The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations

Gather the rose of love, whilst yet is time,

Whilst loving thou mayst lovéd be with equal crime.

‘The Faerie Queen’ (1596) bk. 2, canto 12, st. 75

The dunghill kind

Delights in filth and foul incontinence:

Let Grill be Grill, and have his hoggish mind.

‘The Faerie Queen’ (1596) bk. 2, canto 12, st. 87

Whether it divine tobacco were, Or panachaea, or polygony,

She found, and brought it to her patient dear.

‘The Faerie Queen’ (1596) bk. 3, canto 5, st. 32

Hard is to teach an old horse amble true.

‘The Faerie Queen’ (1596) bk. 3, canto 8, st. 26

And painful pleasure turns to pleasing pain.

‘The Faerie Queen’ (1596) bk. 3, canto 10, st. 60

And as she looked about, she did behold, How over that same door was likewise writ, Be bold, be bold, and everywhere Be bold...

At last she spied at that room’s upper end Another iron door, on which was writ Be not too bold.

‘The Faerie Queen’ (1596) bk. 3, canto 11, st. 54

Dan Chaucer, well of English undefiled,

On Fame’s eternal beadroll worthy to be filed.

‘The Faerie Queen’ (1596) bk. 4, canto 2, st. 32

For all that nature by her mother wit Could frame in earth.

‘The Faerie Queen’ (1596) bk. 4, canto 10, st. 21

O sacred hunger of ambitious minds.

‘The Faerie Queen’ (1596) bk. 5, canto 12, st. 1

A monster, which the Blatant beast men call, A dreadful fiend of gods and men ydrad.

‘The Faerie Queen’ (1596) bk. 5, canto 12, st. 37

The gentle mind by gentle deeds is known. For a man by nothing is so well bewray’d, As by his manners.

‘The Faerie Queen’ (1596) bk. 6, canto 3, st. 1

What man that sees the ever-whirling wheel

Of Change, the which all mortal things doth sway, But that thereby doth find, and plainly feel,

How Mutability in them doth play

Her cruel sports, to many men’s decay?

‘The Faerie Queen’ (1596) bk. 7, canto 6, st. 1

For all that moveth doth in Change delight: But thenceforth all shall rest eternally

With Him that is the God of Sabbaoth hight:

O that great Sabbaoth God, grant me that Sabbaoth’s sight.

‘The Faerie Queen’ (1596) bk. 7, canto 8, st. 2

That beauty is not, as fond men misdeem, An outward show of things, that only seem.

‘An Hymn in Honour of Beauty’ l. 90

For of the soul the body form doth take; For soul is form, and doth the body make.

‘An Hymn in Honour of Beauty’ l. 132

I was promised on a time,

To have reason for my rhyme; From that time unto this season, I received nor rhyme nor reason.

‘Lines on his Pension’; attributed

What more felicity can fall to creature, Than to enjoy delight with liberty.

‘Muiopotmos’ l. 209

Of such deep learning little had he need, Ne yet of Latin, ne of Greek that breed

Doubts ’mongst Divines, and difference of texts, From whence arise diversity of sects,

And hateful heresies.

‘Prosopopoia or Mother Hubbard’s Tale’ l. 385

Calm was the day, and through the trembling air, Sweet breathing Zephyrus did softly play.

‘Prothalamion’ (1596) l. 1

With that, I saw two swans of goodly hue, Come softly swimming down along the Lee; Two fairer birds I yet did never see:

The snow which doth the top of Pindus strew, Did never whiter show,

Nor Jove himself when he a swan would be For love of Leda, whiter did appear.

‘Prothalamion’ (1596) l. 37

So purely white they were,

That even the gentle stream, the which them bare, Seemed foul to them, and bade his billows spare To wet their silken feathers, lest they might

Soil their fair plumes with water not so fair And mar their beauties bright,

That shone as Heaven’s light,

Against their bridal day, which was not long: Sweet Thames, run softly, till I end my song.

‘Prothalamion’ (1596) l. 46

At length they all to merry London came, To merry London, my most kindly nurse, That to me gave this life’s first native source.

‘Prothalamion’ (1596) l. 127

To be wise and eke to love,

Is granted scarce to God above.

‘The Shepherd’s Calendar’ (1579) ‘March. Willy’s Emblem’

Bring hither the pink and purple columbine, With gillyflowers:

Bring coronation, and sops in wine, Worn of paramours.

Strew me the ground with daffadowndillies, And cowslips, and kingcups, and loved lilies: The pretty pawnce,

And the chevisaunce,

Shall match with the fair flower delice.

‘The Shepherd’s Calendar’ (1579) ‘April’ l. 136 (pawnce pansy; chevisaunce wallflower?; flower delice iris)

And he that strives to touch the stars, Oft stumbles at a straw.

‘The Shepherd’s Calendar’ (1579) ‘July’ l. 99

Uncouth unkist, said the old famous poet Chaucer.

‘The Shepherd’s Calendar’ ‘Letter to Gabriel Harvey’

So now they have made our English tongue a gallimaufry or hodgepodge of all other speeches.

