The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations

‘The Compleat Angler’ (1653) pt. 1, ch. 1

Good company and good discourse are the very sinews of virtue.

‘The Compleat Angler’ (1653) pt. 1, ch. 2

An excellent angler, and now with God.

‘The Compleat Angler’ (1653) pt. 1, ch. 4

I love such mirth as does not make friends ashamed to look upon one another next morning.

‘The Compleat Angler’ (1653) pt. 1, ch. 5

A good, honest, wholesome, hungry breakfast.

‘The Compleat Angler’ (1653) pt. 1, ch. 5

No man can lose what he never had.

‘The Compleat Angler’ (1653) pt. 1, ch. 5

In so doing, use him as though you loved him.

‘The Compleat Angler’ (1653) pt. 1, ch. 8 (instructions for baiting a hook with a live frog)

This dish of meat is too good for any but anglers, or very honest men.

‘The Compleat Angler’ (1653) pt. 1, ch. 8

I love any discourse of rivers, and fish and fishing.

‘The Compleat Angler’ (1653) pt. 1, ch. 18

Look to your health; and if you have it, praise God, and value it next to a good conscience; for health is the second blessing that we mortals are capable of; a blessing that money cannot buy.

‘The Compleat Angler’ (1653) pt. 1, ch. 21

Let the blessing of St Peter’s Master be...upon all that are lovers of virtue; and dare trust in His providence; and be quiet; and go a-Angling.

‘The Compleat Angler’ (1653) pt. 1, ch. 21

But God, who is able to prevail, wrestled with him, as the Angel did with Jacob, and marked him; marked him for his own.

‘Life of Donne’ (1640)

The great Secretary of Nature and all learning, Sir Francis Bacon.

‘Life of Herbert’ (1670)

Of this blest man, let his just praise be given, Heaven was in him, before he was in heaven.

Written in Dr Richard Sibbes’s Returning Backslider, now preserved in Salisbury Cathedral Library

11.17 Bishop William Warburton 1698-1779

Orthodoxy is my doxy; heterodoxy is another man’s doxy.

To Lord Sandwich, in Priestley ‘Memoirs’ (1807) vol. 1, p. 372

11.18 Artemus Ward (Charles Farrar Browne) 1834-67

I now bid you a welcome adoo.

‘Artemus Ward His Book’ ‘The Shakers’

‘Mister Ward, don’t yur blud bile at the thawt that three million and a half of your culled

brethren air a clanking their chains in the South?’ Sez I, ‘not a bile! Let ’em clank!’

‘Artemus Ward His Book’ ‘Oberlin’

If you mean gettin hitched, I’M IN!

‘Artemus Ward His Book’ ‘The Showman’s Courtship’

My pollertics, like my religion, bein of a exceedin accommodatin character.

‘Artemus Ward His Book’ ‘The Crisis’

Shall we sell our birthrite for a mess of potash?

‘Artemus Ward His Book’ ‘The Crisis’.

N.B. This is rote Sarcasticul.

‘Artemus Ward His Book’ ‘A Visit to Brigham Young’

I girdid up my Lions & fled the Seen.

‘Artemus Ward His Book’ ‘A Visit to Brigham Young’

Did you ever hav the measels, and if so how many?

‘Artemus Ward His Book’ ‘The Census’

The female woman is one of the greatest institooshuns of which this land can boste.

‘Artemus Ward His Book’ ‘Woman’s Rights’

By a sudden and adroit movement I placed my left eye agin the Secesher’s fist.

‘Artemus Ward His Book’ ‘Thrilling Scenes in Dixie’

The ground flew up and hit me in the hed.

‘Artemus Ward His Book’ ‘Thrilling Scenes in Dixie’

I presunted myself at Betty’s bedside late at nite, with considerbul licker koncealed about my persun.

‘Artemus Ward His Book’ ‘Betsy-Jain Re-orgunised’

The happy marrid man dies in good stile at home, surrounded by his weeping wife and children. The old batchelor don’t die at all—he sort of rots away, like a polly-wog’s tail.

‘Artemus Ward His Book’ ‘Draft in Baldinsville’

It is a pity that Chawcer, who had geneyus, was so unedicated. He’s the wuss speller I know of.

