The Oxford Dictionary of Modern Quotations
PREFACE Preface
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This is a completely new dictionary, containing about 5,000 quotations.
What is a "quotation"? It is a saying or piece of writing that strikes
people as so true or memorable that they quote it (or allude to it) in
speech or writing. Often they will quote it directly, introducing it with
a phrase like "As ---- says" but equally often they will assume that the
reader or listener already knows the quotation, and they will simply
allude to it without mentioning its source (as in the headline "A ros is
a ros is a ros," referring obliquely to a line by Gertrude Stein).
This dictionary has been compiled from extensive evidence of the
quotations that are actually used in this way. The dictionary includes
the commonest quotations which were found in a collection of more than
200,000 citations assembled by combing books, magazines, and newspapers.
For example, our collections contained more than thirty examples each for
Edward Heath's "unacceptable face of capitalism" and Marshal McLuhan's
"The medium is the message," so both these quotations had to be included.
As a result, this book is not--like many quotations dictionaries--a
subjective anthology of the editor's favourite quotations, but an
objective selection of the quotations which are most widely known and
used. Popularity and familiarity are the main criteria for inclusion,
although no reader is likely to be familiar with all the quotations in
this dictionary.
The book can be used for reference or for browsing: to trace the source of
a particular quotation or to find an appropriate saying for a special
need.
The quotations are drawn from novels, plays, poems, essays, speeches,
films radio and television broadcasts, songs, advertisements, and even
book titles. It is difficult to draw the line between quotations and
similar sayings like proverbs, catch-phrases, and idioms. For example,
some quotations (like "The opera ain't over till the fat lady sings")
become proverbial. These are usually included if they can be traced to a
particular originator. However, we have generally omitted phrases like
"agonizing reappraisal" which are covered adequately in the Oxford English
Dictionary. Catch-phrases are included if there is evidence that they are
widely remembered or used.
We have taken care to verify all the quotations in original or
authoritative sources--something which few other quotations dictionaries
have tried to do. We have corrected many errors found in other
dictionaries, and we have traced the true origins of such phrases as
"There ain't no such thing as a free lunch" and "Shaken and not stirred."
The quotations are arranged in alphabetical order of authors, with
anonymous quotations in the middle of "A." Under each author, the
quotations are arranged in alphabetical order of their first words.
Foreign quotations are, wherever possible, given in the original language
as well as in translation.
Authors are cited under the names by which they are best known: for
example, Graham Greene (not Henry Graham Greene); F. Scott Fitzgerald (not
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald); George Orwell (not Eric Blair); W. C.
Fields (not William Claude Dukenfield). Authors' dates of birth and death
are given when ascertainable. The actual writers of the words are
credited for quotations from songs, film-scripts, etc.
The references after each quotation are designed to be as helpful as
possible, enabling the reader to trace quotations in their original
sources if desired.
The index (1) has been carefully prepared--with ingenious computer
assistance--to help the reader to trace quotations from their most
important keywords. Each reference includes not only the page and the
number of the quotation on the page but also the first few letters of the
author's name. The index includes references to book-titles which have
become well known as quotations in their own right.
One difficulty in a dictionary of modern quotations is to decide what the
word "modern" means. In this dictionary it means "twentieth-century."
Quotations are eligible if they originated from someone who was still
alive after 1900. Where an author (like George Bernard Shaw, who died in
1950) said memorable things before and after 1900, these are all included.
This dictionary could not have been compiled without the work of many
people, most notably Paula Clifford, Angela Partington, Fiona Mullan,
Penelope Newsome, Julia Cresswell, Michael McKinley, Charles McCreery,
Heidi Abbey, Jean Harder, Elizabeth Knowles, George Chowdharay-Best,
Tracey Ward, and Ernest Trehern. I am also very grateful to the OUP
Dictionary Department's team of checkers, who verified the quotations at
libraries in Oxford, London, Washington, New York, and elsewhere. James
Howes deserves credit for his work in computerizing the index.
The Editor is responsible for any errors, which he will be grateful to
have drawn to his attention. As the quotation from Simeon Strunsky reminds
us, "Famous remarks are very seldom quoted correctly," but we have
endeavoured to make this book more accurate, authoritative, and helpful
than any other dictionary of modern quotations.
TONY AUGARDE
(1) Discussions of the index features in this preface and in the
"How to Use this Dictionary" section of this book refer to
the hard-copy edition printed in 1991. No index has been
included in this soft-copy edition. See "Notices" in
topic NOTICES for additional information about this soft-copy
edition.
