The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations

‘The New Freethinker’ (1915)

Before the Roman came to Rye or out to Severn strode, The rolling English drunkard made the rolling English road. A reeling road, a rolling road, that rambles round the shire, And after him the parson ran, the sexton and the squire;

A merry road, a mazy road, and such as we did tread

The night we went to Birmingham by way of Beachy Head.

‘The Rolling English Road’ (1914)

For there is good news yet to hear and fine things to be seen, Before we go to Paradise by way of Kensal Green.

‘The Rolling English Road’ (1914)

Smile at us, pay us, pass us; but do not quite forget.

For we are the people of England, that never have spoken yet.

‘The Secret People’ (1915)

We only know the last sad squires ride slowly towards the sea, And a new people takes the land: and still it is not we.

‘The Secret People’ (1915)

And I dream of the days when work was scrappy, And rare in our pockets the mark of the mint, When we were angry and poor and happy,

And proud of seeing our names in print.

‘A Song of Defeat’ (1915)

They haven’t got no noses, The fallen sons of Eve.

‘The Song of Quoodle’ (1914)

And goodness only knowses The Noselessness of Man.

‘The Song of Quoodle’ (1914)

And Noah he often said to his wife when he sat down to dine, ‘I don’t care where the water goes if it doesn’t get into the wine.’

‘Wine and Water’ (1914)

An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.

‘All Things Considered’ (1908) ‘On Running after one’s Hat’

Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity.

‘The Defendant’ (1901) ‘A Defence of Penny Dreadfuls’

The rich are the scum of the earth in every country.

‘The Flying Inn’ (1914) ch. 15

Bigotry may be roughly defined as the anger of men who have no opinions.

‘Heretics’ (1905) ch. 20

Thieves respect property. They merely wish the property to become their property that they may more perfectly respect it.

‘The Man who was Thursday’ (1908) ch. 4

The human race, to which so many of my readers belong, has been playing at children’s games from the beginning, and will probably do it till the end, which is a nuisance for the few people who grow up.

‘The Napoleon of Notting Hill’ (1904) bk. 1, ch. 1

Democracy means government by the uneducated, while aristocracy means government by the badly educated.

‘New York Times’ 1 February 1931, pt. 5, p. 1

Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead.

‘Orthodoxy’ (1908) ch. 4

Democrats object to men being disqualified by the accident of birth; tradition objects to their being disqualified by the accident of death.

‘Orthodoxy’ (1908) ch. 4

All conservatism is based upon the idea that if you leave things alone you leave them as they are. But you do not. If you leave a thing alone you leave it to a torrent of change.

‘Orthodoxy’ (1908) ch. 7

He could not think up to the height of his own towering style.

‘The Victorian Age in Literature’ (1912) ch. 3 (on Tennyson)

The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.

‘What’s Wrong with the World’ (1910) pt. 1 ‘The Unfinished Temple’

The prime truth of woman, the universal mother...that if a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly.

‘What’s Wrong with the World’ (1910) pt. 4 ‘Folly and Female Education’

3.88 Erskine Childers 1870-1922

The riddle of the sands.

Title of novel (1903)

Come closer, boys. It will be easier for you.

Addressed to the firing squad at his execution, in Burke Wilkinson ‘The Zeal of the Convert’ (1976) ch. 26

3.89 William Chillingworth 1602-44

The Bible and the Bible only is the religion of Protestants.

‘The Religion of Protestants’ (1637)

I once knew a man out of courtesy help a lame dog over a stile, and he for requital bit his fingers.

‘The Religion of Protestants’ (1637)

3.90Charles Chilton 1914—

See Joan Littlewood (12.104)

3.91Rufus Choate 1799-1859

Its constitution the glittering and sounding generalities of natural right which make up the Declaration of Independence.

Letter to the Maine Whig State Central Committee, 9 August 1856, in S. G. Brown ‘The Works of Rufus Choate with a Memoir of his Life’ (1862) vol. 1, p. 215.

3.92 Noam Chomsky 1928—

The notion ‘grammatical’ cannot be identified with ‘meaningful’ or ‘significant’ in any semantic sense. Sentences (1) and (2) are equally nonsensical, but...only the former is grammatical. (1) Colourless green ideas sleep furiously. (2) Furiously sleep ideas green colourless.

‘Syntactic Structures’ (1957) ch. 2

As soon as questions of will or decision or reason or choice of action arise, human science is at a loss.

Television interview, 30 March 1978, in ‘The Listener’ 6 April 1978

3.93 Dame Agatha Christie (nèe Miller) 1890-1976

War settles nothing...to win a war is as disastrous as to lose one!

