The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations

That I will soon be there.

‘Give My Regards to Broadway’ (1904 song)

I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy, A Yankee Doodle, do or die;

A real live nephew of my Uncle Sam’s, Born on the fourth of July.

I’ve got a Yankee Doodle sweetheart, She’s my Yankee Doodle joy. Yankee Doodle came to London, Just to ride the ponies;

I am the Yankee Doodle Boy.

‘Yankee Doodle Boy’ (1904 song).

3.131 Sir Aston Cokayne 1608-84

Sydney, whom we yet admire Lighting our little torches at his fire.

Funeral Elegies, no. 1 ‘On the Death of my very good Friend Mr Michael Drayton’ (1658)

3.132 Desmond Coke 1879-1931

His blade struck the water a full second before any other: the lad had started well. Nor did he flag as the race wore on...as the boats began to near the winning-post, his oar was dipping into the water nearly twice as often as any other.

‘Sandford of Merton’ (1903) ch. 12 (often quoted ‘All rowed fast, but none so fast as stroke’)

3.133 Sir Edward Coke 1552-1634

How long soever it hath continued, if it be against reason, it is of no force in law.

‘The First Part of the Institutes of the Laws of England’ (1628) bk. 1, ch. 10, sect. 80, p. 62 recto

Reason is the life of the law, nay the common law itself is nothing else but reason...The law, which is the perfection of reason.

‘The First Part of the Institutes of the Laws of England’ (1628) bk. 2, ch. 6, sect. 138, p. 97 verso

The gladsome light of Jurisprudence.

‘The First Part of the Institutes of the Laws of England’ (1628) ‘Epilogus’ last line

For a man’s house is his castle, et domus sua cuique est tutissimum refugium [and each man’s home is his safest refuge].

‘The Third Part of the Institutes of the Laws of England’ (1628) ch. 73, p. 162

Six hours in sleep, in law’s grave study six, Four spend in prayer, the rest on Nature fix.

Translation of a quotation taken by Coke from Justinian ‘The Pandects’ (or ‘Digest’) bk. 2, ch. 4 ‘De in Jus Vocando’.

They [corporations] cannot commit treason, nor be outlawed, nor excommunicate, for they have no souls.

‘The Reports of Sir Edward Coke’ (1658) vol. 5, pt. 10 ‘The case of Sutton’s Hospital’ p. 32 verso

Magna Charta is such a fellow, that he will have no sovereign.

On the Lords’ Amendment to the Petition of Right, 17 May 1628 in J. Rushworth ‘Historical Collections’ (1659) vol. 1, p. 562

3.134 Hartley Coleridge 1796-1849

But what is Freedom? Rightly understood, A universal licence to be good.

‘Liberty’ (1833)

She is not fair to outward view As many maidens be;

Her loveliness I never knew Until she smiled on me.

Oh! then I saw her eye was bright, A well of love, a spring of light.

‘She is not fair’ (1833)

3.135 Lord Coleridge 1820-94

I speak not of this college or of that, but of the University as a whole; and, gentlemen, what a whole Oxford is!

In G. W. E. Russell ‘Collections and Recollections’ (1898) ch. 29

3.136 Mary Coleridge 1861-1907

Egypt’s might is tumbled down Down a-down the deeps of thought; Greece is fallen and Troy town, Glorious Rome hath lost her crown, Venice’ pride is nought.

But the dreams their children dreamed Fleeting, unsubstantial, vain Shadowy as the shadows seemed Airy nothing, as they deemed,

These remain.

‘Egypt’s might is tumbled down’ (1908)

3.137 Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1772-1834

It is an ancient Mariner, And he stoppeth one of three.

‘By thy long grey beard and glittering eye, Now wherefore stopp’st thou me?’

‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ (1798) pt. 1

He holds him with his glittering eye— The Wedding-Guest stood still,

And listens like a three years’ child: The Mariner hath his will.

The Wedding-Guest sat on a stone: He cannot choose but hear;

And thus spake on that ancient man,

The bright-eyed Mariner.

‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ (1798) pt. 1

The Wedding-Guest here beat his breast, For he heard the loud bassoon.

‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ (1798) pt. 1

And ice, mast-high, came floating by, As green as emerald.

‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ (1798) pt. 1

‘God save thee, ancient Mariner!

From the fiends that plague thee thus!— Why look’st thou so?’—With my cross-bow I shot the Albatross.

‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ (1798) pt. 1

Nor dim nor red, like God’s own head, The glorious Sun uprist.

‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ (1798) pt. 2

We were the first that ever burst Into that silent sea.

‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ (1798) pt. 2

As idle as a painted ship Upon a painted ocean.

‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ (1798) pt. 2

Water, water, everywhere, And all the boards did shrink; Water, water, everywhere, Nor any drop to drink.

The very deep did rot: O Christ! That ever this should be!

Yes, slimy things did crawl with legs

Upon the slimy sea.

‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ (1798) pt. 2

Her lips were red, save her looks were free,

Her locks were yellow as gold: Her skin was white as leprosy,

The Night-mare life-in-death was she, Who thicks man’s blood with cold.

‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ (1798) pt. 3

The Sun’s rim dips; the stars rush out; At one stride comes the dark.

‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ (1798) pt. 3

We listened and looked sideways up!

‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ (1798) pt. 3

The hornéd Moon, with one bright star Within the nether tip.

‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ (1798) pt. 3

‘I fear thee, ancient Mariner! I fear thy skinny hand!

And thou art long, and lank, and brown, As is the ribbed sea-sand.’

‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ (1798) pt. 4

Alone, alone, all, all alone, Alone on a wide wide sea! And never a saint took pity on My soul in agony.

‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ (1798) pt. 4

And a thousand thousand slimy things Lived on; and so did I.

‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ (1798) pt. 4

A spring of love gushed from my heart, And I blessed them unaware.

‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ (1798) pt. 4

Oh Sleep! it is a gentle thing, Beloved from pole to pole,

To Mary Queen the praise be given! She sent the gentle sleep from Heaven, That slid into my soul.

‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ (1798) pt. 5

Sure I had drunken in my dreams, And still my body drank.

‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ (1798) pt. 5

We were a ghastly crew.

‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ (1798) pt. 5

It ceased; yet still the sails made on A pleasant noise till noon,

A noise like of a hidden brook In the leafy month of June,

That to the sleeping woods all night Singeth a quiet tune.

‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ (1798) pt. 5

Like one, that on a lonesome road Doth walk in fear and dread,

And having once turned round walks on, And turns no more his head;

Because he knows, a frightful fiend Doth close behind him tread.

‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ (1798) pt. 6

No voice; but oh! the silence sank Like music on my heart.

‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ (1798) pt. 6

I pass, like night, from land to land; I have strange power of speech.

‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ (1798) pt. 7

He prayeth well, who loveth well Both man and bird and beast.

He prayeth best, who loveth best

All things both great and small.

‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ (1798) pt. 7

He went like one that hath been stunned, And is of sense forlorn:

A sadder and a wiser man, He rose the morrow morn.

‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ (1798) pt. 7

Behold! her bosom and half her side— A sight to dream of, not to tell!

‘Christabel’ pt. 1 (1797) (l. 252)

Alas! they had been friends in youth; But whispering tongues can poison truth; And constancy lives in realms above; And life is thorny; and youth is vain; And to be wroth with one we love

Doth work like madness in the brain.

‘Christabel’ pt. 2 (1800) (l. 408)

A little child, a limber elf, Singing, dancing to itself,

A fairy thing with red round cheeks, That always finds, and never seeks, Makes such a vision to the sight

As fills a father’s eyes with light.

‘Christabel’ pt. 2, conclusion (1801) (l. 656)

I see them all so excellently fair,

I see, not feel, how beautiful they are!

‘Dejection: an Ode’ (1802) st. 2

I may not hope from outward forms to win

The passion and the life, whose fountains are within.

‘Dejection: an Ode’ (1802) st. 3

O Lady! we receive but what we give, And in our life alone does Nature live.

‘Dejection: an Ode’ (1802) st. 4

Ah! from the soul itself must issue forth A light, a glory, a fair luminous cloud Enveloping the Earth—

And from the soul itself must there be sent A sweet and potent voice, of its own birth, Of all sweet sounds the life and element!

‘Dejection: an Ode’ (1802) st. 4

For hope grew round me, like the twining vine, And fruits, and foliage, not my own, seemed mine.

‘Dejection: an Ode’ (1802) st. 6

But oh! each visitation

Suspends what nature gave me at my birth, My shaping spirit of imagination.

‘Dejection: an Ode’ (1802) st. 6.

And the Devil did grin, for his darling sin Is pride that apes humility.

‘The Devil’s Thoughts’ (1799)

Oh! the one life within us and abroad,

Which meets all motion and becomes its soul, A light in sound, a sound-like power in light, Rhythm in all thought, and joyance everywhere.

‘The Eolian Harp’ (1796) l. 26

And what if all animated nature

Be but organic harps diversely framed,

That tremble into thought, as o’er them sweeps, Plastic and vast, one intellectual breeze,

At once the soul of each, and god of all?