HOWTO How to Use this Dictionary
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HOWTO.1 General Principles
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The arrangement is alphabetical by the names of authors: usually the
names by which each person is best known. So look under Maya Angelou, not
Maya Johnson; Princess Anne, not HRH The Princess Royal; Lord Beaverbrook,
not William Maxwell Aitken; Irving Berlin, not Israel Balin; Greta Garbo,
not Greta Lovisa Gustafsson,
Anonymous quotations are all together, starting in "Anonymous" in
topic 1.43 They are arranged in alphabetical order of their first
significant word.
Under each author, quotations are arranged by the alphabetical order of
the titles of the works from which they come, even if those works were not
written by the person who is being quoted. Poems are usually cited from
the first book in which they appeared.
Quotations by foreign authors are, where possible, given in the original
language and also in an English translation.
A reference is given after each quotation to its original source or to an
authoritative record of its use. The reference usually consists of either
(a) a book-title with its date of publication and a reference to where the
quotation occurs in the book; or (b) the title of a newspaper or magazine
with its date of publication. The reference is preceded by "In" if the
quotation comes from a secondary source: for example if a writer is quoted
by another author in a newspaper article, or if a book refers to a saying
but does not indicate where or when it was made.
HOWTO.2 Examples
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Here are some typical entries, with notes to clarify the meaning of each
part.
Charlie Chaplin (Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin)
1889-1977
All I need to make a comedy is a park, a policeman and
a pretty girl.
My Autobiography (1964) ch. 10
Charlie Chaplin is the name by which this person is best known but Sir
Charles Spencer Chaplin is the name which would appear in reference books
such as Who's Who.
Charlie Chaplin was born in 1889 and died in 1977. The quotation comes
from the tenth chapter of Chaplin's autobiography, which was published in
1964.
Martin Luther King
1929-1968
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
Letter from Birmingham Jail, Alabama, 16 Apr. 1963, in
Atlantic Monthly Aug. 1963, p. 78
Martin Luther King wrote these words in a letter that he sent from
Birmingham Jail on 16 April 1963. The letter was published later that year
on page 78 of the August issue of the Atlanta Monthly.
Dorothy Parker
1893-1967
One more drink and I'd have been under the host.
In Howard Teichmann George S. Kaufman (1972) p. 68
Dorothy Parker must have said this before she died in 1967 but the
earliest reliable source we can find is a 1972 book by Howard Teichmann.
"In" signals the fact that the quotation is cited from a secondary source.
HOWTO.3 Index
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If you remember part of a quotation and want to know the rest of it, or
who said it, you can trace it by means of the index (1).
The index lists the most significant words from each quotation. These
keywords are listed alphabetically in the index, each with a section of
the text to show the context of every keyword. These sections are listed
in strict alphabetical order under each keyword. Foreign keywords are
included in their alphabetical place.
The references show the first few letters of the author's name, followed
by the page and item numbers (e.g. 163:15 refers to the fifteenth
quotation on page 163).
As an example, suppose that you want to verify a quotation which you
remember contains the line "to purify the dialect of the tribe." If you
decide that tribe is a significant word and refer to it in the index, you
will find this entry:
tribe: To purify the dialect of the t. ELIOT 74:19
This will lead you to the poem by T. S. Eliot which is the nineteenth
quotation on page 74.