‘Artemus Ward in London’ ch. 4

He [Brigham Young] is dreadfully married. He’s the most married man I ever saw in my life.

‘Artemus Ward’s Lecture’

Why is this thus? What is the reason of this thusness?

‘Artemus Ward’s Lecture’

I am happiest when I am idle. I could live for months without performing any kind of labour, and at the expiration of that time I should feel fresh and vigorous enough to go right on in the same way for numerous more months.

‘Pyrotechny’, 3 ‘Pettingill’

Why care for grammar as long as we are good?

‘Pyrotechny’, 5

Let us all be happy, and live within our means, even if we have to borrer the money to do it

with.

‘Science and Natural History’

11.19 Mrs Humphry Ward 1851-1920

‘Propinquity does it’—as Mrs Thornburgh is always reminding us.

‘Robert Elsmere’ (1888) bk. 1, ch. 2

11.20 Revd Nathaniel Ward 1578-1652

The world is full of care, much like unto a bubble;

Woman and care, and care and women, and women and care and trouble.

Epigram, attributed by Ward to a lady at the Court of the Queen of Bohemia, in ‘Simple Cobler’s Boy’ (1648)

p.25

11.21Andy Warhol 1927-87

It’s the place where my prediction from the sixties finally came true: ‘In the future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes.’ I’m bored with that line. I never use it anymore. My new line is, ‘In fifteen minutes everybody will be famous.’

‘Andy Warhol’s Exposures’ (1979) ‘Studio 54’

An artist is someone who produces things that people don’t need to have but that he—for some reason—thinks it would be a good idea to give them.

‘Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B and Back Again)’ (1975) ch. 10

Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art.

In ‘Observer’ 1 March 1987

11.22 Jack Warner (Horace Waters) 1895-1981

Mind my bike!

Catch-phrase used in the BBC radio series ‘Garrison Theatre’, 1939 onwards

11.23 George Washington 1732-99

Father, I cannot tell a lie, I did it with my little hatchet.

Attributed by Mark Twain in ‘Mark Twain as George Washington’. Another version is: I can’t tell a lie, Pa; you know I can’t tell a lie. I did cut it with my hatchet. Weems ‘Washington’ (Fifth ed. 1806)

It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliance with any portion of the foreign world.

Farewell address to the people of the United States, 17 September 1796

Labour to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire, called conscience.

Rules of Civility and Decent Behaviour. Sparks ‘Life of Washington’ (1839) vol. 2, p. 109

We must consult Brother Jonathan.

Said to have been a frequent remark of his during the American Revolution, referring to Jonathan Trumbull, 1710-85, Governor of Connecticut. ‘Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts’ (1905) vol. 7, p. 94

Put none but Americans on guard to-night.

Attributed; based on his circular letter to regimental commanders, 30 April 1777

11.24 Ned Washington

Hi diddle dee dee (an actor’s life for me).

Title of song (1940)

When you wish upon a star.

Title of song (1940)

11.25 Rowland Watkyns fl.1662

I love him not, but shew no reason can Wherefore, but this,I do not love the man.

‘Antipathy’.

For every marriage then is best in tune, When that the wife is May, the husband June.

‘To the most Courteous and Fair Gentlewoman, Mrs Elinor Williams’

11.26 William Watson c.1559-1603

Fiat justitia et ruant coeli.

Let justice be done though the heavens fall.

‘A Decacordon of Ten Quodlibeticall Questions Concerning Religion and State’ (1602) (first citation in an English work of a famous maxim).

11.27 Sir William Watson 1858-1935

April, April,

Laugh thy girlish laughter; Then, the moment after, Weep thy girlish tears!

‘Song’

These and a thousand tricks and ways and traits I noted as of Demos at their root,

And foreign to the staid, conservative Came-over-with-the Conqueror type of mind.

‘A Study in Contrasts’

11.28 Isaac Watts 1674-1748

One sickly sheep infects the flock, And poisons all the rest.

‘Against Evil Company’ from ‘Divine Songs for Children’ (1715)

How doth the little busy bee Improve each shining hour, And gather honey all the day

From every opening flower!

