The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations

Since a politician never believes what he says, he is quite surprised to be taken at his word.

In Ernest Mignon ‘Les Mots du Gènèral’ (1962) p. 67

4.29 Thomas Dekker 1570-1641

That great fishpond (the sea).

‘The Honest Whore’ (1604) pt. 1, act 1, sc. 2

The best of men

That e’er wore earth about him, was a sufferer, A soft, meek, patient, humble, tranquil spirit, The first true gentleman that ever breathed.

‘The Honest Whore’ (1604) pt. 1, act 1, sc. 2

Art thou poor, yet hast thou golden slumbers? O sweet content!

Art thou rich, yet is thy mind perplexed? O, punishment!

Dost thou laugh to see how fools are vexed To add to golden numbers, golden numbers? O, sweet content, O, sweet, O, sweet content! Work apace, apace, apace, apace;

Honest labour bears a lovely face;

Then hey nonny, nonny; hey nonny, nonny.

‘Patient Grissil’ (1603) act 1, sc. 1

Canst drink the waters of the crisped spring? O sweet content!

Swim’st thou in wealth, yet sink’st in thine own tears? O punishment!

‘Patient Grissil’ (1603) act 1, sc. 1

Golden slumbers kiss your eyes, Smiles awake you when you rise: Sleep, pretty wantons, do not cry, And I will sing a lullaby:

Rock them, rock them, lullaby.

‘Patient Grissil’ (1603) act 4, sc. 2

Prince I am not, yet I am nobly born.

‘The Shoemaker’s Holiday’ (1600) sc. 7

4.30 J. de Knight (James E. Myers) 1919—and M. Freedman 1893-1962

(We’re gonna) rock around the clock.

Title of song (1953)

4.31 Walter de la Mare 1873-1956

Eat or sleep or drink again, Oh, what fun!

‘Hi!’ (1930)

Three jolly gentlemen, In coats of red,

Rode their horses Up to bed.

‘The Huntsmen’ (1913)

‘Is there anybody there?’ said the Traveller, Knocking on the moonlit door;

And his horse in the silence champed the grasses Of the forest’s ferny floor.

‘The Listeners’ (1912)

‘Tell them I came, and no one answered, That I kept my word,’ he said.

‘The Listeners’ (1912)

Ay, they heard his foot upon the stirrup, And the sound of iron on stone,

And how the silence surged softly backward, When the plunging hoofs were gone.

‘The Listeners’ (1912)

What is the world, O soldiers? It is I:

I, this incessant snow, This northern sky; Soldiers, this solitude Through which we go Is I.

‘Napoleon’ (1906)

Softly along the road of evening, In a twilight dim with rose,

Wrinkled with age, and drenched with dew, Old Nod, the shepherd, goes.

‘Nod’ (1912)

Slowly, silently, now the moon Walks the night in her silver shoon.

‘Silver’ (1913)

4.32 Shelagh Delaney 1939—

Women never have young minds. They are born three thousand years old.

‘A Taste of Honey’ (1959) act 1, sc. 2

4.33 Jack Dempsey 1895-1983

Honey, I just forgot to duck.

To his wife, on losing the World Heavyweight title, 23 September 1926, in J. and B. P. Dempsey

‘Dempsey’ (1977) p. 202. After a failed attempt on his life in 1981, Ronald Reagan quipped: ‘Honey, I forgot to duck’

4.34 Sir John Denham 1615-69

Thames, the most loved of all the Ocean’s sons, By his old sire, to his embraces runs,

Hasting to pay his tribute to the Sea, Like mortal life to meet eternity.

‘Cooper’s Hill’

O could I flow like thee, and make thy stream My great example, as it is my theme!

Though deep, yet clear, though gentle, yet not dull, Strong without rage, without o’erflowing full.

‘Cooper’s Hill’

Youth, what man’s age is like to be doth show; We may our ends by our beginnings know.

‘Of Prudence’ l. 225

Old Mother Wit, and Nature gave Shakespeare and Fletcher all they have; In Spenser, and in Jonson, Art,

Of slower Nature got the start.

‘On Mr Abraham Cowley’

Such is our pride, our folly, or our fate, That few, but such as cannot write, translate.

‘To Richard Fanshaw’ (1648)

4.35 Lord Denman (Thomas, first Baron Denman) 1779-1854

If it is possible that such a practice as that which has taken place in the present instance should be allowed to pass without a remedy...trial by jury itself, instead of being a security to persons who are accused, will be a delusion, a mockery, and a snare.

