The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations

A sweet disorder in the dress Kindles in clothes a wantonness: A lawn about the shoulders thrown Into a fine distraction...

A careless shoe-string, in whose tie I see a wild civility:

Do more bewitch me, than when Art Is too precise in every part.

‘Delight in Disorder’

It is the end that crowns us, not the fight.

‘The End’

In prayer the lips ne’er act the winning part, Without the sweet concurrence of the heart.

‘The Heart’

When the artless doctor sees No one hope, but of his fees, And his skill runs on the lees; Sweet Spirit, comfort me!

When his potion and his pill, Has, or none, or little skill, Meet for nothing, but to kill;

Sweet Spirit, comfort me!

‘His Litany to the Holy Spirit’

Only a little more I have to write, Then I’ll give o’er,

And bid the world Good-night.

‘His Poetry his Pillar’

Love is a circle that doth restless move In the same sweet eternity of love.

‘Love What It Is’

Her eyes the glow-worm lend thee, The shooting-stars attend thee; And the elves also,

Whose little eyes glow,

Like the sparks of fire, befriend thee.

‘The Night-Piece, to Julia’

Night makes no difference ’twixt the Priest and Clerk; Joan as my Lady is as good i’ th’ dark.

‘No Difference i’ th’ Dark’

Stay, stay,

Until the hasting day

Has run

But to the even-song;

And, having prayed together, we

Will go with you along.

We have short time to stay, as you, We have as short a Spring;

As quick a growth to meet decay,

As you or any thing.

‘To Daffodils’

If any thing delight me for to print

My book, ’tis this; that Thou, my God, art in’t.

‘To God’

He loves his bonds, who when the first are broke, Submits his neck unto a second yoke.

‘To Love’

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, Old Time is still a-flying:

And this same flower that smiles to-day, To-morrow will be dying.

‘To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time’

Then be not coy, but use your time; And while ye may, go marry:

For having lost but once your prime, You may for ever tarry.

‘To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time’

Whenas in silks my Julia goes,

Then, then (methinks) how sweetly flows That liquefaction of her clothes.

Next, when I cast mine eyes and see That brave vibration each way free; O how that glittering taketh me!

‘Upon Julia’s Clothes’

So smooth, so sweet, so silvery is thy voice,

As, could they hear, the damned would make no noise, But listen to thee (walking in thy chamber)

Melting melodious words, to lutes of amber.

‘Upon Julia’s Voice’

To work a wonder, God would have her shown,

At once, a bud, and yet a rose full-blown.

‘The Virgin Mary’

8.86 Lord Hervey 1696-1743

Whoever would lie usefully should lie seldom.

‘Memoirs of the Reign of George II’ (1848) vol. 1, ch. 19

I am fit for nothing but to carry candles and set chairs all my life.

Letter to Sir Robert Walpole, 1737, in ‘Memoirs of the Reign of George II’ (ed. R. Sedgwick, 1952) p. 358

8.87 Hesiod c.700 B.C.

The half is greater than the whole.

‘Works and Days’ l. 40

8.88 Hermann Hesse 1877-1962

Wenn wir einen Menschen hassen, so hassen wir in seinem Bild etwas, was in uns selber sisst. Was nicht in uns selber ist, das regt uns nicht auf.

If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn’t part of

ourselves doesn’t disturb us.

‘Demian’ (1919) ch. 6

Auf Kosten der Intensität also erreicht er [der Bürger] Erhaltung und Sicherheit, statt Gottbesessenheit erntet er Gewissensruhe, statt Lust Behagen, statt Freiheit Bequemlichkeit, statt tödlicher Glut eine angenehme Temperatur.

The bourgeois prefers comfort to pleasure, convenience to liberty, and a pleasant temperature

to the deathly inner consuming fire.

‘Der Steppenwolf’ (1927) ‘Tractat vom Steppenwolf’

8.89 Gordon Hewart (Viscount Hewart) 1870-1943

A long line of cases shows that it is not merely of some importance, but is of fundamental importance that justice should not only be done, but should manifestly and undoubtedly be seen to be done.

Rex v Sussex Justices, 9 November 1923, in ‘Law Reports King’s Bench Division’ (1924) vol. 1, p. 259

8.90 Du Bose Heyward 1885-1940 and Ira Gershwin 1896-1983

It ain’t necessarily so— The things that you’re liable To read in the Bible—

It ain’t necessarily so.

Title of song (1935; music by George Gershwin)

Summer time an’ the livin’ is easy.

‘Summer Time’ (1935 song; music by George Gershwin)

8.91 John Heywood c.1497-c.1580

All a green willow, willow;

All a green willow is my garland.

‘The Green Willow’.

8.92 Thomas Heywood c.1574-1641

Seven cities warred for Homer, being dead, Who, living, had no roof to shroud his head.

‘The Hierarchy of the Blessed Angels’ (1635).

