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The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations

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Speech to Parliamentary Press Gallery, 9 June 1980, in ‘The Times’ 10 June 1980

10.19 Paul Jennings 1918-89

Resistentialism is concerned with what Things think about men.

‘Even Oddlier’ ‘Developments in Resistentialism’

In this concept of Activated Sludge, two perfectly opposite forces are held in perfect equilibrium.

‘The Jenguin Pennings’ ‘Activated Sludge’

10.20 Soame Jenyns 1704-87

Omnipotence cannot work contradictions; it can only effect all possible things.

‘A Free Enquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil’ (1757) Letter 1

Those who profess outrageous zeal for the liberty and prosperity of their country, and at the same time infringe her laws, affront her religion and debauch her people, are but despicable quacks.

‘A Free Enquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil’ (1757) Letter 5

Thousands are collected from the idle and the extravagant for seeing dogs, horses, men and monkeys perform feats of activity, and, in some places, for the privilege only of seeing one another.

‘Works’ vol. 2, p. 291

10.21 St Jerome c.342-420

Venerationi mihi semper fuit non verbosa rusticitas, sed sancta simplicitas.

I have revered always not crude verbosity, but holy simplicity.

Letter ‘Ad Pammachium’ in ‘Patrologiae Latinae’ vol. 22 (1864) col. 579

Hooly writ is the scripture of puples, for it is maad, that alle puplis schulden knowe it.

Attributed in the Prologue (itself attributed to John Purvey). J. Forshall and F. Madden (eds.) ‘The Holy Bible...in the Earliest English Versions’ (1850) vol. 1 ‘The Prologue to John Wycliffe’s translation of the Bible (c.1378/80) ch. 15

10.22 Jerome K. Jerome 1859-1927

It is impossible to enjoy idling thoroughly unless one has plenty of work to do.

‘Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow’ (1886) ‘On Being Idle’

The passing of the third floor back.

Title of story (1907) and play (1910)

I want a house that has got over all its troubles; I don’t want to spend the rest of my life bringing up a young and inexperienced house.

‘They and I’ (1909) ch. 11

But there, everything has its drawbacks, as the man said when his mother-in-law died, and they came down upon him for the funeral expenses.

‘Three Men in a Boat’ (1889) ch. 3

10.23 William Jerome 1865-1932

Any old place I can hang my hat is home sweet home to me.

Title of song (1901)

You needn’t try to reason, Your excuse is out of season, Just kiss yourself goodbye.

‘Just Kiss Yourself Goodbye’ (1902 song)

10.24 Douglas Jerrold 1803-57

Religion’s in the heart, not in the knees.

‘The Devil’s Ducat’ (1830) act 1, sc. 2

The best thing I know between France and England is—the sea.

‘The Wit and Opinions of Douglas Jerrold’ (1859) ‘The Anglo-French Alliance’

Earth is here so kind, that just tickle her with a hoe and she laughs with a harvest.

‘The Wit and Opinions of Douglas Jerrold’ (1859) ‘A Land of Plenty’ (Australia)

Love’s like the measles—all the worse when it comes late in life.

‘The Wit and Opinions of Douglas Jerrold’ (1859) ‘Love’

Some people are so fond of ill-luck that they run half-way to meet it.

‘The Wit and Opinions of Douglas Jerrold’ (1859) ‘Meeting Troubles Half-way’

We love peace, as we abhor pusillanimity; but not peace at any price. There is a peace more destructive of the manhood of living man than war is destructive of his material body. Chains are worse than bayonets.

‘The Wit and Opinions of Douglas Jerrold’ (1859) ‘Peace’

If an earthquake were to engulf England to-morrow, the English would manage to meet and dine somewhere among the rubbish, just to celebrate the event.

In Blanchard Jerrold ‘The Life and Remains of Douglas Jerrold’ (1859) ch. 14

10.25 John Jewel 1522-71

In old time we had treen chalices and golden priests, but now we have treen priests and golden chalices.

‘Certain Sermons Preached Before the Queen’s Majesty’ (1609) p. 176

10.26 C. E. M. Joad 1891-1953

It all depends what you mean by...

Answering questions on ‘The Brains Trust’ (formerly ‘Any Questions’), BBC radio (1941-8)

My life is spent in a perpetual alternation between two rhythms, the rhythm of attracting people for fear I may be lonely, and the rhythm of trying to get rid of them because I know that I am bored.

In ‘Observer’ 12 December 1948, p. 2

10.27 St John of the Cross 1542-91

Muero porque no muero.