House of Lords speech, 4 September 1844, in the case of O’Connell and others versus The Queen in E. W. Cox (ed.) ‘Reports of Cases in Criminal Law’ (1846) vol. 1, p. 519

4.36 John Dennis 1657-1734

A man who could make so vile a pun would not scruple to pick a pocket.

The Gentleman’s Magazine (1781) p. 324 (editorial note)

The great design of art is to restore the decays that happened to human nature by the fall, by

restoring order.

‘The Grounds of Criticism in Poetry’ (1704) ch. 2

Damn them! They will not let my play run, but they steal my thunder!

In William S. Walsh ‘A Handy-Book of Literary Curiosities’ (1893) p. 1052

4.37 Nigel Dennis 1912—

I am a well-to-do, revered and powerful figure. That Establishment which we call England has taken me in: I am become her Fortieth Article. I sit upon her Boards, I dominate her stage, her museums, her dances and her costumes; I have an honoured voice in her elected House. To her— and her alone—I bend the knee, and in return for my homage she is gently blind to my small failings, asking only that I indulge them privately.

‘Cards of Identity’ (1955) pt. 2, p. 230

4.38 Thomas De Quincey 1785-1859

The burden of the incommunicable.

‘Confessions of an English Opium Eater’ (1822) pt. 1

So, then, Oxford Street, stony-hearted stepmother, thou that listenest to the sighs of orphans, and drinkest the tears of children, at length I was dismissed from thee.

‘Confessions of an English Opium Eater’ (1822) pt. 1

It was a Sunday afternoon, wet and cheerless: and a duller spectacle this earth of ours has not to show than a rainy Sunday in London.

‘Confessions of an English Opium Eater’ (1822) pt. 2 ‘The Pleasures of Opium’

Thou hast the keys of Paradise, oh just, subtle, and mighty opium!

‘Confessions of an English Opium Eater’ (1822) pt. 2 ‘The Pleasures of Opium’

Everlasting farewells! and again, and yet again reverberated—everlasting farewells!

‘Confessions of an English Opium Eater’ (1822) pt. 3 ‘The Pains of Opium’

Murder considered as one of the fine arts.

Title of essay in ‘Blackwood’s Magazine’ February 1827

If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he comes next to drinking and sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination.

‘On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts’ Second Paper in ‘Blackwood’s Magazine’ November 1839

There is first the literature of knowledge, and secondly, the literature of power.

‘Essays on the Poets’ ‘Pope’

Books, we are told, propose to instruct or to amuse. Indeed!...The true antithesis to knowledge, in this case, is not pleasure, but power. All that is literature seeks to communicate power; all that is not literature, to communicate knowledge.

‘Letters to a Young Man whose Education has been Neglected’ no. 3, in the ‘London Magazine’ January-July 1823. De Quincey adds that he is indebted for this distinction to ‘many years’ conversation with Mr Wordsworth’

4.39 Edward Stanley, fourteenth Earl Of Derby 1799-1869

The duty of an Opposition [is] very simple...to oppose everything, and propose nothing.

Quoting ‘Mr Tierney, a great Whig authority’, in House of Commons, 4 June 1841

Meddle and muddle.

Summarising Earl Russell’s foreign policy: Speech on the Address, House of Lords, 4 February 1864

4.40 Renè Descartes 1596-1650

Le bon sens est la chose du monde la mieux partagèe, car chacun pense en être bien pourvu.

Common sense is the best distributed commodity in the world, for every man is convinced that

he is well supplied with it.

‘Le Discours de la mèthode’ (1637) pt. 1, opening words

Cogito, ergo sum.

I think, therefore I am.

‘Le Discours de la mèthode’ (1637) pt. 4

Repugnare ut detur vacuum sive in quo nulla plane sit res.

It is contrary to reason to say that there is a vacuum or space in which there is absolutely

nothing.

‘Principia Philosophiae’ (1644) pt. 2, sect. 6 (translated by E. S. Haldane and G. R. T. Ross)

4.41 Camille Desmoulins 1760-94

My age is that of the bon Sansculotte Jèsus; an age fatal to Revolutionists.

Answer given at his trial, in Thomas Carlyle ‘History of the French Revolution’ (1837) bk. 6, ch. 2

4.42 Destouches (Philippe Nèricault) 1680-1754

Les absents ont toujours tort.