CONTENTS Table of Contents
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Title Page TITLE
Edition Notice EDITION
Notices NOTICES
Preface PREFACE
How to Use this Dictionary HOWTO
General Principles HOWTO.1
Examples HOWTO.2
Index HOWTO.3
Table of Contents CONTENTS
A 1.0
Bud Abbott and Lou Costello (Louis Francis Cristillo) 1.1
Dannie Abse 1.2
Goodman Ace 1.3
Dean Acheson 1.4
J. R. Ackerley 1.5
Douglas Adams 1.6
Frank Adams and Will M. Hough 1.7
Franklin P. Adams 1.8
Henry Brooks Adams 1.9
Harold Adamson 1.10
George Ade 1.11
Konrad Adenauer 1.12
Alfred Adler 1.13
Polly Adler 1.14
AE (A.E., ) (George William Russell) 1.15
Herbert Agar 1.16
James Agate 1.17
Spiro T. Agnew 1.18
Max Aitken 1.19
Zo Akins 1.20
Alain (mile-Auguste Chartier) 1.21
Edward Albee 1.22
Richard Aldington 1.23
Brian Aldiss 1.24
Nelson Algren 1.25
Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay) 1.26
Fred Allen (John Florence Sullivan) 1.27
Woody Allen (Allen Stewart Konigsberg) 1.28
Woody Allen (Allen Stewart Konigsberg) and Marshall Brickman 1.29
Margery Allingham 1.30
Joseph Alsop 1.31
Robert Altman 1.32
Leo Amery 1.33
Kingsley Amis 1.34
Maxwell Anderson 1.35
Maxwell Anderson and Lawrence Stallings 1.36
Robert Anderson 1.37
James Anderton 1.38
Sir Norman Angell 1.39
Maya Angelou (Maya Johnson) 1.40
Paul Anka 1.41
Princess Anne (HRH the Princess Royal) 1.42
Anonymous 1.43
Jean Anouilh 1.44
Guillaume Apollinaire 1.45
Sir Edward Appleton 1.46
Louis Aragon 1.47
Hannah Arendt 1.48
G. D. Armour 1.49
Harry Armstrong 1.50
Louis Armstrong 1.51
Neil Armstrong 1.52
Sir Robert Armstrong 1.53
Raymond Aron 1.54
George Asaf 1.55
Dame Peggy Ashcroft 1.56
Daisy Ashford 1.57
Isaac Asimov 1.58
Elizabeth Asquith (Princess Antoine Bibesco) 1.59
Herbert Henry Asquith (Earl of Oxford and Asquith) 1.60
Margot Asquith (Countess of Oxford and Asquith) 1.61
Raymond Asquith 1.62
Nancy Astor (Viscountess Astor) 1.63
Brooks Atkinson 1.64
E. L. Atkinson and Apsley Cherry-Garrard 1.65
Clement Attlee 1.66
W. H. Auden 1.67
W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood 1.68
Tex Avery (Fred Avery) 1.69
Earl of Avon 1.70
Revd W. Awdry 1.71
Alan Ayckbourn 1.72
A. J. Ayer 1.73
Pam Ayres 1.74
B 2.0
Robert Baden-Powell (Baron Baden-Powell) 2.1
Joan Baez 2.2
Sydney D. Bailey 2.3
Bruce Bairnsfather 2.4
Hylda Baker 2.5
James Baldwin 2.6
Stanley Baldwin (Earl Baldwin of Bewdley) 2.7
Arthur James Balfour (Earl of Balfour) 2.8
Whitney Balliett 2.9
Pierre Balmain 2.10
Tallulah Bankhead 2.11
Nancy Banks-Smith 2.12
Imamu Amiri Baraka (Everett LeRoi Jones) 2.13
W. N. P. Barbellion (Bruce Frederick Cummings) 2.14
Maurice Baring 2.15
Ronnie Barker 2.16
Frederick R. Barnard 2.17
Clive Barnes 2.18
Julian Barnes 2.19
Peter Barnes 2.20
Sir J. M. Barrie 2.21
Ethel Barrymore 2.22
John Barrymore 2.23
Lionel Bart 2.24
Karl Barth 2.25
Roland Barthes 2.26
Bernard Baruch 2.27
Jacques Barzun 2.28
L. Frank Baum 2.29
Vicki Baum 2.30
Sir Arnold Bax 2.31
Sir Beverley Baxter 2.32
Beachcomber 2.33
David, First Earl Beatty 2.34
Lord Beaverbrook (William Maxwell Aitken, first Baron Beaverbrook) 2.35
Carl Becker 2.36
Samuel Beckett 2.37
Harry Bedford and Terry Sullivan 2.38
Sir Thomas Beecham 2.39
