Nations’ (1776)

There is no art which one government sooner learns of another than that of draining money

from the pockets of the people.

‘Wealth of Nations’ (1776)

If any of the provinces of the British empire cannot be made to contribute towards the support of the whole empire, it is surely time that Great Britain should free herself from the expense of defending those provinces in time of war, and of supporting any part of their civil or military establishments in time of peace, and endeavour to accommodate her future views and designs to the real mediocrity of her circumstances.

‘Wealth of Nations’ (1776)

7.107 Alfred Emanuel Smith 1873-1944

All the ills of democracy can be cured by more democracy.

Speech in Albany, 27 June 1933, in ‘New York Times’ 28 June 1933

Unpack.

Telegraphed message to the Pope, 1932, whom he had hoped would come to live in the United States, in the event of Smith’s campaign for the presidency being successful; attributed

7.108 Sir Cyril Smith 1928—

The longest running farce in the West End.

On the House of Commons, in ‘Big Cyril’ (1977) ch. 8

7.109 Dodie Smith 1896-1990

The family—that dear octopus from whose tentacles we never quite escape, nor, in our inmost hearts, ever quite wish to.

‘Dear Octopus’ (1938) p. 120

7.110 Edgar Smith 1857-1938

You may tempt the upper classes With your villainous demi-tasses,

But; Heaven will protect a working-girl!

‘Heaven Will Protect the Working-Girl’ (1909 song)

7.111 F. E. Smith (Earl of Birkenhead) 1872-1930

We have the highest authority for believing that the meek shall inherit the earth; though I have never found any particular corroboration of this aphorism in the records of Somerset House.

‘Contemporary Personalities’ (1924) ‘Marquess Curzon’.

Nature has no cure for this sort of madness [Bolshevism], though I have known a legacy from a rich relative work wonders.

‘Law, Life and Letters’ (1927) vol. 2, ch. 19

The world continues to offer glittering prizes to those who have stout hearts and sharp swords.

Rectorial Address, Glasgow University, 7 November 1923, in ‘The Times’ 8 November 1923

Judge: What do you suppose I am on the Bench for, Mr Smith?

Smith: It is not for me, Your Honour, to attempt to fathom the inscrutable workings of Providence.

In Second Earl of Birkenhead ‘F. E. The Life of F. E. Smith First Earl of Birkenhead’ (1959 ed.) ch. 9

Judge: You are extremely offensive, young man.

Smith: As a matter of fact, we both are, and the only difference between us is that I am trying to be, and you can’t help it.

In Second Earl of Birkenhead ‘Frederick Edwin Earl of Birkenhead’ (1933) vol. 1, ch. 9

Judge Darling: And who is George Robey?

Smith: Mr George Robey is the Darling of the music halls, m’lud.

In A. E. Wilson ‘The Prime Minister of Mirth’ (1956) ch. 1

Good God, do you mean to say this place is a club?

On being approached by the secretary of the Athenaeum, which he had been in the habit of using as a convenience on the way to his office; attributed

7.112 Ian Smith 1919—

I don’t believe in black majority rule in Rhodesia—not in a thousand years.

Broadcast speech, 20 March 1976, in ‘Sunday Times’ 21 March 1976

7.113 Langdon Smith 1858-1918

When you were a tadpole, and I was a fish, In the Palaeozoic time,

And side by side in the ebbing tide

We sprawled through the ooze and slime.

‘A Toast to a Lady’ (1906)

7.114 Logan Pearsall Smith 1865-1946

There is more felicity on the far side of baldness than young men can possibly imagine.

‘Afterthoughts’ (1931) ‘Age and Death’

The denunciation of the young is a necessary part of the hygiene of older people, and greatly assists the circulation of their blood.

‘Afterthoughts’ (1931) ‘Age and Death’

I cannot forgive my friends for dying; I do not find these vanishing acts of theirs at all amusing.

