The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
.pdf3.12 Charles Alexandre de Calonne 1734-1802
Madame, si c’est possible, c’est fait; impossible? cela se fera.
Madam, if a thing is possible, consider it done; the impossible? that will be done.
In J. Michelet ‘Histoire de la Rèvolution Française’ (1847) vol. 1, pt. 2, sect. 8; better known as the US Armed Forces slogan, ‘The difficult we do immediately; the impossible takes a little longer.’
3.13 C. S. Calverley 1831-84
The farmer’s daughter hath soft brown hair; (Butter and eggs and a pound of cheese) And I met with a ballad, I can’t say where, Which wholly consisted of lines like these.
‘Ballad’ (1872)
And this song is considered a perfect gem, And as to the meaning, it’s what you please.
‘Ballad’ (1872)
O Beer! O Hodgson, Guinness, Allsopp, Bass! Names that should be on every infant’s tongue!
‘Beer’ (1861)
Life is with such all beer and skittles; They are not difficult to please About their victuals.
‘Contentment’ (1872)
For king-like rolls the Rhine, And the scenery’s divine, And the victuals and the wine Rather good.
‘Dover to Munich’ (1861)
For I’ve read in many a novel that, unless they’ve souls that grovel, Folks prefer in fact a hovel to your dreary marble halls.
‘In the Gloaming’ (1872)
How Eugene Aram, though a thief, a liar, and a murderer, Yet, being intellectual, was amongst the noblest of mankind.
‘Of Reading’ (1861)
3.14 General Cambronne 1770-1842
La Garde meurt, mais ne se rend pas.
The Guards die but do not surrender.
Attributed to Cambronne when called upon to surrender at Waterloo, 1815, and reported in the newspapers. Cambronne denied the saying at a banquet at Nantes, 19 September 1830. H. Houssaye ‘La Garde meurt et ne se rend pas’ (1907)
3.15 Lord Camden (Charles Pratt, Earl Camden) 1714-94
Taxation and representation are inseparable...whatever is a man’s own, is absolutely his own; no man hath a right to take it from him without his consent either expressed by himself or representative; whoever attempts to do it, attempts an injury; whoever does it, commits a robbery; he throws down and destroys the distinction between liberty and slavery.
Speech in the House of Lords, on the taxation of Americans by the British parliament, ‘Hansard’ 10 February 1766, col. 177.
3.16 William Camden 1551-1623
A gentleman falling off his horse brake his neck ... A good friend made this good epitaph...
My friend, judge not me, Thou seest I judge not thee.
Betwixt the stirrup and the ground
Mercy I asked, mercy I found.
‘Remains Concerning Britain’ (1605) ‘Epitaphs’
3.17 Mrs Patrick Campbell (Beatrice Stella Campbell) 1865-1940
It doesn’t matter what you do in the bedroom as long as you don’t do it in the street and frighten the horses.
In Daphne Fielding ‘The Duchess of Jermyn Street’ (1964) ch. 2
The deep, deep peace of the double-bed after the hurly-burly of the chaise-longue.
Describing her recent marriage, in Alexander Woollcott ‘While Rome Burns’ (1934) ‘The First Mrs Tanqueray’
3.18 Roy Campbell 1901-57
Giraffes!—a People
Who live between the earth and skies, Each in his lone religious steeple, Keeping a light-house with his eyes.
‘Dreaming Spires’ (1946)
You praise the firm restraint with which they write— I’m with you there, of course:
They use the snaffle and the curb all right, But where’s the bloody horse?
‘On Some South African Novelists’ (1930)
3.19 Thomas Campbell 1777-1844
There was silence deep as death, And the boldest held his breath For a time.
‘Battle of the Baltic’ (1809)
Let us think of them that sleep, Full many a fathom deep,
By thy wild and stormy steep, Elsinore!
‘Battle of the Baltic’ (1809)
O leave this barren spot to me!
Spare, woodman, spare the beechen tree.
‘The Beech-Tree’s Petition’.
To-morrow let us do or die!
‘Gertrude of Wyoming’ (1809) pt. 3, st. 37
On the green banks of Shannon, when Sheelah was nigh, No blithe Irish lad was so happy as I;
No harp like my own could so cheerily play, And wherever I went was my poor dog Tray.
‘The Harper’ (1799)
Better be courted and jilted Than never be courted at all.