The absent are always in the wrong.

‘L’Obstacle imprèvu’ (1717) act 1, sc. 6

4.43 Buddy De Sylva (George Gard De Sylva) 1895-1950 and Lew Brown 1893-1958

The best things in life are free.

Title of song (1927)

4.44Edward De Vere, Earl Of Oxford

See Oxford (3.43) in Volume II

4.45Robert Devereux, Earl Of Essex

See Essex (5.46)

4.46 Bernard De Voto 1897-1955

The proper union of gin and vermouth is a great and sudden glory; it is one of the happiest marriages on earth and one of the shortest lived.

‘The Hour’ (1951)

4.47 Peter De Vries 1910—

It is the final proof of God’s omnipotence that he need not exist in order to save us.

‘The Mackerel Plaza’ (1958) ch. 1

The value of marriage is not that adults produce children but that children produce adults.

‘The Tunnel of Love’ (1954) ch. 8

4.48 Lord Dewar 1864-1930

[There are] only two classes of pedestrians in these days of reckless motor traffic—the quick, and the dead.

In George Robey ‘Looking Back on Life’ (1933) ch. 28

4.49 Sergei Diaghilev 1872-1929

Ètonne-moi.

Astonish me.

To Jean Cocteau, in ‘Journals of Jean Cocteau’ (1957) ch. 1

4.50 Charles Dibdin 1745-1814

Did you ever hear of Captain Wattle?

He was all for love, and a little for the bottle.

‘Captain Wattle and Miss Roe’

For a soldier I listed, to grow great in fame, And be shot at for sixpence a-day.

‘Charity’

In every mess I finds a friend, In every port a wife.

‘Jack in his Element’

What argufies sniv’ling and piping your eye?

‘Poor Jack’

But the standing toast that pleased the most Was—The wind that blows, the ship that goes, And the lass that loves a sailor!

‘The Round Robin’

Here, a sheer hulk, lies poor Tom Bowling, The darling of our crew.

‘Tom Bowling’

Faithful, below, he did his duty;

But now he’s gone aloft.

‘Tom Bowling’

4.51 Thomas Dibdin 1771-1841

Oh! what a snug little Island,

A right little, tight little Island!

‘The Snug Little Island’

4.52 Charles Dickens 1812-70

4.52.1 Barnaby Rudge

Something will come of this. I hope it mayn’t be human gore.

‘Barnaby Rudge’ (1841) ch. 4 (Simon Tappertit)

There are strings...in the human heart that had better not be wibrated.

‘Barnaby Rudge’ (1841) ch. 22 (Mr Tappertit)

4.52.2 Bleak House

Jarndyce and Jarndyce still drags its dreary length before the Court, perennially hopeless.

‘Bleak House’ (1853) ch. 1

This is a London particular...A fog, miss.

‘Bleak House’ (1853) ch. 3

The wind’s in the east...I am always conscious of an uncomfortable sensation now and then when the wind is blowing in the east.

‘Bleak House’ (1853) ch. 6 (Mr Jarndyce)

‘Not to put too fine a point upon it’—a favourite apology for plain-speaking with Mr Snagsby.

‘Bleak House’ (1853) ch. 11

He wos wery good to me, he wos!

‘Bleak House’ (1853) ch. 11 (Jo)

He is celebrated, almost everywhere, for his Deportment.

‘Bleak House’ (1853) ch. 14 (Caddy)

What is peace? Is it war? No. Is it strife? No.

‘Bleak House’ (1853) ch. 19 (Mr Chadband)

You are a human boy, my young friend. A human boy. O glorious to be a human boy!...

O running stream of sparkling joy To be a soaring human boy!

‘Bleak House’ (1853) ch. 19 (Mr Chadband)

Jobling, there are chords in the human mind.

‘Bleak House’ (1853) ch. 20 (Mr Guppy)

‘It is,’ says Chadband, ‘the ray of rays, the sun of suns, the moon of moons, the star of stars. It is the light of Terewth.’

‘Bleak House’ (1853) ch. 25

Lo, the city is barren, I have seen but an eel.

‘Bleak House’ (1853) ch. 25 (Mr Chadband)

It’s my old girl that advises. She has the head. But I never own to it before her. Discipline must be maintained.