‘Afterthoughts’ (1931) ‘Age and Death’

The test of a vocation is the love of the drudgery it involves.

‘Afterthoughts’ (1931) ‘Art and Letters’

A best-seller is the gilded tomb of a mediocre talent.

‘Afterthoughts’ (1931) ‘Art and Letters’

To suppose, as we all suppose, that we could be rich and not behave as the rich behave, is like supposing that we could drink all day and keep absolutely sober.

‘Afterthoughts’ (1931) ‘In the World’

‘Not Waving but Drowning’ (1957)

People who are always praising the past And especially the times of faith as best Ought to go and live in the Middle Ages

And be burnt at the stake as witches and sages.

‘The Past’ (1957)

Private Means is dead

God rest his soul, officers and fellow-rankers said.

‘Private Means is Dead’ (1962)

This Englishwoman is so refined She has no bosom and no behind.

‘This Englishwoman’ (1937)

I long for the Person from Porlock To bring my thoughts to an end,

I am growing impatient to see him I think of him as a friend.

‘Thoughts about the “Person from Porlock”’ (1962).

If you cannot have your dear husband for a comfort and a delight, for a breadwinner and a crosspatch, for a sofa, chair or a hot-water bottle, one can use him as a Cross to be Borne.

‘Novel on Yellow Page’ (1936) p. 24

If there wasn’t death, I think you couldn’t go on.

In ‘Observer’ 9 November 1969

7.117 Sydney Smith 1771-1845

The moment the very name of Ireland is mentioned, the English seem to bid adieu to common feeling, common prudence, and common sense, and to act with the barbarity of tyrants, and the fatuity of idiots.

‘Peter Plymley’s Letters’ (1929) p. 9

A Curate—there is something which excites compassion in the very name of a Curate!!!

‘Peter Plymley’s Letters’ (1929) p. 127 ‘Persecuting Bishops’

Bishop Berkeley destroyed this world in one volume octavo; and nothing remained, after his time, but mind; which experienced a similar fate from the hand of Mr Hume in 1739.

‘Sketches of Moral Philosophy’ introduction

We shall generally find that the triangular person has got into the square hole, the oblong into the triangular, and a square person has squeezed himself into the round hole. The officer and the office, the doer and the thing done, seldom fit so exactly that we can say they were almost made for each other.

‘Sketches of Moral Philosophy’ Lecture 9

I never could find any man who could think for two minutes together.

‘Sketches of Moral Philosophy’ Lecture 9

What bishops like best in their clergy is a dropping-down-deadness of manner.

‘Works’ (1859) vol. 2 ‘First Letter to Archdeacon Singleton’ p. 271, note

I look upon Switzerland as an inferior sort of Scotland.

Letter to Lord Holland, 1815, in ‘Letters’

Tory and Whig in turns shall be my host, I taste no politics in boiled and roast.

Letter to John Murray, November 1834, in ‘Letters’

I have no relish for the country; it is a kind of healthy grave.

Letter to Miss G. Harcourt, 1838, in ‘Letters’

I have seen nobody since I saw you, but persons in orders. My only varieties are vicars, rectors, curates, and every now and then (by way of turbot) an archdeacon.

Letter to Miss Berry, 28 January 1843, in ‘Letters’

It requires a surgical operation to get a joke well into a Scotch understanding. Their only idea of wit...is laughing immoderately at stated intervals.

In Lady Holland ‘Memoir’ (1855) vol. 1, ch. 2, p. 15

That knuckle-end of England—that land of Calvin, oat-cakes, and sulphur.

In Lady Holland ‘Memoir’ (1855) vol. 1, ch. 2, p. 17

Take short views, hope for the best, and trust in God.

In Lady Holland ‘Memoir’ (1855) vol. 1, ch. 6, p. 48

No furniture so charming as books.

In Lady Holland ‘Memoir’ (1855) vol. 1, ch. 9, p. 240.

How can a bishop marry? How can he flirt? The most he can say is, ‘I will see you in the vestry after service.’