‘The Jilted Nymph’ (1843)
A chieftain to the Highlands bound Cries, ‘Boatman, do not tarry! And I’ll give thee a silver pound To row us o’er the ferry.’
‘Lord Ullin’s Daughter’ (1809)
’Tis distance lends enchantment to the view, And robes the mountain in its azure hue.
‘Pleasures of Hope’ (1799) pt. 1, l. 7
Hope, for a season, bade the world farewell, And Freedom shrieked—as Kosciusko fell!
‘Pleasures of Hope’ (1799) pt. 1, l. 381
What millions died—that Caesar might be great!
‘Pleasures of Hope’ (1799) pt. 2, l. 174
What though my wingéd hours of bliss have been, Like angel-visits, few and far between?
‘Pleasures of Hope’ (1799) pt. 2, l. 375
With thunders from her native oak She quells the floods below.
‘Ye Mariners of England’ (1801)
An original something, fair maid, you would win me To write—but how shall I begin?
For I fear I have nothing original in me— Excepting Original Sin.
‘To a Young Lady, Who Asked Me to Write Something Original for Her Album’ (1843)
Now Barabbas was a publisher.
Attributed
3.20 Thomas Campion 1567-1620
My sweetest Lesbia let us live and love, And though the sager sort our deeds reprove,
Let us not weigh them: Heav’n’s great lamps do dive Into their west, and straight again revive,
But soon as once set is our little light, Then must we sleep one ever-during night.
‘A Book of Airs’ (1601) no. 1; translation of Catullus ‘Carmina’ no. 5.
When to her lute Corinna sings, Her voice revives the leaden strings, And both in highest notes appear, As any challenged echo clear.
But when she doth of mourning speak, Ev’n with her sighs the strings do break.
‘A Book of Airs’ (1601) no. 6
Follow your Saint, follow with accents sweet; Haste you, sad notes, fall at her flying feet.
‘A Book of Airs’ (1601) no. 10
Good thoughts his only friends, His wealth a well-spent age, The earth his sober inn
And quiet pilgrimage.
‘A Book of Airs’ (1601) no. 18
There is a garden in her face, Where roses and white lilies grow; A heav’nly paradise is that place, Wherein all pleasant fruits do flow.
There cherries grow, which none may buy Till ‘Cherry ripe’ themselves do cry.
‘The Fourth Book of Airs’ (1617) no. 7.
Those cherries fairly do enclose Of orient pearl a double row;
Which when her lovely laughter shows, They look like rosebuds filled with snow.
‘The Fourth Book of Airs’ (1617) no. 7
Rose-cheeked Laura, come;
Sing thou smoothly with thy beauty’s Silent music, either other
Sweetly gracing.
‘Laura’ (1602)
Kind are her answers,
But her performance keeps no day; Breaks time, as dancers
From their own music when they stray.
‘The Third Book of Airs’ (1617) no. 7
Never weather-beaten sail more willing bent to shore, Never tired pilgrim’s limbs affected slumber more.
‘Two Books of Airs’ (1612/1613) no. 11
3.21 Albert Camus 1913-60
Intellectuel = celui qui se dèdouble.
An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself.
‘Carnets, 1935-42’ p. 41
La politique et le sort des hommes sont formès par des hommes sans idèal et sans grandeur. Ceux qui ont une grandeur en eux ne font pas de politique.
Politics and the fate of mankind are formed by men without ideals and without greatness.
Those who have greatness within them do not go in for politics.
‘Carnets, 1935-42’ p. 99
Vous savez ce qu’est le charme: une maniére de s’entendre rèpondre oui sans avoir posè aucune question claire.
You know what charm is: a way of getting the answer yes without having asked any clear
question.
‘La Chute’ p. 62
Nous sommes tous des cas exceptionnels. Nous voulons tous faire appel de quelque chose! Chacun exige d’être innocent, á tout prix, même si, pour cela, il faut accuser le genre humain et le ciel.
We are all special cases. We all want to appeal to something! Everyone insists on his
innocence, at all costs, even if it means accusing the rest of the human race and heaven.
‘La Chute’ p. 95
Nous nous confions rarement á ceux qui sont meilleurs que nous.
We seldom confide in those who are better than ourselves.
‘La Chute’ p. 97
Je vais vous dire un grand secret, mon cher. N’attendez pas le jugement dernier. Il a lieu tous
les jours.