Sir Max Beerbohm 2.40
Brendan Behan 2.41
John Hay Beith 2.42
Clive Bell 2.43
Henry Bellamann 2.44
Hilaire Belloc 2.45
Saul Bellow 2.46
Robert Benchley 2.47
Julien Benda 2.48
Stephen Vincent Bent 2.49
William Rose Bent 2.50
Tony Benn 2.51
George Bennard 2.52
Alan Bennett 2.53
Arnold Bennett 2.54
Ada Benson and Fred Fisher 2.55
A. C. Benson 2.56
Stella Benson 2.57
Edmund Clerihew Bentley 2.58
Eric Bentley 2.59
Nikolai Berdyaev 2.60
Lord Charles Beresford 2.61
Henri Bergson 2.62
Irving Berlin (Israel Baline) 2.63
Sir Isaiah Berlin 2.64
Georges Bernanos 2.65
Jeffrey Bernard 2.66
Eric Berne 2.67
Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward 2.68
Chuck Berry 2.69
John Berryman 2.70
Pierre Berton 2.71
Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg 2.72
Sir John Betjeman 2.73
Aneurin Bevan 2.74
William Henry Beveridge (First Baron Beveridge) 2.75
Ernest Bevin 2.76
Georges Bidault 2.77
Ambrose Bierce 2.78
Laurence Binyon 2.79
Nigel Birch (Baron Rhyl) 2.80
John Bird 2.81
Earl of Birkenhead 2.82
Lord Birkett (William Norman Birkett, Baron Birkett) 2.83
Eric Blair 2.84
Eubie Blake (James Hubert Blake) 2.85
Lesley Blanch 2.86
Alan Bleasdale 2.87
Karen Blixen 2.88
Edmund Blunden 2.89
Alfred Blunt (Bishop of Bradford) 2.90
Wilfrid Scawen Blunt 2.91
Ronald Blythe 2.92
Enid Blyton 2.93
Louise Bogan 2.94
Humphrey Bogart 2.95
John B. Bogart 2.96
Niels Bohr 2.97
Alan Bold 2.98
Robert Bolt 2.99
Andrew Bonar Law 2.100
Carrie Jacobs Bond 2.101
Sir David Bone 2.102
Dietrich Bonhoeffer 2.103
Sonny Bono (Salvatore Bono) 2.104
Daniel J. Boorstin 2.105
James H. Boren 2.106
Jorge Luis Borges 2.107
Max Born 2.108
John Collins Bossidy 2.109
Gordon Bottomley 2.110
Horatio Bottomley 2.111
Sir Harold Edwin Boulton 2.112
Elizabeth Bowen 2.113
David Bowie (David Jones) 2.114
Sir Maurice Bowra 2.115
Charles Boyer 2.116
Lord Brabazon (Baron Brabazon of Tara) 2.117
Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder, and D. M. Marshman Jr. 2.118
Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder, and Walter Reisch 2.119
F. H. Bradley 2.120
Omar Bradley 2.121
Caryl Brahms (Doris Caroline Abrahams) and S. J. Simon (Simon Jasha Skidelsky) 2.122
John Braine 2.123
Ernest Bramah (Ernest Bramah Smith) 2.124
Georges Braque 2.125
John Bratby 2.126
Irving Brecher 2.127
Bertolt Brecht 2.128
Gerald Brenan 2.129
Aristide Briand 2.130
Vera Brittain 2.131
David Broder 2.132
Jacob Bronowski 2.133
Rupert Brooke 2.134
Anita Brookner 2.135
Mel Brooks 2.136
Heywood Broun 2.137
H. Rap Brown 2.138
Helen Gurley Brown 2.139
Ivor Brown 2.140
John Mason Brown 2.141
Lew Brown (Louis Brownstein) 2.142
Nacio Herb Brown 2.143
Cecil Browne 2.144
Sir Frederick Browning 2.145
Lenny Bruce (Leonard Alfred Schneider) 2.146
Anita Bryant 2.147
Martin Buber 2.148
John Buchan (Baron Tweedsmuir) 2.149
Frank Buchman 2.150
Gene Buck (Edward Eugene Buck) and Herman Ruby 2.151
Richard Buckle 2.152
Arthur Buller 2.153
Ivor Bulmer-Thomas 2.154
Luis Buuel 2.155
Anthony Burgess 2.156
Johnny Burke 2.157
John Burns 2.158
William S. Burroughs 2.159
Benjamin Hapgood Burt 2.160
Nat Burton 2.161
R. A. Butler (Baron Butler of Saffron Walden) 2.162
Ralph Butler and Noel Gay (Richard Moxon Armitage) 2.163