I die because I do not die.

‘Coplas del alma que pena por ver a dios’

Con un no saber sabiendo.

With a knowing ignorance.

‘Coplas hechas sobre un èxtasis de alta contemplación’

10.28 John of Salisbury c.1115-80

Siquidem uita breuis, sensus hebes, neglegentiae torpor, inutilis occupatio, nos paucula scire permittunt, et eadem iugiter excutit et auellit ab animo fraudatrix scientiae, inimica et infida semper memoriae nouerca, obliuio.

The brevity of our life, the dullness of our senses, the torpor of our indifference, the futility of our occupation, suffer us to know but little: and that little is soon shaken and then torn from the

mind by that traitor to learning, that hostile and faithless stepmother to memory, oblivion.

‘Prologue to the Policraticus’ (C. C. J. Webb’s edition, 1909) vol. 1, p. 12, l. 13, translated by Helen Waddell

10.29 Pope John XXIII (Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli) 1881-1963

If civil authorities legislate for or allow anything that is contrary to that order and therefore contrary to the will of God, neither the laws made or the authorizations granted can be binding on the consciences of the citizens, since God has more right to be obeyed than man.

‘Pacem in Terris’ (1963) p. 142

The social progress, order, security and peace of each country are necessarily connected with the social progress, order, security and peace of all other countries.

‘Pacem in Terris’ (1963) p. 150

In the universal Declaration of Human Rights (December, 1948), in most solemn form, the dignity of a person is acknowledged to all human beings; and as a consequence there is proclaimed, as a fundamental right, the right of free movement in search for truth and in the attainment of moral good and of justice, and also the right to a dignified life.

‘Pacem in Terris’ (1963)

10.30 Linton Kwesi Johnson b. 1952

Brothers and sisters rocking,

a dread beat pulsing fire, burning.

‘Dread Beat an Blood’ (1975)

Cold lights hurting, breaking, hurting;

fire in the head and a dread beat bleeding, beating fire: dread.

‘Dread Beat an Blood’ (1975)

10.31 Lionel Johnson 1867-1902

The saddest of all Kings Crowned, and again discrowned.

‘By the Statue of King Charles I at Charing Cross’

Alone he rides, alone, The fair and fatal king.

‘By the Statue of King Charles I at Charing Cross’

There Shelley dreamed his white Platonic dreams.

‘Oxford’

In her ears the chime

Of full, sad bells brings back her old springtide.

‘Oxford’

I know you: solitary griefs, Desolate passions, aching hours.

‘The Precept of Silence’

10.32 Lyndon Baines Johnson 1908-73

All I have I would have given gladly not to be standing here today.

First speech to Congress as President, 27 November 1963, following the assassination of J. F. Kennedy, in ‘Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson 1963-64’ vol. 1, p. 8

We have talked long enough in this country about equal rights. We have talked for a hundred years or more. It is time now to write the next chapter, and to write it in the books of law.

Speech to Congress, 27 November 1963, in ‘Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson 1963-64’ vol. 1, p. 9

We hope that the world will not narrow into a neighbourhood before it has broadened into a brotherhood.

Speech at lighting of the Nation’s Christmas Tree, 22 December 1963, in ‘Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson 1963-64’ vol. 1, item 65

In your time we have the opportunity to move not only toward the rich society and the powerful society, but upward to the Great Society.

Speech at University of Michigan, 22 May 1964, in ‘Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson 1963-64’ vol. 1, p. 704

We Americans know, although others appear to forget, the risks of spreading conflict. We still seek no wider war.

Speech on radio and television, 4 August 1964, in ‘Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson 1963-64’ vol. 2, p. 927

We are not about to send American boys 9 or 10,000 miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves.

Speech at Akron University, 21 October 1964, in ‘Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson 1963-64’ vol. 2, p. 1391

I am a free man, an American, a United States Senator, and a Democrat, in that order.

‘Texas Quarterly’ Winter 1958

I don’t want loyalty. I want loyalty. I want him to kiss my ass in Macy’s window at high noon and tell me it smells like roses. I want his pecker in my pocket.

In David Halberstam ‘The Best and the Brightest’ (1972) ch. 20 (discussing a potential assistant)

Better to have him inside the tent pissing out, than outside pissing in.

In David Halberstam ‘The Best and the Brightest’ (1972) ch. 20 (on J. Edgar Hoover)

So dumb he can’t fart and chew gum at the same time.