I’ll tell you a great secret, my friend. Don’t wait for the last judgement. It happens every day.
‘La Chute’ p. 129
Aujourd’hui, maman est morte. Ou peut-être hier, je ne sais pas.
Mother died today. Or perhaps it was yesterday, I don’t know.
‘L’Ètranger’ p. 9
Qu’est-ce qu’un homme rèvoltè ? Un homme qui dit non.
What is a rebel? A man who says no.
‘L’Homme rèvoltè’ p. 25
Toutes les rèvolutions modernes ont abouti á un renforcement de l’Ètat.
All modern revolutions have ended in a reinforcement of the State.
‘L’Homme rèvoltè’ p. 221
Tout rèvolutionnaire finit en oppresseur ou en hèrètique.
Every revolutionary ends as an oppressor or a heretic.
‘L’Homme rèvoltè’ p. 306
La lutte elle-même vers les sommets suffit á remplir un coeur d’homme. Il faut imaginer Sisyphe heureux.
The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a human heart. One must imagine that
Sisyphus is happy.
‘Le Mythe de Sisyphe’ p. 168
3.22 Elias Canetti 1905—
Alles was man vergessen hat, schreit im Traum um Hilfe.
All the things one has forgotten scream for help in dreams.
‘Die Provinz der Menschen’ (1973) p. 269
3.23 George Canning 1770-1827
In matters of commerce the fault of the Dutch Is offering too little and asking too much. The French are with equal advantage content,
So we clap on Dutch bottoms just twenty per cent.
Dispatch, in cipher, to the English Ambassador at the Hague, 31 January 1826, in Sir Harry Poland ‘Mr Canning’s Rhyming ‘Dispatch’ to Sir Charles Bagot’ (1905)
A steady patriot of the world alone, The friend of every country but his own.
Referring to the Jacobin, in ‘New Morality’ (1821) l. 113.
And finds, with keen discriminating sight, Black’s not so black;—nor white so very white.
‘New Morality’ (1821) l. 199
Give me the avowed, erect and manly foe; Firm I can meet, perhaps return the blow;
But of all plagues, good Heaven, thy wrath can send, Save me, oh, save me, from the candid friend.
‘New Morality’ (1821) l. 207
Pitt is to Addington
As London is to Paddington.
‘The Oracle’ (c.1803)
Man, only—rash, refined, presumptuous man, Starts from his rank, and mars creation’s plan.
‘The Progress of Man’ (1799) l. 55
Whene’er with haggard eyes I view This Dungeon, that I’m rotting in, I think of those Companions true Who studied with me at the U—
—NIVERSITY OF GOTTINGEN,—
—NIVERSITY OF GOTTINGEN.
‘Song’
Away with the cant of ‘Measures not men’!—the idle supposition that it is the harness and not the horses that draw the chariot along. If the comparison must be made, if the distinction must be taken, men are everything, measures comparatively nothing.
House of Commons, 1801
I called the New World into existence, to redress the balance of the Old.
Speech on the affairs of Portugal, in ‘Hansard’ 12 December 1826, col. 397
You well know how soon one of these stupendous masses, now reposing on their shadows in perfect stillness, would upon any call of patriotism or of necessity, assume the likeness of an animated thing, instinct with life and motion: how soon it would ruffle, as it were its swelling plumage, how quickly it would put forth all its beauty and its bravery, collect its scattered elements of strength and waken its dormant thunder...Such is England herself; while apparently passive and motionless, she silently concentrates the power to be put forth on an adequate occasion.
Speech at Plymouth, 12 December 1823, referring to the men of war lying at anchor in the harbour, in R. W. Seton Watson ‘Britain in Europe 1789-1914’ (1945) p. 85
3.24 Hughie Cannon 1877-1912
Won’t you come home Bill Bailey, won’t you come home?
‘Bill Bailey, Won’t You Please Come Home’ (1902 song)
3.25 Truman Capote 1924-84
Other voices, other rooms.
Title of novel (1948)
3.26 Al Capp (Alfred Gerard Caplin) 1907-79
A product of the untalented, sold by the unprincipled to the utterly bewildered.
On abstract art, in ‘National Observer’ 1 July 1963.
3.27 Marquis Domenico Caracciolo 1715-89
Il y a en Angleterre soixante sectes religieuses diffèrentes, et une seule sauce.
In England there are sixty different religions, and only one sauce.