‘The Eolian Harp’ (1796) l. 44

What is an Epigram? a dwarfish whole, Its body brevity, and wit its soul.

‘Epigram’ (1802)

O, life one thought in prayer for S. T. C.; That he who many a year with toil of breath

Found death in life, may here find life in death.

‘Epitaph for Himself’ (1834)

Ere sin could blight or sorrow fade, Death came with friendly care:

The opening bud to Heaven conveyed And bade it blossom there.

‘Epitaph on an Infant’ (1794)

Forth from his dark and lonely hiding-place (Portentous sight!) the owlet Atheism, Sailing on obscene wings athwart the noon,

Drops his blue-fringéd lids, and holds them close, And hooting at the glorious sun in Heaven,

Cries out, ‘Where is it?’

‘Fears in Solitude’ (1798)

The frost performs its secret ministry, Unhelped by any wind.

‘Frost at Midnight’ (1798) l. 1

Sea, and hill, and wood,

With all the numberless goings-on of life, Inaudible as dreams!

‘Frost at Midnight’ (1798) l. 11

Only that film, which fluttered on the grate, Still flutters there, the sole unquiet thing.

‘Frost at Midnight’ (1798) l. 15

Whether the eave-drops fall Heard only in the trances of the blast, Or if the secret ministry of frost Shall hang them up in silent icicles, Quietly shining to the quiet moon.

‘Frost at Midnight’ (1798) l. 70

O struggling with the darkness all the night,

And visited all night by troops of stars.

‘Hymn before Sunrise, in the Vale of Chamouni’ (1809) l. 30

On awaking he...instantly and eagerly wrote down the lines that are here preserved. At this moment he was unfortunately called out by a person on business from Porlock.

‘Kubla Khan’ (written 1798, published 1816) preliminary note

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan

A stately pleasure-dome decree: Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea.

So twice five miles of fertile ground

With walls and towers were girdled round.

‘Kubla Khan’ (1798)

A savage place! as holy and enchanted

As e’er beneath a waning moon was haunted By woman wailing for her demon-lover!

And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething, As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,

A mighty fountain momently was forced.

‘Kubla Khan’ (1798)

It was a miracle of rare device,

A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice.

‘Kubla Khan’ (1798)

And ’mid this tumult Kubla heard from far Ancestral voices prophesying war!

‘Kubla Khan’ (1798)

A damsel with a dulcimer In a vision once I saw:

It was an Abyssinian maid, And on her dulcimer she played, Singing of Mount Abora.

‘Kubla Khan’ (1798)

And all who heard should see them there, And all should cry, Beware! Beware! His flashing eyes, his floating hair! Weave a circle round him thrice,

And close your eyes with holy dread, For he on honey-dew hath fed,

And drunk the milk of Paradise.

‘Kubla Khan’ (1798)

All thoughts, all passions, all delights, Whatever stirs this mortal frame,

All are but ministers of Love, And feed his sacred flame.

‘Love’ (1800)

With Donne, whose muse on dromedary trots, Wreathe iron pokers into true-love knots. Rhyme’s sturdy cripple, fancy’s maze and clue,

Wit’s forge and fire-blast, meaning’s press and screw.

‘On Donne’s Poetry’ (1818)

But still the heart doth need a language, still Doth the old instinct bring back the old names.

‘The Piccolomini’ (1800) act 2, sc. 4 (translated from the German of Friedrich von Schiller)

So for the mother’s sake the child was dear, And dearer was the mother for the child.

‘Sonnet to a Friend Who Asked How I Felt When the Nurse First Presented My Infant to Me’ (1797)

Well, they are gone, and here must I remain, This lime-tree bower my prison!

‘This Lime-Tree Bower my Prison’ (1797) l. 1

When the last rook

Beat its straight path along the dusky air.

‘This Lime-Tree Bower my Prison’ (1797) l. 68

‘Alas!’ said she, ‘we ne’er can be Made happy by compulsion!’

‘The Three Graves’ (1798) pt. 4, st. 12

Lingering he raised his latch at eve, Though tired in heart and limb:

He loved no other place, and yet Home was no home to him.

‘The Three Graves’ (1798) pt. 4, st. 16

Work without hope draws nectar in a sieve, And hope without an object cannot live.

‘Work Without Hope’ (1825)

Like some poor nigh-related guest, That may not rudely be dismist;

Yet hath outstayed his welcome while, And tells the jest without the smile.

‘Youth and Age’ (1832)

He who begins by loving Christianity better than Truth will proceed by loving his own sect or church better than Christianity, and end by loving himself better than all.