In Lady Holland ‘Memoir’ (1855) vol. 1, ch. 9, p. 258

Not body enough to cover his mind decently with; his intellect is improperly exposed.

In Lady Holland ‘Memoir’ (1855) vol. 1, ch. 9, p. 258

As the French say, there are three sexes—men, women, and clergymen.

In Lady Holland ‘Memoir’ (1855) vol. 1, ch. 9, p. 262

Daniel Webster struck me much like a steam-engine in trousers.

In Lady Holland ‘Memoir’ (1855) vol. 1, ch. 9, p. 267

My definition of marriage:...it resembles a pair of shears, so joined that they cannot be separated; often moving in opposite directions, yet always punishing anyone who comes between them.

In Lady Holland ‘Memoir’ (1855) vol. 1, ch. 11, p. 363

He [Macaulay] is like a book in breeches.

In Lady Holland ‘Memoir’ (1855) vol. 1, ch. 11, p. 363

He [Macaulay] has occasional flashes of silence, that make his conversation perfectly delightful.

In Lady Holland ‘Memoir’ (1855) vol. 1, ch. 11, p. 363

Let onion atoms lurk within the bowl,

And, scarce-suspected, animate the whole.

In Lady Holland ‘Memoir’ (1855) vol. 1, ch. 11, p. 373 ‘Recipe for Salad’

Serenely full, the epicure would say,

Fate cannot harm me, I have dined to-day.

In Lady Holland ‘Memoir’ (1855) vol. 1, ch. 11, p. 373.

Deserves to be preached to death by wild curates.

In Lady Holland ‘Memoir’ (1855) vol. 1, ch. 11, p. 384

I never read a book before reviewing it; it prejudices a man so.

In H. Pearson ‘The Smith of Smiths’ (1934) ch. 3, p. 54

Minorities...are almost always in the right.

In H. Pearson ‘The Smith of Smiths’ (1934) ch. 9, p. 220

—’s idea of heaven is, eating pâtè de foie gras to the sound of trumpets.

What a pity it is that we have no amusements in England but vice and religion!

Let the Dean and Canons lay their heads together and the thing will be done.

On a proposal to surround St Paul’s with a wooden pavement, in H. Pearson ‘The Smith of Smiths’ (1934) ch. 10, p. 237

Death must be distinguished from dying, with which it is often confused.

In H. Pearson ‘The Smith of Smiths’ (1934) ch. 11, p. 271

What two ideas are more inseparable than Beer and Britannia?

In H. Pearson ‘The Smith of Smiths’ (1934) ch. 11, p. 272

I am just going to pray for you at St Paul’s, but with no very lively hope of success.

In H. Pearson ‘The Smith of Smiths’ (1934) ch. 13, p. 308

Poverty is no disgrace to a man, but it is confoundedly inconvenient.

In ‘Sidney Smith: His Wit and Wisdom’ (1900) p. 89

Science is his forte, and omniscience his foible. On William Whewell, in Isaac Todhunter ‘William Whewell’ (1876) vol. 1, p. 410

7.118 Tobias Smollett 1721-71

I think for my part one half of the nation is mad—and the other not very sound.

‘The Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves’ (1762) ch. 6

That great Cham of literature, Samuel Johnson.

Letter to John Wilkes, 16 March 1759, in James Boswell ‘The Life of Samuel Johnson’ (1934) vol. 1, p. 348

The capital [London] is become an overgrown monster; which, like a dropsical head, will in time leave the body and extremities without nourishment and support.

‘The Expedition of Humphry Clinker’ (1771) vol. 1, letter from Matthew Bramble, 29 May

I am pent up in frowzy lodgings, where there is not room enough to swing a cat.

‘The Expedition of Humphry Clinker’ (1771) vol. 1, letter from Matthew Bramble, 8 June

‘Begging your honour’s pardon, (replied Clinker) may not the new light of God’s grace shine