Samuel Butler 2.164
Max Bygraves 2.165
James Branch Cabell 2.166
C 3.0
Irving Caesar 3.1
John Cage 3.2
James Cagney 3.3
Sammy Cahn (Samuel Cohen) 3.4
James M. Cain 3.5
Michael Caine (Maurice Joseph Micklewhite) 3.6
Sir Joseph Cairns 3.7
Charles Calhoun 3.8
James Callaghan (Leonard James Callaghan, Baron Callaghan of Cardiff) 3.9
Joseph Campbell (Seosamh MacCathmhaoil) 3.10
Mrs Patrick Campbell (Beatrice Stella Campbell) 3.11
Roy Campbell 3.12
Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman 3.13
Albert Camus 3.14
Elias Canetti 3.15
Hughie Cannon 3.16
John R. Caples 3.17
Al Capone 3.18
Truman Capote 3.19
Al Capp 3.20
Ethna Carbery (Anna MacManus) 3.21
Hoagy Carmichael (Hoagland Howard Carmichael) 3.22
Stokely Carmichael and Charles Vernon Hamilton 3.23
Dale Carnegie 3.24
J. L. Carr 3.25
Edward Carson (Baron Carson) 3.26
Jimmy Carter 3.27
Sydney Carter 3.28
Pablo Casals 3.29
Ted Castle (Baron Castle of Islington) 3.30
Harry Castling and C. W. Murphy 3.31
Fidel Castro 3.32
Willa Cather 3.33
Mr Justice Caulfield (Sir Bernard Caulfield) 3.34
Charles Causley 3.35
Constantine Cavafy 3.36
Edith Cavell 3.37
Lord David Cecil 3.38
Patrick Reginald Chalmers 3.39
Joseph Chamberlain 3.40
Neville Chamberlain 3.41
Harry Champion 3.42
Raymond Chandler 3.43
Coco Chanel 3.44
Charlie Chaplin (Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin) 3.45
Arthur Chapman 3.46
Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin 3.47
Prince Charles (Charles Philip Arthur George, Prince of Wales) 3.48
Apsley Cherry-Garrard 3.49
G. K. Chesterton 3.50
Maurice Chevalier 3.51
Erskine Childers 3.52
Charles Chilton 3.53
Noam Chomsky 3.54
Dame Agatha Christie 3.55
Frank E. Churchill 3.56
Sir Winston Churchill 3.57
Count Galeazzo Ciano 3.58
Brian Clark 3.59
Kenneth Clark (Baron Clark) 3.60
Arthur C. Clarke 3.61
Grant Clarke and Edgar Leslie 3.62
Eldridge Cleaver 3.63
John Cleese 3.64
John Cleese and Connie Booth 3.65
Sarah Norcliffe Cleghorn 3.66
Georges Clemenceau 3.67
Harlan Cleveland 3.68
Richard Cobb 3.69
Claud Cockburn 3.70
Jean Cocteau 3.71
Lenore Coffee 3.72
George M. Cohan 3.73
Desmond Coke 3.74
Colette (Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette) 3.75
R. G. Collingwood 3.76
Charles Collins and Fred W. Leigh 3.77
Charles Collins and Fred Murray 3.78
Charles Collins, E. A. Sheppard, and Fred Terry 3.79
John Churton Collins 3.80
Michael Collins 3.81
Betty Comden and Adolph Green 3.82
Dame Ivy Compton-Burnett 3.83
Billy Connolly 3.84
Cyril Connolly 3.85
James Connolly 3.86
Joseph Conrad (Teodor Josef Konrad Korzeniowski) 3.87
Shirley Conran 3.88
A. J. Cook 3.89
Dan Cook 3.90
Peter Cook 3.91
Calvin Coolidge 3.92
Ananda Coomaraswamy 3.93
Alfred Duff Cooper (Viscount Norwich) 3.94
Tommy Cooper 3.95
Wendy Cope 3.96
Aaron Copland 3.97
Bernard Cornfeld 3.98
Frances Cornford 3.99
Francis Macdonald Cornford 3.100
Baron Pierre de Coubertin 3.101
mile Cou 3.102
Nol Coward 3.103
Hart Crane 3.104
James Creelman and Ruth Rose 3.105
Bishop Mandell Creighton 3.106
Quentin Crisp 3.107
Julian Critchley 3.108
Richmal Crompton (Richmal Crompton Lamburn) 3.109
Bing Crosby (Harry Lillis Crosby) 3.110
Bing Crosby, Roy Turk, and Fred Ahlert 3.111