In Richard Reeves ‘A Ford, not a Lincoln’ (1975) ch. 2 (on Gerald Ford)

10.33 Paul Johnson

A monstrous piece of work, the crude sexism, the disgusting sex, the very second-rate snobbery, not even the snobbery of a proper snob, but the snobbery of an expense-account man.

‘New Statesman’ 1958 (on the ‘James Bond’ film ‘Dr No’)

Tories...are atrophied Englishmen, lacking certain moral and intellectual reflexes.

‘New Statesman’ 1958

10.34 Philander Chase Johnson 1866-1939

Cheer up! the worst is yet to come!

‘Everybody’s Magazine’ May 1920

10.35 Philip Johnson 1906—

Architecture is the art of how to waste space.

‘New York Times’ 27 December 1964, p. 9

10.36 Samuel Johnson 1709-84

In all pointed sentences, some degree of accuracy must be sacrificed to conciseness.

‘The Bravery of the English Common Soldier’ in ‘The British Magazine’ January 1760 (Yale ed., vol. 10, p. 281)

Liberty is, to the lowest rank of every nation, little more than the choice of working or starving.

‘The Bravery of the English Common Soldier’ in ‘The British Magazine’ January 1760 (Yale ed., vol. 10, p. 283)

Change is not made without inconvenience, even from worse to better.

‘A Dictionary of the English Language’ (1755) preface.

I am not yet so lost in lexicography as to forget that words are the daughters of earth, and that things are the sons of heaven. Language is only the instrument of science, and words are but the signs of ideas: I wish, however, that the instrument might be less apt to decay, and that signs might be permanent, like the things which they denote.

‘A Dictionary of the English Language’ (1755) preface.

Every quotation contributes something to the stability or enlargement of the language.

‘A Dictionary of the English Language’ (1755) preface (on citations of usage in a dictionary)

But these were the dreams of a poet doomed at last to wake a lexicographer.

‘A Dictionary of the English Language’ (1755) preface

If the changes we fear be thus irresistible, what remains but to acquiesce with silence, as in the other insurmountable distresses of humanity? It remains that we retard what we cannot repel, that we palliate what we cannot cure.

‘A Dictionary of the English Language’ (1755) preface

Dull. To make dictionaries is dull work.

‘A Dictionary of the English Language’ (1755) 8th definition

Excise. A hateful tax levied upon commodities.

‘A Dictionary of the English Language’ (1755)

Net. Anything reticulated or decussated at equal distances, with interstices between the intersections.

‘A Dictionary of the English Language’ (1755)

Oats. A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.

‘A Dictionary of the English Language’ (1755)

Patron. Commonly a wretch who supports with insolence, and is paid with flattery.

‘A Dictionary of the English Language’ (1755)

Pension. Pay given to a state hireling for treason to his country.

‘A Dictionary of the English Language’ (1775)

The only end of writing is to enable the readers better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.

‘A Free Enquiry’ (1757, ed. D. Greene, 1984) reviewing Soame Jenyns

When two Englishmen meet, their first talk is of the weather.

‘The Idler’ no. 11 (24 June 1758)

Promise, large promise, is the soul of an advertisement.

‘The Idler’ no. 40 (20 January 1759)

Nothing is more hopeless than a scheme of merriment.

‘The Idler’ no. 58 (26 May 1759)

I directed them to bring a bundle [of hay] into the room, and slept upon it in my riding coat. Mr Boswell, being more delicate, laid himself sheets with hay over and under him, and lay in linen like a gentleman.

‘A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland’ (1775) ‘Glenelg’

A Scotchman must be a very sturdy moralist, who does not love Scotland better than truth.

‘A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland’ (1775) ‘Ostig in Sky’

At seventy-seven it is time to be in earnest.

‘A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland’ (1775) ‘Col’

Whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses; whatever makes the past, the distant, or the future predominate over the present, advances us in the dignity of thinking beings.

‘A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland’ (1775) ‘Inch Kenneth’

Grief is a species of idleness.

Letter to Mrs Thrale, 17 March 1773, in R. W. Chapman (ed.) ‘The Letters of Samuel Johnson’ (1952) vol. 1

He is gone, and we are going.

Letter to Mrs Thrale on the death of her son, Harry, 25 March 1776, in R. W. Chapman (ed.) ‘The Letters of Samuel Johnson’ (1952) vol. 3

A hardened and shameless tea-drinker, who has for twenty years diluted his meals with only the infusion of this fascinating plant; whose kettle has scarcely time to cool; who with tea amuses the evening, with tea solaces the midnight, and with tea welcomes the morning.