8.93 Sir Seymour Hicks 1871-1949

The first sign of old age: it is when you go out into the streets of London and realize for the first time how young the policemen look.

In C. R. D. Pulling ‘They Were Singing’ (1952) ch. 7

8.94 Aaron Hill 1685-1750

Tender-handed stroke a nettle, And it stings you for your pains; Grasp it like a man of mettle, And it soft as silk remains.

‘Verses Written on a Window in Scotland’

8.95 Joe Hill 1879-1915

I will die like a true-blue rebel. Don’t waste any time in mourning—organize.

Farewell telegram to Bill Haywood, 18 November 1915, before his death by firing squad, in ‘Salt Lake (Utah) Tribune’ 19 November 1915

You will eat, bye and bye,

In that glorious land above the sky; Work and pray, live on hay,

You’ll get pie in the sky when you die.

‘Preacher and the Slave’ in ‘Songs of the Workers’ (Industrial Workers of the World, 1911)

8.96 Pattie S. Hill 1868-1946

Happy birthday to you.

Title of song (1935; music by Mildred J. Hill)

8.97 Rowland Hill 1744-1833

He did not see any reason why the devil should have all the good tunes.

In E. W. Broomre ‘The Rev. Rowland Hill’ (1881) ch. 7

8.98 Sir Edmund Hillary 1919—

Well, we knocked the bastard off!

On climbing Mount Everest, in ‘Nothing Venture, Nothing Win’ (1975) ch. 10.

8.99 Fred Hillebrand 1893—

Home James, and don’t spare the horses.

Title of song (1934)

8.100 Hillel ‘The Elder’ c.70 B.C.-c. A.D. 10

A name made great is a name destroyed.

‘Pirque Aboth’ ch. 1, no. 14, in C. Taylor (ed.) ‘Sayings of the Jewish Fathers’ (1877)

If I am not for myself who is for me; and being for my own self what am I? If not now when?

‘Pirque Aboth’ ch. 1, no. 15, in C. Taylor (ed.) ‘Sayings of the Jewish Fathers’ (1877)

8.101 Lady Hillingdon 1857-1940

I am happy now that Charles calls on my bedchamber less frequently than of old. As it is, I now endure but two calls a week and when I hear his steps outside my door I lie down on my bed, close my eyes, open my legs and think of England.

‘Journal’ 1912, in J. Gathorne-Hardy ‘Rise and Fall of the British Nanny’ (1972) ch. 3

8.102 James Hilton 1900-54

Nothing really wrong with him—only anno domini, but that’s the most fatal complaint of all, in the end.

‘Goodbye, Mr Chips’ (1934) ch. 1

8.103 Hippocleides 6th century B.C.

Hippocleides doesn’t care.

In Herodotus ‘Histories’ bk. 6, sect. 129

8.104 Hippocrates c.460-357 B.C.

The life so short, the craft so long to learn.

‘Aphorisms’ sect. 1, para. 1 (translation by Chaucer). Often quoted in Latin as Ars longa, vita brevis; see Seneca ‘De Brevitae Vitae’ sect. 1.

Healing is a matter of time, but it is sometimes also a matter of opportunity.

‘Precepts’ ch. 1 (translated by W. H. S. Jones)

Time is that wherein there is opportunity, and opportunity is that wherein there is no great time.

‘Precepts’ ch. 1 (translated by W. H. S. Jones)

8.105 Alfred Hitchcock 1899-1980

Television has brought back murder into the home—where it belongs.

In ‘Observer’ 19 December 1965

8.106 Adolf Hitler 1889-1945

Die Nacht der langen Messer.

The night of the long knives.

Phrase given to the massacre of Ernst Roehm and his associates by Hitler on 29-30 June 1934, though taken from an early Nazi marching song. S. H. Roberts ‘The House Hitler Built’ (1937) pt. 2, ch. 3; subsequently associated also with Harold Macmillan’s large-scale dismissals from his Cabinet on 13 July 1962

Ich gehe mit traumwandlerischer Sicherheit den Weg, den mich die Vorsehung gehen heisst.

I go the way that Providence dictates with the assurance of a sleepwalker.

Speech in Munich, 15 March 1936, in Max Domarus (ed.) ‘Hitler: Reden und Proklamationen 19321945’ (1962) p. 606

Es ist die letzte territoriale Forderung, die ich Europa zu stellen habe, aber es ist die Forderung, von der ich nicht abgehe, und die ich, so Gott will, erfüllen werde.

It is the last territorial claim which I have to make in Europe, but it is the claim from which I

will not recede and which, God-willing, I will make good.

On the Sudetenland, in Speech at Berlin Sportpalast, 26 September 1938: Max Domarus (ed.) ‘Hitler: Reden und Proklamationen 1932-1945’ (1962) p. 927

In bezug auf das sudetendeutsche Problem meine Geduld jetzt zu Ende ist!

With regard to the problem of the Sudeten Germans, my patience is now at an end!