Richard Crossman 3.112
Aleister Crowley 3.113
Leslie Crowther 3.114
Robert Crumb 3.115
Bruce Frederick Cummings 3.116
e. e. cummings 3.117
William Thomas Cummings 3.118
Will Cuppy 3.119
Edwina Currie 3.120
Michael Curtiz 3.121
Lord Curzon (George Nathaniel Curzon, Marquess Curzon of Kedleston) 3.122
D 4.0
Paul Daniels 4.1
Charles Brace Darrow 4.2
Clarence Darrow 4.3
Sir Francis Darwin 4.4
Jules Dassin 4.5
Worton David and Lawrence Wright 4.6
Jack Davies and Ken Annakin 4.7
W. H. Davies 4.8
Bette Davis (Ruth Elizabeth Davis) 4.9
Lord Dawson of Penn (Bertrand Edward Dawson, Viscount Dawson of Penn) 4.10
C. Day-Lewis 4.11
Simone de Beauvoir 4.12
Edward de Bono 4.13
Eugene Victor Debs 4.14
Edgar Degas 4.15
Charles de Gaulle 4.16
J. de Knight (James E. Myers) and M. Freedman 4.17
Walter de la Mare 4.18
Shelagh Delaney 4.19
Jack Dempsey 4.20
Nigel Dennis 4.21
Buddy De Sylva (George Gard De Sylva) and Lew Brown 4.22
Peter De Vries 4.23
Lord Dewar 4.24
Sergei Diaghilev 4.25
Paul Dickson 4.26
Joan Didion 4.27
Howard Dietz 4.28
William Dillon 4.29
Ernest Dimnet 4.30
Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen) 4.31
Mort Dixon 4.32
Milovan Djilas 4.33
Austin Dobson (Henry Austin Dobson) 4.34
Ken Dodd 4.35
J. P. Donleavy 4.36
Sir Reginald Dorman-Smith 4.37
Keith Douglas 4.38
Norman Douglas 4.39
Sir Alec Douglas-Home 4.40
Caroline Douglas-Home 4.41
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 4.42
Maurice Drake 4.43
William A. Drake 4.44
John Drinkwater 4.45
Alexander Dubcek 4.46
Al Dubin 4.47
W. E. B. DuBois 4.48
Georges Duhamel 4.49
Raoul Duke 4.50
John Foster Dulles 4.51
Dame Daphne du Maurier 4.52
Isadora Duncan 4.53
Ian Dunlop 4.54
Jimmy Durante 4.55
Leo Durocher 4.56
Ian Dury 4.57
Lillian K. Dykstra 4.58
Bob Dylan (Robert Zimmerman) 4.59
E 5.0
Stephen T. Early 5.1
Clint Eastwood 5.2
Abba Eban 5.3
Sir Anthony Eden (Earl of Avon) 5.4
Clarissa Eden (Countess of Avon) 5.5
Marriott Edgar 5.6
Duke of Edinburgh 5.7
Thomas Alva Edison 5.8
John Maxwell Edmonds 5.9
King Edward VII 5.10
King Edward VIII (Duke of Windsor) 5.11
John Ehrlichman 5.12
Albert Einstein 5.13
Dwight D. Eisenhower 5.14
T. S. Eliot 5.15
Queen Elizabeth II 5.16
Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother 5.17
Alf Ellerton 5.18
Havelock Ellis (Henry Havelock Ellis) 5.19
Paul Eluard 5.20
Sir William Empson 5.21
Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, and Howard Koch 5.22
Susan Ertz 5.23
Dudley Erwin 5.24
Howard Estabrook and Harry Behn 5.25
Gavin Ewart 5.26
William Norman Ewer 5.27
F 6.0
Clifton Fadiman 6.1
Eleanor Farjeon 6.2
King Farouk of Egypt 6.3
William Faulkner 6.4
George Fearon 6.5
James Fenton 6.6
Edna Ferber 6.7
Kathleen Ferrier 6.8
Eric Field 6.9
Dorothy Fields 6.10
Dame Gracie Fields (Grace Stansfield) 6.11
W. C. Fields (William Claude Dukenfield) 6.12
Harry Julian Fink, Rita M. Fink, and Dean Riesner 6.13
Ronald Firbank 6.14
Fred Fisher 6.15
H. A. L. Fisher 6.16
John Arbuthnot Fisher (Baron Fisher) 6.17
Marve Fisher 6.18
Albert H. Fitz 6.19
F. Scott Fitzgerald 6.20
Zelda Fitzgerald 6.21
Robert Fitzsimmons 6.22
Bud Flanagan (Chaim Reeven Weintrop) 6.23
Michael Flanders and Donald Swann 6.24