‘An Autobiography’ (1977) pt. 10

He tapped his forehead. ‘These little grey cells. It is “up to them.”’

‘The Mysterious Affair at Styles’ (1920) ch. 10 (Hercule Poirot)

Trust the train, Mademoiselle, for it is le bon Dieu who drives it.

‘The Mystery of the Blue Train’ (1928) ch. 36

3.94 Chuang Tzu 4th-3rd cent. B.C.

I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming I am a man.

‘Chuang Tzu’ (1889, translated by H. A. Giles) ch. 2

3.95 Mary, Lady Chudleigh 1656-1710

’Tis hard we should be by the men despised,

Yet kept from knowing what would make us prized; Debarred from knowledge, banished from the schools, And with the utmost industry bred fools.

‘The Ladies Defence’ (1701)

Wife and servant are the same, But only differ in the name.

‘Poems’ (1703) ‘To the Ladies’

Then shun, oh! shun that wretched state And all the fawning flatterers hate: Value yourselves, and men despise You must be proud if you’ll be wise.

‘Poems’ (1703) ‘To the Ladies’ (on marriage)

3.96 Charles Churchill 1731-64

Though by whim, envy, or resentment led, They damn those authors whom they never read.

‘The Candidate’ (1764) l. 57

The only difference, after all their rout, Is, that the one is in, the other out.

‘The Conference’ (1763) l. 165

The danger chiefly lies in acting well; No crime’s so great as daring to excel.

‘An Epistle to William Hogarth’ (1763) l. 51

Be England what she will,

With all her faults, she is my country still.

‘The Farewell’ (1764) l. 27.

It can’t be Nature, for it is not sense.

‘The Farewell’ (1764) l. 200

England—a happy land we know, Where follies naturally grow.

‘The Ghost’ (1763) bk. 1, l. 111

And adepts in the speaking trade Keep a cough by them ready made.

‘The Ghost’ (1763) bk. 2, l. 545

Just to the windward of the law.

‘The Ghost’ (1763) bk. 3, l. 56

He for subscribers baits his hook,

And takes your cash; but where’s the book? No matter where; wise fear, you know, Forbids the robbing of a foe;

But what, to serve our private ends, Forbids the cheating of our friends?

‘The Ghost’ (1763) bk. 3, l. 801 (satirizing Samuel Johnson)

A joke’s a very serious thing.

‘The Ghost’ (1763) bk. 4, l. 1386

Happy, thrice happy now the savage race,

Guilt in his heart, and famine in his face.

‘The Rosciad’ (1761) l. 69 (referring to Alexander Wedderburn, later Lord Loughborough)

Ne’er blushed unless, in spreading Vice’s snares, She blundered on some virtue unawares.

‘The Rosciad’ (1761) l. 137

So much they talked, so very little said.

‘The Rosciad’ (1761) l. 550

Learned without sense, and venerably dull.

‘The Rosciad’ (1761) l. 592

Not without Art, but yet to Nature true,

She charms the town with humour just, yet new.

‘The Rosciad’ (1761) l. 699

But, spite of all the criticizing elves,

Those who would make us feel, must feel themselves.

‘The Rosciad’ (1761) l. 961

The two extremes appear like man and wife, Coupled together for the sake of strife.

‘The Rosciad’ (1761) l. 1005

Where he falls short, ’tis Nature’s fault alone; Where he succeeds, the merit’s all his own.

‘The Rosciad’ (1761) l. 1025

With the persuasive language of a tear.

‘The Times’ (1764) l. 308

3.97 Frank E. Churchill 1901-42

Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf?

Title of song from the 1933 cartoon film ‘The Three Little Pigs’; probably written in collaboration with Ann Ronell

3.98 Lord Randolph Churchill 1849-94

For the purposes of recreation he [Gladstone] has selected the felling of trees, and we may usefully remark that his amusements, like his politics, are essentially destructive...The forest laments in order that Mr Gladstone may perspire.

Speech on Financial Reform, delivered in Blackpool, 24 January 1884, in F. Banfield (ed.) ‘The Life and Speeches of Lord Randolph Churchill’ (1884)

He [Gladstone] told them that he would give them and all other subjects of the Queen much legislation, great prosperity, and universal peace, and he has given them nothing but chips. Chips to the faithful allies in Afghanistan, chips to the trusting native races of South Africa, chips to the Egyptian fellah, chips to the British farmer, chips to the manufacturer and the artisan, chips to the agricultural labourer, chips to the House of Commons itself.

Speech on Financial Reform, delivered in Blackpool, 24 January 1884, in F. Banfield (ed.) ‘The Life and

Speeches of Lord Randolph Churchill’ (1884)

Ulster will fight; Ulster will be right.

