The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
.pdf2.231 Frank Buchman 1878-1961
I thank heaven for a man like Adolf Hitler, who built a front line of defence against the antiChrist of Communism.
‘New York World-Telegram’ 26 August 1936
Suppose everybody cared enough, everybody shared enough, wouldn’t everybody have enough? There is enough in the world for everyone’s need, but not enough for everyone’s greed.
‘Remaking the World’ (1947) p. 56
2.232 Gene Buck (Edward Eugene Buck) 1885-1957 and Herman Ruby 1891-1959
That Shakespearian rag,— Most intelligent, very elegant.
‘That Shakespearian Rag’ (1912 song).
2.233 George Villiers, Second Duke of Buckingham 1628-87
The world is made up for the most part of fools and knaves, both irreconcilable foes to truth.
‘The Dramatic Works’ (1715) vol. 2 ‘To Mr Clifford On his Humane Reason’
What a devil is the plot good for, but to bring in fine things?
‘The Rehearsal’ (1672) act 3, sc. 1
Ay, now the plot thickens very much upon us.
‘The Rehearsal’ (1672) act 3, sc. 2
2.234 John Sheffield, First Duke of Buckingham and Normanby 1648-1721
Learn to write well, or not to write at all.
‘An Essay upon Satire’ (1689) last line
2.235 H. J. Buckoll 1803-71
Lord, dismiss us with Thy blessing, Thanks for mercies past receive. Pardon all, their faults confessing; Time that’s lost may all retrieve.
‘Psalms and Hymns for the Use of Rugby School Chapel’ (1850) ‘Lord, Dismiss us with Thy Blessing’
2.236 J. B. Buckstone 1802-79
On such an occasion as this, All time and nonsense scorning, Nothing shall come amiss,
And we won’t go home till morning.
‘Billy Taylor’ (performed 1829) act 1, sc. 2
2.237 Eustace Budgell 1686-1737
What Cato did, and Addison approved
Cannot be wrong.
Lines found on his desk after he too committed suicide, 4 May 1737, in Colley Cibber ‘The Lives of the Poets’ (1753) vol. 5 ‘The Life of Eustace Budgell’
2.238 Comte de Buffon (George-Louis Leclerc) 1707-88
Ces choses sont hors de l’homme, le style est l’homme même.
These things [subject matter] are external to the man; style is the man.
‘Discours sur le style’; address given to the Acadèmie Française, 25 August 1753
Le gènie n’est qu’une plus grande aptitude á la patience.
Genius is only a greater aptitude for patience.
In Hèrault de Sèchelles ‘Voyage á Montbar’ (1803) p. 15
2.239 Arthur Buller 1874-1944
There was a young lady named Bright, Whose speed was far faster than light; She set out one day
In a relative way
And returned on the previous night.
‘Relativity’ in ‘Punch’ 19 December 1923
2.240 Ivor Bulmer-Thomas 1905—
If he ever went to school without any boots it was because he was too big for them.
Referring to Harold Wilson in a speech at the Conservative Party Conference, in ‘Manchester Guardian’ 13 October 1949
2.241 Count von Bülow 1849-1929
Mit einem Worte: wir wollen niemand in den Schatten stellen aber wir verlangen auch unseren Platz an der Sonne.
In a word, we desire to throw no one into the shade [in East Asia], but we also demand our
own place in the sun.
Reichstag, 6 December 1897
2.242 Edward George Bulwer-Lytton (first Baron Lytton) 1803-73
Here Stanley meets,—how Stanley scorns, the glance! The brilliant chief, irregularly great,
Frank, haughty, rash,—the Rupert of Debate.
Referring to Edward Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby, in ‘The New Timon’ (1846) pt. 1, sect. 3, l. 202.
Out-babying Wordsworth and out-glittering Keats.
Referring to Tennyson, in ‘The New Timon’ (1846) pt. 2, sect. 1, l. 62
Beneath the rule of men entirely great
The pen is mightier than the sword.