James Elroy Flecker 6.25
Ian Fleming 6.26
Robert, Marquis de Flers and Arman de Caillavet 6.27
Dario Fo 6.28
Marshal Ferdinand Foch 6.29
J. Foley 6.30
Michael Foot 6.31
Anna Ford 6.32
Gerald Ford 6.33
Henry Ford 6.34
Lena Guilbert Ford 6.35
Howell Forgy 6.36
E. M. Forster 6.37
Bruce Forsyth 6.38
Harry Emerson Fosdick 6.39
Anatole France (Jacques-Anatole-Franois Thibault) 6.40
Georges Franju 6.41
Sir James George Frazer 6.42
Stan Freberg 6.43
Arthur Freed 6.44
Ralph Freed 6.45
Cliff Freeman 6.46
John Freeman 6.47
Marilyn French 6.48
Sigmund Freud 6.49
Max Frisch 6.50
Charles Frohman 6.51
Erich Fromm 6.52
David Frost 6.53
Robert Frost 6.54
Christopher Fry 6.55
Roger Fry 6.56
R. Buckminster Fuller 6.57
Alfred Funke 6.58
Sir David Maxwell Fyfe 6.59
Will Fyffe 6.60
Rose Fyleman 6.61
G 7.0
Zsa Zsa Gabor (Sari Gabor) 7.1
Norman Gaff 7.2
Hugh Gaitskell 7.3
J. K. Galbraith 7.4
John Galsworthy 7.5
Ray Galton and Alan Simpson 7.6
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi 7.7
Greta Garbo (Greta Lovisa Gustafsson) 7.8
Ed Gardner 7.9
John Nance Garner 7.10
Bamber Gascoigne 7.11
Noel Gay (Richard Moxon Armitage) 7.12
Noel Gay and Ralph Butler 7.13
Sir Eric Geddes 7.14
Bob Geldof 7.15
Bob Geldof and Midge Ure 7.16
King George V 7.17
Daniel George (Daniel George Bunting) 7.18
George Gershwin 7.19
Ira Gershwin 7.20
Stella Gibbons 7.21
Wolcott Gibbs 7.22
Kahlil Gibran 7.23
Wilfrid Wilson Gibson 7.24
Andr Gide 7.25
Eric Gill 7.26
Terry Gilliam 7.27
Penelope Gilliatt 7.28
Allen Ginsberg 7.29
George Gipp 7.30
Jean Giraudoux 7.31
George Glass 7.32
John A. Glover-Kind 7.33
Jean-Luc Godard 7.34
A. D. Godley 7.35
Joseph Goebbels 7.36
Hermann Goering 7.37
Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts (Benjamin Eisenberg) 7.38
Isaac Goldberg 7.39
William Golding 7.40
Emma Goldman 7.41
Barry Goldwater 7.42
Sam Goldwyn (Samuel Goldfish) 7.43
Paul Goodman 7.44
Mack Gordon 7.45
Stuart Gorrell 7.46
Sir Edmund Gosse 7.47
Lord Gowrie (2nd Earl of Gowrie) 7.48
Lew Grade (Baron Grade) 7.49
D. M. Graham 7.50
Harry Graham 7.51
Kenneth Grahame 7.52
Bernie Grant 7.53
Ethel Watts-Mumford Grant 7.54
Robert Graves 7.55
Hannah Green (Joanne Greenberg) 7.56
Graham Greene 7.57
Oswald Greene 7.58
Germaine Greer 7.59
Hubert Gregg 7.60
Joyce Grenfell 7.61
Julian Grenfell 7.62
Clifford Grey 7.63
Sir Edward Grey (Viscount Grey of Fallodon) 7.64
Mervyn Griffith-Jones 7.65
Leon Griffiths 7.66
Jo Grimond (Baron Grimond) 7.67
Philip Guedalla 7.68
R. Guidry 7.69
Texas Guinan (Mary Louise Cecilia Guinan) 7.70
Nubar Gulbenkian 7.71
Thom Gunn 7.72
Dorothy Frances Gurney 7.73
Woody Guthrie (Woodrow Wilson Guthrie) 7.74
H 8.0
Earl Haig 8.1
Lord Hailsham (Baron Hailsham, Quintin Hogg) 8.2
J. B. S. Haldane 8.3
H. R. Haldeman 8.4
Sir William Haley 8.5
Henry Hall 8.6
Sir Peter Hall 8.7
Margaret Halsey 8.8
Oscar Hammerstein II 8.9
Christopher Hampton 8.10
Learned Hand 8.11
Minnie Hanff 8.12
Brian Hanrahan 8.13
Otto Harbach 8.14
E. Y. 'Yip' Harburg 8.15
Gilbert Harding 8.16
Warren G. Harding 8.17
Godfrey Harold Hardy 8.18
Thomas Hardy 8.19
Maurice Evan Hare 8.20
Robertson Hare 8.21
W. F. Hargreaves 8.22
Lord Harlech (David Ormsby Gore) 8.23