‘Against Idleness and Mischief’ from ‘Divine Songs for Children’ (1715)

In works of labour, or of skill, I would be busy too;

For Satan finds some mischief still For idle hands to do.

‘Against Idleness and Mischief’ from ‘Divine Songs for Children’ (1715)

Let me be dressed fine as I will,

Flies, worms, and flowers, exceed me still.

‘Against Pride in Clothes’ from ‘Divine Songs for Children’ (1715)

Let dogs delight to bark and bite, For God hath made them so;

Let bears and lions growl and fight, For ’tis their nature too.

‘Against Quarrelling’ from ‘Divine Songs for Children’ (1715)

But, children, you should never let Such angry passions rise;

Your little hands were never made To tear each other’s eyes.

‘Against Quarrelling’ from ‘Divine Songs for Children’ (1715)

I’ll not willingly offend, Nor be easily offended;

What’s amiss I’ll strive to mend, And endure what can’t be mended.

‘Good Resolution’

Hark! from the tombs a doleful sound.

‘Hark! from the Tombs’

There is a dreadful Hell, And everlasting pains;

There sinners must with devils dwell In darkness, fire, and chains.

‘Heaven and Hell’ from ‘Divine Songs for Children’ (1715)

How rude are the boys that throw pebbles and mire.

‘Innocent Play’

Whatever brawls disturb the street, There should be peace at home.

‘Love between Brothers and Sisters’ from ‘Divine Songs for Children’ (1715)

Birds in their little nests agree And ’tis a shameful sight, When children of one family

Fall out, and chide, and fight.

‘Love between Brothers and Sisters’ from ‘Divine Songs for Children’ (1715)

Lord, I ascribe it to Thy grace, And not to chance, as others do, That I was born of Christian race, And not a Heathen, or a Jew.

‘Praise for the Gospel’ from ‘Divine Songs for Children’ (1715)

’Tis the voice of the sluggard; I heard him complain, ‘You have waked me too soon, I must slumber again’. As the door on its hinges, so he on his bed,

Turns his sides and his shoulders and his heavy head.

‘The Sluggard’

There’s no repentance in the grave.

‘Solemn Thoughts of God and Death’ from ‘Divine Songs for Children’ (1715)

11.29 Evelyn Waugh 1903-66

Brideshead revisited.

Title of novel (1945)

A shriller note could now be heard rising from Sir Alastair’s rooms; any who have heard that sound will shrink at the recollection of it; it is the sound of English county families baying for broken glass.

‘Decline and Fall’ (1928) ‘Prelude’.

I expect you’ll be becoming a schoolmaster, sir. That’s what most of the gentlemen does, sir, that gets sent down for indecent behaviour.

‘Decline and Fall’ (1928) ‘Prelude’

‘We class schools, you see, into four grades: Leading School, First-rate School, Good School, and School. Frankly,’ said Mr Levy, ‘School is pretty bad.’

‘Decline and Fall’ (1928) pt. 1, ch. 1

For generations the British bourgeoisie have spoken of themselves as gentlemen, and by that they have meant, among other things, a self-respecting scorn of irregular perquisites. It is the quality that distinguishes the gentleman from both the artist and the aristocrat.

‘Decline and Fall’ (1928) pt. 1, ch. 6

‘I often think,’ he continued, ‘that we can trace almost all the disasters of English history to the influence of Wales!’

‘Decline and Fall’ (1928) pt. 1, ch. 8

I haven’t been to sleep for over a year. That’s why I go to bed early. One needs more rest if one doesn’t sleep.

‘Decline and Fall’ (1928) pt. 2, ch. 3

Apparently he has been reading a series of articles by a popular bishop and has discovered that there is a species of person called a ‘Modern Churchman’ who draws the full salary of a

beneficed clergyman and need not commit himself to any religious belief.

‘Decline and Fall’ (1928) pt. 2, ch. 4

I came to the conclusion many years ago that almost all crime is due to the repressed desire for aesthetic expression.

‘Decline and Fall’ (1928) pt. 3, ch. 1

Any one who has been to an English public school will always feel comparatively at home in prison. It is the people brought up in the gay intimacy of the slums, Paul learned, who find prison so soul-destroying.