Speech at Berlin Sportpalast, 26 September 1938, in Max Domarus (ed.) ‘Hitler: Reden und Proklamationen 1932-1945’ (1962) p. 932

Die breite Masse eines Volkes...einer grossen Lüge leichter zum Opfer fällt als einer kleinen.

The broad mass of a nation...will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one.

‘Mein Kampf’ (1925) vol. 1, ch. 10

Brennt Paris?

Is Paris burning?

25 August 1944, in Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre ‘Is Paris Burning?’ (1965) ch. 5

8.107 Thomas Hobbes 1588-1679

Laughter is nothing else but sudden glory arising from some sudden conception of some eminency in ourselves, by comparison with the infirmity of others, or with our own formerly.

‘Human Nature’ (1650) ch. 9, sect. 13

True and False are attributes of speech, not of things. And where speech is not, there is neither Truth nor Falsehood.

‘Leviathan’ (1651) pt. 1, ch. 4

In Geometry (which is the only science that it hath pleased God hitherto to bestow on mankind) men begin at settling the significations of their words; which...they call Definitions.

‘Leviathan’ (1651) pt. 1, ch. 4

Words are wise men’s counters, they do but reckon by them: but they are the money of fools, that value them by the authority of an Aristotle, a Cicero, or a Thomas, or any other doctor

whatsoever, if but a man.

‘Leviathan’ (1651) pt. 1, ch. 4

The power of a man, to take it universally, is his present means, to obtain some future apparent good; and is either original or instrumental.

‘Leviathan’ (1651) pt. 1, ch. 10

I put for a general inclination of all mankind, a perpetual and restless desire of power after power, that ceaseth only in death.

‘Leviathan’ (1651) pt. 1, ch. 11

They that approve a private opinion, call it opinion; but they that mislike it, heresy: and yet heresy signifies no more than private opinion.

‘Leviathan’ (1651) pt. 1, ch. 11

During the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war; and such a war as is of every man against every man.

‘Leviathan’ (1651) pt. 1, ch. 13

For as the nature of foul weather, lieth not in a shower or two of rain; but in an inclination thereto of many days together: so the nature of war consisteth not in actual fighting, but in the known disposition thereto during all the time there is no assurance to the contrary.

‘Leviathan’ (1651) pt. 1, ch. 13

No arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.

‘Leviathan’ (1651) pt. 1, ch. 13

Force, and fraud, are in war the two cardinal virtues.

‘Leviathan’ (1651) pt. 1, ch. 13

They that are discontented under monarchy, call it tyranny; and they that are displeased with aristocracy, call it oligarchy: so also, they which find themselves grieved under a democracy, call it anarchy, which signifies the want of government; and yet I think no man believes, that want of government, is any new kind of government.

‘Leviathan’ (1651) pt. 2, ch. 19

Whereas some have attributed the dominion [of the family] to the man only, as being of the more excellent Sex; they misreckon in it. For there is not always that difference of strength, or prudence between the man and the woman, as that the right can be determined without War.

‘Leviathan’ (1651) pt. 2, ch. 20

For it is with the mysteries of our religion, as with wholesome pills for the sick, which swallowed whole, have the virtue to cure; but chewed, are for the most part cast up again without effect.

‘Leviathan’ (1651) pt. 3, ch. 32

The Papacy is not other than the Ghost of the deceased Roman Empire, sitting crowned upon the grave thereof.

‘Leviathan’ (1651) pt. 4, ch. 47

The praise of ancient authors proceeds not from the reverence of the dead, but from the

deliberate and forced, and partakes of the nature of a protest.

‘Passionate State of Mind’ (1955) p. 21

8.111 Heinrich Hoffmann 1809-94

Augustus was a chubby lad; Fat ruddy cheeks Augustus had: And everybody saw with joy

The plump and hearty, healthy boy. He ate and drank as he was told, And never let his soup get cold. But one day, one cold winter’s day,

He screamed out, ‘Take the soup away! O take the nasty soup away!

I won’t have any soup today.’

‘Struwwelpeter’ (1848) ‘Augustus’

Let me see if Philip can Be a little gentleman; Let me see, if he is able

To sit still for once at table.

‘Struwwelpeter’ (1848) ‘Fidgety Philip’

But fidgety Phil, He won’t sit still; He wriggles And giggles,

And then, I declare,

Swings backwards and forwards, And tilts up his chair,

Just like any rocking-horse— ‘Philip! I am getting cross!’

‘Struwwelpeter’ (1848) ‘Fidgety Philip’

Look at little Johnny there, Little Johnny Head-In-Air!

‘Struwwelpeter’ (1848) ‘Johnny Head-In-Air’

Silly little Johnny, look,

You have lost your writing-book!

‘Struwwelpeter’ (1848) ‘Johnny Head-In-Air’

The door flew open, in he ran,

The great, long, red-legged scissor-man.

‘Struwwelpeter’ (1848) ‘The Little Suck-a-Thumb’

Snip! Snap! Snip! They go so fast.