Public letter, 7 May 1886, in R. F. Foster ‘Lord Randolph Churchill’ (1981) p. 258

An old man in a hurry.

Referring to Gladstone, in election Address to the Electors of South Paddington, 19 June 1886, in W. S. Churchill ‘Lord Randolph Churchill’ (1906) vol. 2, p. 491

All great men make mistakes. Napoleon forgot Blücher, I forgot Goschen.

In ‘Leaves from the Notebooks of Lady Dorothy Nevill’ (1907) p. 21

3.99 Sir Winston Churchill 1874-1965

A labour contract into which men enter voluntarily for a limited and for a brief period, under which they are paid wages which they consider adequate, under which they are not bought or sold and from which they can obtain relief...on payment of £17.10s, the cost of their passage, may not be a healthy or proper contract, but it cannot in the opinion of His Majesty’s Government be classified as slavery in the extreme acceptance of the word without some risk of terminological inexactitude.

Speech, ‘Hansard’ 22 February 1906, col. 555

He is one of those orators of whom it was well said, ‘Before they get up, they do not know what they are going to say; when they are speaking, they do not know what they are saying; and when they have sat down, they do not know what they have said.’

Speech, ‘Hansard’ 20 December 1912, col. 1893 (referring to Lord Charles Beresford)

Business carried on as usual during alterations on the map of Europe.

The motto of the British people, in speech at Guildhall, 9 November 1914: ‘Complete Speeches’ (1974) vol. 3, p. 2341

The whole map of Europe has been changed...but as the deluge subsides and the waters fall short we see the dreary steeples of Fermanagh and Tyrone emerging once again.

Speech, ‘Hansard’ 16 February 1922, col. 1270

I remember, when I was a child, being taken to the celebrated Barnum’s circus, which contained an exhibition of freaks and monstrosities, but the exhibit on the programme which I most desired to see was the one described as ‘The Boneless Wonder’. My parents judged that that spectacle would be too revolting and demoralizing for my youthful eyes, and I have waited 50 years to see the boneless wonder sitting on the Treasury Bench.

Speech, ‘Hansard’ 28 January 1931, col. 1021 (referring to Ramsay Macdonald)

So they [the Government] go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all-powerful to be impotent.

Speech, ‘Hansard’ 12 November 1936, col. 1107

Dictators ride to and fro upon tigers which they dare not dismount. And the tigers are getting hungry.

Letter, 11 November 1937, in ‘Step by Step’ (1939) p. 186. ‘Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs’ under rides

The utmost he has been able to gain for Czechoslovakia and in the matters which were in dispute has been that the German dictator, instead of snatching his victuals from the table, has been content to have them served to him course by course.

Speech, ‘Hansard’ 5 October 1938, col. 361 (referring to Neville Chamberlain)

I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.

Radio broadcast, 1 October 1939, in ‘Into Battle’ (1941) p. 131

I would say to the House, as I said to those who have joined this Government: ‘I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.’

Speech, ‘Hansard’ 13 May 1940, col. 1502

What is our policy?...to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime.

Speech, ‘Hansard’ 13 May 1940, col. 1502

What is our aim?...Victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror; victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.

Speech, ‘Hansard’ 13 May 1940, col. 1502

We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.

Speech, ‘Hansard’ 4 June 1940, col. 796

Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duty, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Commonwealth and its Empire lasts for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their finest hour.’

Speech, ‘Hansard’ 18 June 1940, col. 60

Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.

Speech, ‘Hansard’ 20 August 1940, col. 1166 (on the skill and courage of British airmen)

No one can guarantee success in war, but only deserve it.

Letter to Lord Wavell, 26 November 1940, in ‘The Second World War’ vol. 2 (1949) ch. 27.

Here is the answer which I will give to President Roosevelt...Give us the tools and we will finish the job.

Radio broadcast, 9 February 1941, in ‘Complete Speeches’ (1974) vol. 6, p. 6350

When I warned them [the French Government] that Britain would fight on alone whatever they did, their generals told their Prime Minister and his divided Cabinet, ‘In three weeks England will have her neck wrung like a chicken.’ Some chicken! Some neck!

Speech to Canadian Parliament, 30 December 1941, in ‘Complete Speeches’ (1974) vol. 6, p. 6544

Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.

Speech at the Mansion House, London, 10 November 1942, in ‘The End of the Beginning’ (1943) p. 214 (on

the Battle of Egypt)

We make this wide encircling movement in the Mediterranean, having for its primary object the recovery of the command of that vital sea, but also having for its object the exposure of the under-belly of the Axis, especially Italy, to heavy attack.