‘Decline and Fall’ (1928) pt. 3, ch. 4

You never find an Englishman among the under-dogs—except in England, of course.

‘The Loved One’ (1948) ch. 1

In the dying world I come from quotation is a national vice. No one would think of making an after-dinner speech without the help of poetry. It used to be the classics, now it’s lyric verse.

‘The Loved One’ (1948) ch. 9

‘The Beast stands for strong mutually antagonistic governments everywhere,’ he [Lord Copper] said. ‘Self-sufficiency at home, self-assertion abroad.’

‘Scoop’ (1938) bk. 1, ch. 1

Mr Salter’s side of the conversation was limited to expressions of assent.

When Lord Copper was right, he said, ‘Definitely, Lord Copper’; when he was wrong, ‘Up to a point’.

‘Scoop’ (1938) bk. 1, ch. 1

‘He [Boot]’s supposed to have a particularly high-class style: ‘Feather-footed through the plashy fen passes the questing vole’...would that be it?’ ‘Yes,’ said the Managing Editor. ‘That must be good style.’

‘Scoop’ (1938) bk. 1, ch. 1

News is what a chap who doesn’t care much about anything wants to read. And it’s only news until he’s read it. After that it’s dead.

‘Scoop’ (1938) bk. 1, ch. 5

‘I will not stand for being called a woman in my own house,’ she [Mrs Earl Russell Jackson] said.

‘Scoop’ (1938) bk. 2, ch. 1

Other nations use ‘force’; we Britons alone use ‘Might’.

‘Scoop’ (1938) bk. 2, ch. 5

All this fuss about sleeping together. For physical pleasure I’d sooner go to my dentist any day.

‘Vile Bodies’ (1930) ch. 6

Lady Peabury was in the morning room reading a novel; early training gave a guilty spice to this recreation, for she had been brought up to believe that to read a novel before luncheon was one of the gravest sins it was possible for a gentlewoman to commit.

‘Work Suspended’ (1942) ‘An Englishman’s Home’

Punctuality is the virtue of the bored.

Michael Davie (ed.) ‘Diaries of Evelyn Waugh’ (1976) ‘Irregular Notes 1960-65’, 26 March 1962

Randolph Churchill went into hospital...to have a lung removed. It was announced that the trouble was not ‘malignant’. Seeing Ed Stanley in White’s, on my way to Rome, I remarked that it was a typical triumph of modern science to find the only part of Randolph that was not malignant and remove it.

Michael Davie (ed.) ‘Diaries of Evelyn Waugh’ (1976) ‘Irregular Notes 1960-65’, March 1964

Manners are especially the need of the plain. The pretty can get away with anything.

In ‘Observer’ 15 April 1962

The trouble with the Conservative Party is that it has not turned the clock back a single second.

Attributed

11.30 Frederick Weatherly 1848-1929

Where are the boys of the old Brigade, Who fought with us side by side?

‘The Old Brigade’

Roses are flowering in Picardy, But there’s never a rose like you.

‘Roses of Picardy’ (1916 song)

11.31 Beatrice Webb 1858-1943

If I ever felt inclined to be timid as I was going into a room full of people, I would say to myself, ‘You’re the cleverest member of one of the cleverest families in the cleverest class of the cleverest nation in the world, why should you be frightened?’

In Bertrand Russell ‘Autobiography’ (1967) vol. 1, ch. 4

See also Sidney Webb and Beatrice Webb (11.35)

11.32 Geoffrey Webb and Edward J. Mason

An everyday story of country folk.

Introduction to ‘The Archers’ (BBC radio serial, 1950 onwards)

11.33 Jim Webb 1946—

Up, up and away.

Title of song (1967)

11.34 Sidney Webb (Baron Passfield) 1859-1947

First let me insist on what our opponents habitually ignore, and indeed, what they seem intellectually incapable of understanding, namely the inevitable gradualness of our scheme of change.

Presidential address at Labour Party Conference in London, 26 June 1923, in ‘Report’ (1923) p. 178

11.35 Sidney Webb (Baron Passfield) 1859-1947 and Beatrice Webb 1858-1943