Review in the ‘Literary Magazine’ vol. 2, no. 13 (1757)

About things on which the public thinks long it commonly attains to think right.

‘The Lives of the English Poets’ (1779-81) ‘Addison’

Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addison.

‘The Lives of the English Poets’ (1779-81) ‘Addison’

The great source of pleasure is variety. Uniformity must tire at last, though it be uniformity of excellence. We love to expect; and, when expectation is disappointed or gratified, we want to be again expecting.

‘The Lives of the English Poets’ (1779-81) ‘Butler’

A man, doubtful of his dinner, or trembling at a creditor, is not much disposed to abstracted meditation, or remote enquiries.

‘The Lives of the English Poets’ (1779-81) ‘Collins’

The true genius is a mind of large general powers, accidentally determined to some particular direction.

‘The Lives of the English Poets’ (1779-81) ‘Cowley’

Language is the dress of thought.

‘The Lives of the English Poets’ (1779-81) ‘Cowley’.

The father of English criticism.

‘The Lives of the English Poets’ (1779-81) ‘Dryden’

This play...was first offered to Cibber and his brethren at Drury-Lane, and rejected; it being then carried to Rich had the effect, as was ludicrously said, of making Gay rich, and Rich gay.

Referring to ‘The Beggar’s Opera’, ‘The Lives of the English Poets’ (1779-81) ‘John Gay’

In the character of his Elegy I rejoice to concur with the common reader; for by the common sense of readers uncorrupted with literary prejudices...must be finally decided all claim to poetical honours.

‘The Lives of the English Poets’ (1779-81) ‘Gray’

An exotic and irrational entertainment, which has been always combated, and always has prevailed. [Italian opera]

‘The Lives of the English Poets’ (1779-81) ‘Hughes’

We are perpetually moralists, but we are geometricians only by chance. Our intercourse with intellectual nature is necessary; our speculations upon matter are voluntary and at leisure.

‘The Lives of the English Poets’ (1779-81) ‘Milton’

An acrimonious and surly republican.

‘The Lives of the English Poets’ (1779-81) ‘Milton’

I am disappointed by that stroke of death, which has eclipsed the gaiety of nations and impoverished the public stock of harmless pleasure.

‘The Lives of the English Poets’ (1779-81) ‘Edmund Smith’ (on the death of Garrick)

He washed himself with oriental scrupulosity.

‘The Lives of the English Poets’ (1779-81) ‘Swift’

Friendship is not always the sequel of obligation.

‘The Lives of the English Poets’ (1779-81) ‘James Thomson’

Nothing can please many, and please long, but just representations of general nature.

‘The Plays of William Shakespeare, with Notes’ (1765) preface (Yale ed., p. 61)

He that tries to recommend him [Shakespeare] by select quotations, will succeed like the pedant in Hierocles, who, when he offered his house to sale, carried a brick in his pocket as a specimen.

‘The Plays of William Shakespeare, with Notes’ (1765) preface (Yale ed., p. 62)

Love is only one of many passions.

‘The Plays of William Shakespeare, with Notes’ (1765) preface (Yale ed., p. 63)

Shakespeare has united the powers of exciting laughter and sorrow not only in one mind but in one composition...That this is a practice contrary to the rules of criticism will be readily allowed; but there is always an appeal open from criticism to nature.

‘The Plays of William Shakespeare, with Notes’ (1765) preface (Yale ed., p. 67)

A quibble is to Shakespeare, what luminous vapours are to the traveller; he follows it at all adventures, it is sure to lead him out of his way and sure to engulf him in the mire.

‘The Plays of William Shakespeare, with Notes’ (1765) preface (Yale ed., p. 74)

It must be at last confessed, that as we owe everything to him [Shakespeare], he owes something to us; that, if much of our praise is paid by perception and judgement, much is likewise given by custom and veneration. We fix our eyes upon his graces, and turn them from his deformities, and endure in him what we should in another loathe or despise.

‘The Plays of William Shakespeare, with Notes’ (1765) preface (Yale ed., p. 91)

I have always suspected that the reading is right, which requires many words to prove it wrong; and the emendation wrong, that cannot without so much labour appear to be right.

‘The Plays of William Shakespeare, with Notes’ (1765) preface (Yale ed., p. 108)

Notes are often necessary, but they are necessary evils.

‘The Plays of William Shakespeare, with Notes’ (1765) preface (Yale ed., p. 111)

This world where much is to be done and little to be known.