Speech, ‘Hansard’ 11 November 1942, col. 28 (often misquoted as ‘the soft under-belly of the Axis’)

There is no finer investment for any community than putting milk into babies.

Radio broadcast, 21 March 1943, in ‘Complete Speeches’ (1974) vol. 7, p. 6761

National compulsory insurance for all classes for all purposes from the cradle to the grave.

Radio broadcast, 21 March 1943, in ‘Complete Speeches’ (1974) vol. 7

The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.

Speech at Harvard, 6 September 1943, in ‘Onwards to Victory’ (1944) p. 238

From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.

Speech at Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri, 5 March 1946, in ‘Complete Speeches’ (1974) vol. 7, p. 7290. The expression ‘iron curtain’ had been previously applied by others to the Soviet Union or her sphere of influence, e.g. Ethel Snowden ‘Through Bolshevik Russia’ (1920), Dr Goebbels ‘Das Reich’ (25 February 1945), and by Churchill himself in a cable to President Truman (4 June 1945)

No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.

Speech, ‘Hansard’ 11 November 1947, col. 206

To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war.

Speech at White House, 26 June 1954, in ‘New York Times’ 27 June 1954, p. 1

Mr Gladstone read Homer for fun, which I thought served him right.

‘My Early Life’ (1930) ch. 2

In war: resolution. In defeat: defiance. In victory: magnanimity. In peace: goodwill.

‘The Second World War’ vol. 1 (1948) epigraph, which according to Sir Edward Marsh in ‘A Number of People’ (1939) p. 152, occurred to Churchill shortly after the First World War

The loyalties which centre upon number one are enormous. If he trips he must be sustained. If he makes mistakes they must be covered. If he sleeps he must not be wantonly disturbed. If he is no good he must be pole-axed. But this last extreme process cannot be carried out every day; and certainly not in the days just after he has been chosen.

‘The Second World War’ vol. 2 (1949) ch. 1

I did not suffer from any desire to be relieved of my responsibilities. All I wanted was compliance with my wishes after reasonable discussion.

‘The Second World War’ vol. 4 (1951) ch. 5

Jellicoe was the only man on either side who could lose the war in an afternoon.

‘The World Crisis’ (1927) pt. 1, ch. 5

The ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn’t happen.

Describing the qualifications desirable in a prospective politician, in B. Adler ‘Churchill Wit’ (1965) p. 4

This is the sort of English up with which I will not put.

In Ernest Gowers ‘Plain Words’ (1948) ‘Troubles with Prepositions’

Don’t talk to me about naval tradition. It’s nothing but rum, sodomy and the lash.

In Sir Peter Gretton ‘Former Naval Person’ (1968) ch. 1

A sheep in sheep’s clothing.

Describing Clement Attlee, in Lord Home ‘The Way the Wind Blows’ (1976) ch. 6.

Take away that pudding—it has no theme.

In Lord Home ‘The Way the Wind Blows’ (1976) ch. 16

As far as I can see you have used every clichè except “God is Love” and “Please adjust your dress before leaving”.

Note to Sir Anthony Eden, in reply to a long-winded report on the latter’s tour of the Near East, in ‘Life’ 9 December 1940 (later disclaimed by Churchill)

In defeat unbeatable: in victory unbearable.

Describing Viscount Montgomery, in Edward Marsh ‘Ambrosia and Small Beer’ (1964) ch. 5

The candle in that great turnip has gone out.

Describing Stanley Baldwin, in Harold Nicolson (ed.) ‘Nigel Nicolson: Diaries and Letters 1945-62’ (1968) diary 17 August 1950

I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me.

In Quentin Reynolds ‘By Quentin Reynolds’ (1964) ch. 11

3.100 Count Galeazzo Ciano 1903-44

La vittoria trova cento padri, e nessuno vuole riconoscere l’insuccesso.

Victory has a hundred fathers, but defeat is an orphan.

‘Diary’ (1946) vol. 2, 9 September 1942

3.101 Colley Cibber 1671-1757

Whilst thus I sing, I am a King, Altho’ a poor blind boy.

‘The Blind Boy’

Oh! how many torments lie in the small circle of a wedding-ring!

‘The Double Gallant’ (1707) act 1, sc. 2

One had as good be out of the world, as out of the fashion.

‘Love’s Last Shift’ (1696) act 2

Off with his head—so much for Buckingham.

‘Richard III’ (1700) act 4, adapted from Shakespeare.

Perish the thought!

‘Richard III’ (1700) act 5, adapted from Shakespeare

Hark! the shrill trumpet sounds, to horse, away, My soul’s in arms, and eager for the fray.

‘Richard III’ (1700) act 5, adapted from Shakespeare