‘The Shepherd’s Calendar’ ‘Letter to Gabriel Harvey’

7.142 Steven Spielberg 1947—

Close encounters of the third kind.

Title of film (1977)

7.143 Baruch Spinoza 1632-77

By god I mean a being absolutely infinite—that is, a substance consisting in infinite attributes,

of which each expresses eternal and infinite essentiality.

‘Ethics’ (completed c.1665, published 1677) bk. 1, definition 6 ‘Deus, sive Natura [God, or in other words, Nature]’

Sedula curavi, humanas actiones non ridere, non lugere, neque detestare, sed intelligere.

I have striven not to laugh at human actions, not to weep at them, nor to hate them, but to

understand them.

‘Tractatus Politicus’ 1, 4

7.144 Dr Benjamin Spock 1903—

To win in Vietnam, we will have to exterminate a nation.

‘Dr Spock on Vietnam’ (1968) ch. 7

7.145 William Archibald Spooner 1844-1930

Mr Huxley assures me that it’s no farther from the north coast of Spitzbergen to the North Pole than it is from Land’s End to John of Gaunt.

Julian Huxley in ‘SEAC’ (Calcutta) 27 February 1944

You will find as you grow older that the weight of rages will press harder and harder upon the employer.

In William Hayter ‘Spooner’ (1977) ch. 6

Her late husband, you know, a very sad death—eaten by missionaries—poor soul!

In William Hayter ‘Spooner’ (1977) ch. 6

7.146 Sir Cecil Spring-Rice 1859-1918

Wilson is the nation’s shepherd and McAdoo his crook.

Of President Woodrow Wilson and his secretary of the treasury, a joke considered ill-timed in the light of attempts to draw the United States into the First World War; in Robert Skidelsky ‘John Maynard Keynes’ vol. 1 (1983) ch. 14, sect. 3

I vow to thee, my country—all earthly things above— Entire and whole and perfect, the service of my love,

The love that asks no question: the love that stands the test, That lays upon the altar the dearest and the best:

The love that never falters, the love that pays the price, The love that makes undaunted the final sacrifice.

‘I Vow to Thee, My Country’ (written on the eve of his departure from Washington, 12 January 1918)

And there’s another country, I’ve heard of long ago—

Most dear to them that love her, most great to them that know.

‘I Vow to Thee, My Country’ (written 1918)

Her ways are ways of gentleness and all her paths are Peace.

‘I Vow to Thee, My Country’ (written 1918)

I am the Dean of Christ Church, Sir: There’s my wife; look well at her.

She’s the Broad and I’m the High; We are the University.

‘The Masque of Balliol’ composed by and current among members of Balliol College, Oxford, in the 1870s; in W. G. Hiscock (ed.) ‘The Balliol Rhymes’ (1939) p. 29. The first couplet was unofficially altered to: ‘I am the Dean, and this is Mrs Liddell, / She the first, and I the second fiddle.’

7.147 Bruce Springsteen 1949—

Born down in a dead man’s town

The first kick I took was when I hit the ground.

‘Born in the USA’ (1984 song)

We gotta get out while we’re young,

’Cause tramps like us, baby, we were born to run.

‘Born to Run’ (1974 song)

Is a dream a lie if it don’t come true, Or is it something worse.

‘The River’ (1980 song)

7.148 C. H. Spurgeon 1834-92

If you want truth to go round the world you must hire an express train to pull it; but if you want a lie to go round the world, it will fly: it is as light as a feather, and a breath will carry it. It is well said in the old proverb, ‘a lie will go round the world while truth is pulling its boots on’.

‘Gems from Spurgeon’ (1859) p. 74

7.149 Sir J. C. Squire 1884-1958

But I’m not so think as you drunk I am.

‘Ballade of Soporific Absorption’ (1931)

It did not last: the Devil howling ‘Ho! Let Einstein be!’ restored the status quo.

‘In continuation of Pope on Newton’ (1926).

7.150 Mme de Staël 1766-1817

Tout comprendre rend trés indulgent.

To be totally understanding makes one very indulgent.

‘Corinne’ (1807) bk. 4, ch. 2

Speech happens not to be his language.

On being asked what one found to talk about with her new lover, a hussar; attributed

7.151 Joseph Stalin (Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili) 1879-1953

The State is an instrument in the hands of the ruling class, used to break the resistance of the adversaries of that class.

‘Foundations of Leninism’ (1924) section 4/6

The Pope! How many divisions has he got?

When asked by Pierre Louval, French Foreign Minister, to encourage Catholicism in Russia by way of conciliating the Pope, 13 May 1935; in W. S. Churchill ‘The Second World War’ vol. 1 ‘The Gathering Storm (1948) ch. 8.

7.152 Sir Henry Morton Stanley 1841-1904

Dr Livingstone, I presume?

‘How I found Livingstone’ (1872) ch. 11

7.153 Charles E. Stanton 1859-1933

Lafayette, nous voila!

Lafayette, we are here.