‘Bleak House’ (1853) ch. 27 (Mr Bagnet)

The one great principle of the English law is, to make business for itself.

‘Bleak House’ (1853) ch. 39

Dead, your Majesty, Dead, my lords and gentlemen. Dead, Right Reverends and Wrong Reverends of every Order. Dead, men and women, born with heavenly compassion in your hearts. And dying thus around us, every day.

‘Bleak House’ (1853) ch. 47 (on the death of Jo)

I call them the Wards in Jarndyce. They are caged up with all the others. With Hope, Joy, Youth, Peace, Rest, Life, Dust, Ashes, Waste, Want, Ruin, Despair, Madness, Death, Cunning, Folly, Words, Wigs, Rags, Sheepskin, Plunder, Precedent, Jargon, Gammon, and Spinach!

‘Bleak House’ (1853) ch. 60 (Miss Flite’s birds)

4.52.3 The Chimes

O let us love our occupations, Bless the squire and his relations, Live upon our daily rations,

And always know our proper stations.

‘The Chimes’ (1844) ‘The Second Quarter’

4.52.4 A Christmas Carol

‘God bless us every one!’ said Tiny Tim, the last of all.

‘A Christmas Carol’ (1843) stave 3

It was a turkey! He could never have stood upon his legs, that bird. He would have snapped ’em off short in a minute, like sticks of sealing-wax.

‘A Christmas Carol’ (1843) stave 5

4.52.5 David Copperfield

I am a lone lorn creetur...and everythink goes contrairy with me.

‘David Copperfield’ (1850) ch. 3 (Mrs Gummidge)

I’d better go into the house, and die and be a riddance!

‘David Copperfield’ (1850) ch. 3 (Mrs Gummidge)

She’s been thinking of the old ’un!

‘David Copperfield’ (1850) ch. 3 (Mr Peggotty of Mrs Gummidge)

Barkis is willin’.

‘David Copperfield’ (1850) ch. 5

I live on broken wittles—and I sleep on the coals.

‘David Copperfield’ (1850) ch. 5 (The Waiter)

‘When a man says he’s willin’...it’s as much as to say, that a man’s waitin’ for a answer.’

‘David Copperfield’ (1850) ch. 8 (Mr Barkis)

Experientia does it—as papa used to say.

‘David Copperfield’ (1850) ch. 11 (Mrs Micawber). Tacitus ‘The Histories’ bk. 5, ch. 6: Experientia docuit experience has taught, commonly quoted Experientia docet experience teaches

I have known him come home to supper with a flood of tears, and a declaration that nothing was now left but a jail; and go to bed making a calculation of the expense of putting bowwindows to the house, ‘in case anything turned up,’ which was his favourite expression.

‘David Copperfield’ (1850) ch. 11 (on Mr Micawber)

Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.

‘David Copperfield’ (1850) ch. 12 (Mr Micawber)

We live in a numble abode.

‘David Copperfield’ (1850) ch. 16 (Uriah Heep)

We are so very ’umble.

‘David Copperfield’ (1850) ch. 17 (Uriah Heep)

‘Orses and dorgs is some men’s fancy. They’re wittles and drink to me—lodging, wife, and children—reading, writing and ’rithmetic—snuff, tobacker, and sleep.

‘David Copperfield’ (1850) ch. 19 (The Gentleman on the Canterbury Coach)

I only ask for information.

‘David Copperfield’ (1850) ch. 20 (Miss Rosa Dartle)

It was as true...as taxes is. And nothing’s truer than them.

‘David Copperfield’ (1850) ch. 21 (Mr Barkis).

What a world of gammon and spinnage it is, though, ain’t it!

‘David Copperfield’ (1850) ch. 22 (Miss Mowcher)

Other things are all very well in their way, but give me Blood!

‘David Copperfield’ (1850) ch. 25 (Mr Waterbrook)

I assure you she’s the dearest girl.

‘David Copperfield’ (1850) ch. 27 (Traddles)

Accidents will occur in the best-regulated families.

‘David Copperfield’ (1850) ch. 28 (Mr Micawber)

He told me, only the other day, that it was provided for. That was Mr Micawber’s expression, ‘Provided for.’

‘David Copperfield’ (1850) ch. 28 (Traddles)

‘People can’t die, along the coast,’ said Mr Peggotty, ‘except when the tide’s pretty nigh out. They can’t be born, unless it’s pretty nigh in—not properly born, till flood. He’s a going out with