‘Richelieu’ (1839) act 2, sc. 2, l. 307.
2.243 Edward Robert Bulwer, Earl of Lytton
See Owen Meredith (1.114) in Volume II
2.244 Alfred Bunn c.1796-1860
I dreamed that I dwelt in marble halls With vassals and serfs at my side.
‘The Bohemian Girl’ (1843) act 2 ‘The Gipsy Girl’s Dream’
2.245 Luis Buñuel 1900-83
Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie.
The discreet charm of the bourgeoisie.
Title of film (1972)
Grâce á Dieu, je suis toujours athèe.
Thanks to God, I am still an atheist.
In ‘Le Monde’ 16 December 1959
2.246 John Bunyan 1628-88
As I walked through the wilderness of this world.
‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ (1678) pt. 1, opening words
The name of the slough was Despond.
‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ (1678) pt. 1
Christian: Gentlemen, Whence came you, and whither do you go? formalist and
Hypocrisy: We were born in the land of Vainglory, and we are going for praise to Mount Sion.
‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ (1678) pt. 1
It is an hard matter for a man to go down into the valley of Humiliation...and to catch no slip by the way.
‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ (1678) pt. 1
A foul Fiend coming over the field to meet him; his name is Apollyon.
‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ (1678) pt. 1
It beareth the name of Vanity-Fair, because the town where ’tis kept, is lighter than vanity.
‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ (1678) pt. 1.
Hanging is too good for him, said Mr Cruelty.
‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ (1678) pt. 1
Yet my great-grandfather was but a water-man, looking one way, and rowing another: and I got most of my estate by the same occupation.
‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ (1678) pt. 1.
They are for religion when in rags and contempt; but I am for him when he walks in his golden
slippers, in the sunshine and with applause.
‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ (1678) pt. 1
Now Giant Despair had a wife, and her name was Diffidence.
‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ (1678) pt. 1
A grievous crab-tree cudgel.
‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ (1678) pt. 1
They came to the Delectable Mountains.
‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ (1678) pt. 1
Sleep is sweet to the labouring man.
‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ (1678) pt. 1.
Then I saw that there was a way to Hell, even from the gates of heaven.
‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ (1678) pt. 1
So I awoke, and behold it was a dream.
‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ (1678) pt. 1
A man that could look no way but downwards, with a muckrake in his hand.
‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ (1684) pt. 2.
One leak will sink a ship, and one sin will destroy a sinner.
‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ (1684) pt. 2
He that is down needs fear no fall, He that is low no pride.
He that is humble ever shall Have God to be his guide.
‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ (1684) pt. 2 ‘Shepherd Boy’s Song’
A very zealous man...difficulties, lions, or Vanity-Fair, he feared not at all: ’Twas only sin, death, and Hell that was to him a terror.
‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ (1684) pt. 2 (of Mr Fearing)
A man there was, tho’ some did count him mad, The more he cast away, the more he had.
‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ (1684) pt. 2
Mercy laboured much for the poor...an ornament to her profession.
‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ (1684) pt. 2
Who would true valour see, Let him come hither;
One here will constant be, Come wind, come weather. There’s no discouragement Shall make him once relent His first avowed intent
To be a pilgrim.
Who so beset him round With dismal stories,
Do but themselves confound—
His strength the more is.
‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ (1684) pt. 2
The last words of Mr Despondency were, Farewell night, welcome day. His daughter went through the river singing, but none could understand what she said.
‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ (1684) pt. 2
I am going to my Fathers, and tho’ with great difficulty I am got hither, yet now I do not repent me of all the trouble I have been at to arrive where I am. My sword, I give to him that shall succeed me in my pilgrimage, and my courage and skill to him that can get it. My marks and scars I carry with me, to be a witness for me, that I have fought his battles, who will now be my rewarder...So he passed over, and the trumpets sounded for him on the other side.
‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ (1684) pt. 2 (Mr Valiant-for-Truth)
I have formerly lived by hearsay and faith, but now I go where I shall live by sight, and shall be with Him in whose company I delight myself.
‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ (1684) pt. 2 (Mr Standfast)
2.247 Samuel Dickinson Burchard 1812-91
We are Republicans and don’t propose to leave our party and identify ourselves with the party whose antecedents are rum, Romanism, and rebellion.
Speech, New York City, 29 October 1884
2.248 Anthony Burgess 1917—
A clockwork orange.
Title of novel (1962)
It was the afternoon of my eighty-first birthday, and I was in bed with my catamite when Ali announced that the archbishop had come to see me.
‘Earthly Powers’ (1980) p. 7
He said it was artificial respiration, but now I find I am to have his child.
‘Inside Mr Enderby’ (1963) pt. 1, ch. 4
2.249 Gelett Burgess 1866-1951
I never saw a Purple Cow, I never hope to see one; But I can tell you, anyhow, I’d rather see than be one!
‘The Burgess Nonsense Book’ (1914) ‘The Purple Cow’
Ah, yes! I wrote the ‘Purple Cow’— I’m sorry, now, I wrote it!
But I can tell you anyhow, I’ll kill you if you quote it!
‘The Burgess Nonsense Book’ (1914) ‘Confessional’
2.250 John William Burgon 1813-88
Match me such marvel, save in Eastern clime,— A rose-red city—‘half as old as Time’!
‘Petra’ (1845) l. 131.
2.251 Sir John Burgoyne 1722-92
You have only, when before your glass, to keep pronouncing to yourself nimini-pimini—the lips cannot fail of taking their plie.
‘The Heiress’ (1786) act 3, sc. 2
2.252 Edmund Burke 1729-97
The conduct of a losing party never appears right: at least it never can possess the only infallible criterion of wisdom to vulgar judgements—success.
‘Letter to a Member of the National Assembly’ (1791) p. 7
Those who have been once intoxicated with power, and have derived any kind of emolument from it, even though for but one year, can never willingly abandon it.
‘Letter to a Member of the National Assembly’ (1791) p. 12
Tyrants seldom want pretexts.
‘Letter to a Member of the National Assembly’ (1791) p. 25
You can never plan the future by the past.
‘Letter to a Member of the National Assembly’ (1791) p. 73
To innovate is not to reform.
‘A Letter to a Noble Lord’ (1796) p. 20
The king, and his faithful subjects, the lords and commons of this realm,—the triple cord, which no man can break.
‘A Letter to a Noble Lord’ (1796) p. 54.
I know many have been taught to think that moderation, in a case like this, is a sort of treason.
‘Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol on the Affairs of America’ (1777) p. 30
Between craft and credulity, the voice of reason is stifled.
‘Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol’ (1777) p. 34
Liberty too must be limited in order to be possessed.
‘Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol’ (1777) p. 55
Nothing in progression can rest on its original plan. We may as well think of rocking a grown man in the cradle of an infant.
‘Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol’ (1777) p. 59
Among a people generally corrupt, liberty cannot long exist.
‘Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol’ (1777) p. 71
All men that are ruined are ruined on the side of their natural propensities. Example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at no other.
Never, no never, did Nature say one thing and Wisdom say another.
Well it is known that ambition can creep as well as soar.
There is, however, a limit at which forbearance ceases to be a virtue.
‘Observations on a late Publication on the Present State of the Nation’ (1769)
It is a general popular error to imagine the loudest complainers for the public to be the most anxious for its welfare.
‘Observations on...the Present State of the Nation’ (1769)
No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.
‘On the Sublime and Beautiful’ (1757) pt. 2, sect. 2
Custom reconciles us to everything.
‘On the Sublime and Beautiful’ (1757) pt. 4, sect. 18
I flatter myself that I love a manly, moral, regulated liberty as well as any gentleman.
‘Reflections on the Revolution in France’ (1790) p. 7
Whenever our neighbour’s house is on fire, it cannot be amiss for the engines to play a little on our own.
‘Reflections on the Revolution in France’ (1790) p. 10
A state without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation.