‘Prayers and Meditations’ (1785) no. 170 ‘Against inquisitive and perplexing Thoughts’ 12 August 1784

There are minds so impatient of inferiority, that their gratitude is a species of revenge, and they return benefits, not because recompense is a pleasure, but because obligation is a pain.

‘The Rambler’ no. 87 (15 January 1751)

No place affords a more striking conviction of the vanity of human hopes, than a public library.

‘The Rambler’ no. 106 (23 March 1751)

I have laboured to refine our language to grammatical purity, and to clear it from colloquial

barbarisms, licentious idioms, and irregular combinations.

‘The Rambler’ no. 208 (14 March 1752)

Ye who listen with credulity to the whispers of fancy, and pursue with eagerness the phantoms of hope; who expect that age will perform the promises of youth, and that the deficiencies of the present day will be supplied by the morrow; attend to the history of Rasselas prince of Abyssinia.

‘Rasselas’ (1759) ch. 1

The business of a poet, said Imlac, is to examine, not the individual, but the species; to remark general properties and appearances: he does not number the streaks of the tulip, or describe the different shades in the verdure of the forest.

‘Rasselas’ (1759) ch. 10

He [the poet] must write as the interpreter of nature, and the legislator of mankind, and consider himself as presiding over the thoughts and manners of future generations; as a being superior to time and place.

‘Rasselas’ (1759) ch. 10.

Human life is everwhere a state in which much is to be endured, and little to be enjoyed.

‘Rasselas’ (1759) ch. 11

Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures.

‘Rasselas’ (1759) ch. 26

Example is always more efficacious than precept.

‘Rasselas’ (1759) ch. 30

It [the Pyramids] seems to have been erected only in compliance with that hunger of imagination which preys incessantly upon life, and must be always appeased by some employment...I consider this mighty structure as a monument of the insufficiency of human enjoyments.

‘Rasselas’ (1759) ch. 32

Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.

‘Rasselas’ (1759) ch. 41

There is perhaps no class of men, to whom the precept given by the Apostle to his converts against too great confidence in their understandings, may be more properly inculcated, than those who are dedicated to the profession of literature.

‘Sermons’ (1788) no. 8

In this state of temporary honour, a proud man is too willing to exert his prerogative; and too ready to forget that he is dictating to those, who may one day dictate to him.

‘Sermons’ (1788) no. 8 (on schoolmasters)

He [God] will not leave his promises unfulfilled, nor his threats unexecuted...Neither can he want power to execute his purposes; he who spoke, and the world was made, can speak again, and it will perish.

‘Sermons’ (1788) no. 10

How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of negroes?

‘Taxation No Tyranny’ (1775 (Yale ed., vol. 10, p. 454)

A generous and elevated mind is distinguished by nothing more certainly than an eminent degree of curiosity.

Dedication of his English translation of Fr. J. Lobo’s ‘Voyage to Abyssinia’ (1735), signed ‘the editor’ but attributed to Johnson in James Boswell ‘The Life of Samuel Johnson’ (1791) vol. 1, p. 89 (1734)

Unmoved though witlings sneer and rivals rail; Studious to please, yet not ashamed to fail.

‘Irene’ (1749) prologue

There Poetry shall tune her sacred voice,

And wake from ignorance the Western World.

‘Irene’ (1749) act 4, sc. 1, l. 122 (Demetrius forecasting the Renaissance)

How small of all that human hearts endure, That part which laws or kings can cause or cure. Still to ourselves in every place consigned,

Our own felicity we make or find.

Lines added to Oliver Goldsmith’s ‘The Traveller’ (1764) l. 429.

Here falling houses thunder on your head, And here a female atheist talks you dead.

‘London’ (1738) l. 17

Of all the griefs that harrass the distressed, Sure the most bitter is a scornful jest;

Fate never wounds more deep the gen’rous heart, Than when a blockhead’s insult points the dart.

‘London’ (1738) l. 166

This mournful truth is ev’rywhere confessed, Slow rises worth, by poverty depressed.

‘London’ (1738) l. 176

Condemned to hope’s delusive mine, As on we toil from day to day,

By sudden blasts, or slow decline, Our social comforts drop away.

‘On the Death of Dr Robert Levet’ (1783)

When learning’s triumph o’er her barb’rous foes First reared the stage, immortal Shakespeare rose; Each change of many-coloured life he drew, Exhausted worlds, and then imagined new.

‘Prologue spoken at the Opening of the Theatre in Drury Lane’ (1747)

The stage but echoes back the public voice. The drama’s laws the drama’s patrons give, For we that live to please, must please to live.

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