At the tomb of Lafayette in Paris, 4 July 1917, in ‘New York Tribune’ 6 September 1917

7.154 Edwin Mcmasters Stanton 1814-69

Now he belongs to the ages.

Of Abraham Lincoln, after his assassination, 15 April 1865, in I. M. Tarbell ‘Life of Abraham Lincoln’ (1900) vol. 2, p. 244

7.155 Elizabeth Cady Stanton 1815-1902

The Bible teaches that woman brought sin and death into the world, that she precipitated the fall of the race...marriage for her was to be a condition of bondage, maternity a period of suffering and anguish, and in silence and subjection, she was to play the role of a dependant on man’s bounty for all her material wants.

‘The Woman’s Bible’ (1895) pt. 1

Woman’s degradation is in man’s idea of his sexual rights. Our religion, laws, customs, are all founded on the belief that woman was made for man.

Letter to Susan B. Anthony, 14 June 1860, in T. Stanton and H. Stanton Blaher (eds.) ‘Elizabeth Cady Stanton’ (1922) vol. 2

7.156 Frank L. Stanton 1857-1927

Sweetes’ li’l’ feller, Everybody knows; Dunno what to call him,

But he’s mighty lak’ a rose!

‘Mighty Lak’ a Rose’ (1901 song)

7.157 John Stark 1728-1822

We beat them to-day or Molly Stark’s a widow.

Before the Battle of Bennington, 16 August 1777, in Appleton ‘Cyclopaedia of American Biography’ vol. 5

7.158 Christina Stead 1902-83

A self-made man is one who believes in luck and sends his son to Oxford.

‘House of All Nations’ (1938) ‘Credo’

7.159 Sir David Steel 1938—

Go back to your constituencies and prepare for government.

At the conclusion of the Liberal Party Assembly, Llandudno, 18 September 1981; in ‘The Times’ 19 September 1981

7.160 Sir Richard Steele 1672-1729

The insupportable labour of doing nothing.

‘The Spectator’ no. 54 (2 May 1711)

A woman seldom writes her mind but in her postscript.

‘The Spectator’ no. 79 (31 May 1711).

We were in some little time fixed in our seats, and sat with that dislike which people not too good-natured usually conceive of each other at first sight.

‘The Spectator’ no. 132 (1 August 1711)

There are so few who can grow old with a good grace.

‘The Spectator’ no. 263 (1 January 1712)

Will Honeycomb calls these over-offended ladies the outrageously virtuous.

‘The Spectator’ no. 266 (4 January 1712)

It is to be noted that when any part of this paper appears dull there is a design in it.

‘The Tatler’ no. 38 (7 July 1709)

To love her is a liberal education.

‘The Tatler’ no. 49 (2 August 1709); referring to Lady Elizabeth Hastings

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.

‘The Tatler’ no. 147 (18 March 1710)

It was very prettily said, that we may learn the little value of fortune by the persons on whom heaven is pleased to bestow it.

‘The Tatler’ no. 203 (27 July 1710).

7.161 Lincoln Steffens 1866-1936

I have seen the future; and it works.

Following a visit to the Soviet Union in 1919; letter to Marie Howe, 3 April 1919, in ‘Letters’ (1938) vol. 1, p. 463. John M. Thompson ‘Russia, Bolshevism and the Versailles Treaty’ (1954) p. 176, in which the US diplomat with whom Steffens had been travelling recalls Steffens composing the expression even before he had arrived in Russia

7.162 Gertrude Stein 1874-1946

Remarks are not literature.

‘Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas’ (1933) ch. 7 (addressed to Ernest Hemingway)

What was the use of my having come from Oakland...write about it if I like or anything if I like

I knew that once: but now—I think it.

‘Senex to Matt. Prior’

Two voices are there: one is of the deep;

It learns the storm-cloud’s thunderous melody, Now roars, now murmurs with the changing sea, Now bird-like pipes, now closes soft in sleep: And one is of an old half-witted sheep

Which bleats articulate monotony,

And indicates that two and one are three,

That grass is green, lakes damp, and mountains steep And, Wordsworth, both are thine.

‘A Sonnet’.

Will there never come a season Which shall rid us from the curse Of a prose which knows no reason And an unmelodious verse...

When there stands a muzzled stripling, Mute, beside a muzzled bore:

When the Rudyards cease from kipling And the Haggards Ride no more.

‘To R.K.’

7.167 James Stephens 1882-1950

Finality is death. Perfection is finality. Nothing is perfect. There are lumps in it.

‘The Crock of Gold’ (1912) bk. 1, ch. 4

I hear a sudden cry of pain! There is a rabbit in a snare: Now I hear the cry again,

But I cannot tell from where....

Little one! Oh, little one!

I am searching everywhere.

‘The Snare’ (1915)

7.168 Laurence Sterne 1713-68

They order, said I, this matter better in France.

‘A Sentimental Journey’ (1768) l. 1

As an Englishman does not travel to see Englishmen, I retired to my room.

‘A Sentimental Journey’ (1768) ‘Preface. In the Desobligeant’

I pity the man who can travel from Dan to Beersheba, and cry, ’tis all barren.