‘Reflections on the Revolution in France’ (1790) p. 29
Make the Revolution a parent of settlement, and not a nursery of future revolutions.
‘Reflections on the Revolution in France’ (1790) p. 38
People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors.
‘Reflections on the Revolution in France’ (1790) p. 47
Government is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human wants. Men have a right that these wants should be provided for by this wisdom.
‘Reflections on the Revolution in France’ (1790) p. 88
The age of chivalry is gone.—That of sophisters, economists, and calculators, has succeeded; and the glory of Europe is extinguished for ever.
‘Reflections on the Revolution in France’ (1790) p. 112
The unbought grace of life, the cheap defence of nations, the nurse of manly sentiment and heroic enterprise is gone! It is gone, that sensibility of principle, that chastity of honour, which felt a stain like a wound, which inspired courage whilst it mitigated ferocity, which ennobled whatever it touched, and under which vice itself lost half its evil, by losing all its grossness.
‘Reflections on the Revolution in France’ (1790) p. 113
This barbarous philosophy, which is the offspring of cold hearts and muddy understandings.
‘Reflections on the Revolution in France’ (1790) p. 115
In the groves of their academy, at the end of every vista, you see nothing but the gallows.
‘Reflections on the Revolution in France’ (1790) p. 115.
Kings will be tyrants from policy when subjects are rebels from principle.
‘Reflections on the Revolution in France’ (1790) p. 116
Learning will be cast into the mire, and trodden down under the hoofs of a swinish multitude.
‘Reflections on the Revolution in France’ (1790) p. 117
Man is by his constitution a religious animal; atheism is against not only our reason, but our instincts.
‘Reflections on the Revolution in France’ (1790) p. 135.
A perfect democracy is therefore the most shameless thing in the world.
‘Reflections on the Revolution in France’ (1790) p. 139
Nobility is a graceful ornament to the civil order. It is the Corinthian capital of polished society.
‘Reflections on the Revolution in France’ (1790) p. 205
Superstition is the religion of feeble minds.
‘Reflections on the Revolution in France’ (1790) p. 234
He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.
‘Reflections on the Revolution in France’ (1790) p. 246
Our patience will achieve more than our force.
‘Reflections on the Revolution in France’ (1790) p. 249
Good order is the foundation of all good things.
‘Reflections on the Revolution in France’ (1790) p. 351
Every politician ought to sacrifice to the graces; and to join compliance with reason.
‘Reflections on the Revolution in France’ (1790) p. 352
The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse.
Speech on the Middlesex Election, 7 February 1771, in ‘The Speeches’ (1854)
It is the nature of all greatness not to be exact; and great trade will always be attended with considerable abuses.
Speech ‘On American Taxation’ 19 April 1774
Falsehood has a perennial spring.
Speech ‘On American Taxation’ 19 April 1774
To tax and to please, no more than to love and to be wise, is not given to men.
Speech ‘On American Taxation’ 19 April 1774
Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgement; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion.
Speech to the Electors of Bristol, 3 November 1774
I have in general no very exalted opinion of the virtue of paper government.
Speech ‘On Conciliation with America’ 22 March 1775
The concessions of the weak are the concessions of fear.
Speech ‘On Conciliation with America’ 22 March 1775
When we speak of the commerce with our colonies, fiction lags after truth; invention is unfruitful, and imagination cold and barren.
Speech ‘On Conciliation with America’ 22 March 1775
The use of force alone is but temporary. It may subdue for a moment; but it does not remove the necessity of subduing again; and a nation is not governed, which is perpetually to be conquered.
Speech ‘On Conciliation with America’ 22 March 1775
Nothing less will content me, than whole America.
Speech ‘On Conciliation with America’ 22 March 1775
Abstract liberty, like other mere abstractions, is not to be found.
Speech ‘On Conciliation with America’ 22 March 1775
All Protestantism, even the most cold and passive, is a sort of dissent. But the religion most prevalent in our northern colonies is a refinement on the principle of resistance; it is the dissidence of dissent, and the Protestantism of the Protestant religion.