Attributed in ‘Notes and Queries’ December 1968
3.28 Ethna Carbery (Anna MacManus) 1866-1902
Oh, Kathaleen Ní Houlihan, your road’s a thorny way,
And ’tis a faithful soul would walk the flints with you for aye, Would walk the sharp and cruel flints until his locks grew grey.
‘The Passing of the Gael’ (1902)
3.29 Richard Carew 1555-1620
Will you have all in all for prose and verse? take the miracle of our age, Sir Philip Sidney.
William Camden ‘Remains concerning Britain’ (1614) ‘The Excellency of the English Tongue’
3.30 Thomas Carew c.1595-1640
He that loves a rosy cheek, Or a coral lip admires,
Or, from star-like eyes, doth seek Fuel to maintain his fires;
As old Time makes these decay, So his flames must waste away.
‘Disdain Returned’
The Muses’ garden with pedantic weeds O’erspread, was purged by thee; the lazy seeds Of servile imitation thrown away,
And fresh invention planted.
‘An Elegy upon the Death of Dr John Donne’
Here lies a king, that ruled as he thought fit The universal monarchy of wit.
‘An Elegy upon the Death of Dr John Donne’
The purest soul that e’er was sent Into a clayey tenement.
‘Epitaph On the Lady Mary Villiers’
Know, Celia (since thou art so proud,) ’Twas I that gave thee thy renown. Thou had’st in the forgotten crowd Of common beauties lived unknown, Had not my verse extolled thy name, And with it imped the wings of fame.
‘Ingrateful Beauty Threatened’
Good to the poor, to kindred dear, To servants kind, to friendship clear, To nothing but herself severe.
‘Inscription on the Tomb of Lady Mary Wentworth’
So though a virgin, yet a bride To every Grace, she justified A chaste polygamy, and died.
‘Inscription on the Tomb of Lady Mary Wentworth’
Give me more love or more disdain; The torrid or the frozen zone: Bring equal ease unto my pain; The temperate affords me none.
‘Mediocrity in Love Rejected’
Though a stranger to this place, Bewail in theirs thine own hard case: For thou perhaps at thy return Mayst find thy darling in an urn.
‘On the Lady Mary Villiers’
Ask me no more where Jove bestows, When June is past, the fading rose; For in your beauty’s orient deep These flowers, as in their causes, sleep.
‘A Song’
Ask me no more whither doth haste The nightingale when May is past; For in your sweet dividing throat She winters and keeps warm her note.
‘A Song’
Ask me no more if east or west The Phoenix builds her spicy nest; For unto you at last she flies, And in your fragrant bosom dies.
‘A Song’
When thou, poor excommunicate From all the joys of love, shalt see The full reward and glorious fate
Which my strong faith shall purchase me, Then curse thine own inconstancy.
‘To My Inconstant Mistress’
3.31 Henry Carey c.1687-1743
Let your little verses flow Gently, sweetly, row by row; Let the verse the subject fit, Little subject, little wit.
‘Namby-Pamby: or, A Panegyric on the New Versification’ (1725)
As an actor does his part, So the nurses get by heart
Namby-pamby’s little rhymes, Little jingle, little chimes.
‘Namby-Pamby: or, A Panegyric on the New Versification’ (1725)
Of all the girls that are so smart There’s none like pretty Sally, She is the darling of my heart, And she lives in our alley.
‘Sally in our Alley’ (1729)
3.32 Jane Carlyle (Jane Baille Welsh Carlyle) 1801-66
I am not at all the sort of person you and I took me for.
Letter to Thomas Carlyle, 7 May 1822, in C. R. Sanders et al. (eds.) ‘The Collected Letters of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle’ (1970) vol. 2
3.33 Thomas Carlyle 1795-1881
A witty statesman said, you might prove anything by figures.
‘Chartism’ (1839) ch. 2
Surely of all ‘rights of man’, this right of the ignorant man to be guided by the wiser, to be, gently or forcibly, held in the true course by him, is the indisputablest.
‘Chartism’ (1839) ch. 6
In epochs when cash payment has become the sole nexus of man to man.
‘Chartism’ (1839) ch. 6
The ‘golden-calf of self-love.’
‘Critical and Miscellaneous Essays’ (1838) ‘Burns’
The foul sluggard’s comfort: ‘It will last my time.’
‘Critical and Miscellaneous Essays’ (1838) ‘Count Cagliostro. Flight Last’