Speech ‘On Conciliation with America’ 22 March 1775
I do not know the method of drawing up an indictment against an whole people.
Speech ‘On Conciliation with America’ 22 March 1775
It is not, what a lawyer tells me I may do; but what humanity, reason, and justice, tell me I ought to do.
Speech ‘On Conciliation with America’ 22 March 1775
Freedom and not servitude is the cure of anarchy; as religion, and not atheism, is the true remedy for superstition.
Speech ‘On Conciliation with America’ 22 March 1775
Instead of a standing revenue, you will have therefore a perpetual quarrel.
Speech ‘On Conciliation with America’ 22 March 1775
Parties must ever exist in a free country.
Speech ‘On Conciliation with America’ 22 March 1775
Slavery they can have anywhere. It is a weed that grows in every soil.
Speech ‘On Conciliation with America’ 22 March 1775
Deny them this participation of freedom, and you break that sole bond, which originally made, and must still preserve the unity of the empire.
Speech ‘On Conciliation with America’ 22 March 1775
It is the love of the people; it is their attachment to their government, from the sense of the deep stake they have in such a glorious institution, which gives you your army and your navy, and infuses into both that liberal obedience, without which your army would be a base rabble, and your navy nothing but rotten timber.
Speech ‘On Conciliation with America’ 22 March 1775
Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom; and a great empire and little minds go ill together.
Speech ‘On Conciliation with America’ 22 March 1775
By adverting to the dignity of this high calling, our ancestors have turned a savage wilderness into a glorious empire: and have made the most extensive, and the only honourable conquests; not by destroying, but by promoting the wealth, the number, the happiness of the human race.
Speech ‘On Conciliation with America’ 22 March 1775
Individuals pass like shadows; but the commonwealth is fixed and stable.
Speech, ‘Hansard’ 11 February 1780, col. 48
The people are the masters.
Speech, ‘Hansard’ 11 February 1780, col. 67
Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny.
‘Speech at Bristol, previous to the Late Election’ (1780)
Every other conqueror of every other description has left some monument, either of state or beneficence, behind him. Were we to be driven out of India this day, nothing would remain to tell that it had been possessed, during the inglorious period of our dominion, by anything better than the orang-outang or the tiger.
Speech on Fox’s East India Bill, 1 December 1783
Your governor stimulates a rapacious and licentious soldiery to the personal search of women, lest these unhappy creatures should avail themselves of the protection of their sex to secure any supply for their necessities.
Speech on Fox’s East India Bill, 1 December 1783 (referring to Warren Hastings)
The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.
Speech at County Meeting of Buckinghamshire, 1784
Religious persecution may shield itself under the guise of a mistaken and over-zealous piety.
Speech, 18 February 1788, in E. A. Bond (ed.) ‘Speeches...in the Trial of Warren Hastings’ (1859) vol. 1, p. 104
An event has happened, upon which it is difficult to speak, and impossible to be silent.
Speech, 5 May 1789, in E. A. Bond (ed.) ‘Speeches...in the Trial of Warren Hastings’ (1859) vol. 2, p. 109
At last dying in the last dyke of prevarication.
Speech, 7 May 1789, in E. A. Bond (ed.) ‘Speeches...in the Trial of Warren Hastings’ (1859) vol. 2, p. 179
There is but one law for all, namely, that law which governs all law—the law of our Creator, the law of humanity, justice, equity, the law of nature and of nations.
Speech, 28 May 1794, in E. A. Bond (ed.) ‘Speeches...in the Trial of Warren Hastings’ (1859) vol. 4, p. 377
Old religious factions are volcanoes burnt out.
Speech on the Petition of the Unitarians, 11 May 1792, in ‘The Works’ vol. 5 (1812).
Dangers by being despised grow great.
Speech on the Petition of the Unitarians, 11 May 1792, in ‘The Works’ vol. 5 (1812)
And having looked to government for bread, on the very first scarcity they will turn and bite the hand that fed them.