Jimmy Harper, Will E. Haines, and Tommie Connor 8.24
Frank Harris (James Thomas Harris) 8.25
H. H. Harris 8.26
Lorenz Hart 8.27
Moss Hart and George Kaufman 8.28
L. P. Hartley 8.29
F. W. Harvey 8.30
Minnie Louise Haskins 8.31
Lord Haw-Haw 8.32
Ian Hay (John Hay Beith) 8.33
J. Milton Hayes 8.34
Lee Hazlewood 8.35
Denis Healey 8.36
Seamus Heaney 8.37
Edward Heath 8.38
Fred Heatherton 8.39
Robert A. Heinlein 8.40
Werner Heisenberg 8.41
Joseph Heller 8.42
Lillian Hellman 8.43
Sir Robert Helpmann 8.44
Ernest Hemingway 8.45
Arthur W. D. Henley 8.46
O. Henry (William Sydney Porter) 8.47
A. P. Herbert 8.48
Oliver Herford 8.49
Jerry Herman 8.50
June Hershey 8.51
Hermann Hesse 8.52
Gordon Hewart (Viscount Hewart) 8.53
Patricia Hewitt 8.54
Du Bose Heyward and Ira Gershwin 8.55
Sir Seymour Hicks 8.56
Jack Higgins (Henry Patterson) 8.57
Joe Hill 8.58
Pattie S. Hill 8.59
Sir Edmund Hillary 8.60
Fred Hillebrand 8.61
Lady Hillingdon 8.62
James Hilton 8.63
Alfred Hitchcock 8.64
Adolf Hitler 8.65
Ralph Hodgson 8.66
'Red' Hodgson 8.67
Eric Hoffer 8.68
Al Hoffman and Dick Manning 8.69
Gerard Hoffnung 8.70
Lancelot Hogben 8.71
Billie Holiday (Eleanor Fagan) and Arthur Herzog Jr. 8.72
Stanley Holloway 8.73
John H. Holmes 8.74
Lord Home (Baron Home of the Hirsel, formerly Sir Alec Douglas-Home) 8.75
Arthur Honegger 8.76
Herbert Hoover 8.77
Anthony Hope (Sir Anthony Hope Hawkins) 8.78
Bob Hope 8.79
Francis Hope 8.80
Laurence Hope (Adela Florence Nicolson) 8.81
Zilphia Horton 8.82
A. E. Housman 8.83
Sidney Howard 8.84
Elbert Hubbard 8.85
Frank McKinney ('Kin') Hubbard 8.86
L. Ron Hubbard 8.87
Howard Hughes Jr. 8.88
Jimmy Hughes and Frank Lake 8.89
Langston Hughes 8.90
Ted Hughes 8.91
Josephine Hull 8.92
Hubert Humphrey 8.93
Herman Hupfeld 8.94
Aldous Huxley 8.95
Sir Julian Huxley 8.96
I 9.0
Dolores Ibarruri ('La Pasionaria') 9.1
Henrik Ibsen 9.2
Harold L. Ickes 9.3
Eric Idle 9.4
Francis Iles (Anthony Berkeley Cox) 9.5
Ivan Illich 9.6
Charles Inge 9.7
William Ralph Inge (Dean Inge) 9.8
Eugne Ionesco 9.9
Weldon J. Irvine 9.10
Christopher Isherwood 9.11
J 10.0
Holbrook Jackson 10.1
Joe Jacobs 10.2
Mick Jagger and Keith Richard (Keith Richards) 10.3
Henry James 10.4
William James 10.5
Randall Jarrell 10.6
Douglas Jay 10.7
Sir James Jeans 10.8
Patrick Jenkin 10.9
Rt. Revd David Jenkins (Bishop of Durham) 10.10
Roy Jenkins (Baron Jenkins of Hillhead) 10.11
Paul Jennings 10.12
Jerome K. Jerome 10.13
William Jerome 10.14
C. E. M. Joad 10.15
Pope John XXIII (Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli) 10.16
Lyndon Baines Johnson 10.17
Philander Chase Johnson 10.18
Philip Johnson 10.19
Hanns Johst 10.20
Al Jolson 10.21
James Jones 10.22
LeRoi Jones 10.23
Erica Jong 10.24
Janis Joplin 10.25
Sir Keith Joseph 10.26
James Joyce 10.27
William Joyce (Lord Haw-Haw) 10.28
Jack Judge and Harry Williams 10.29
Carl Gustav Jung 10.30
K 11.0
Pauline Kael 11.1
Franz Kafka 11.2
Gus Kahn and Raymond B. Egan 11.3
Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby, Arthur Sheekman, and Nat Perrin 11.4
George S. Kaufman 11.5
George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart 11.6
George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind 11.7
Gerald Kaufman 11.8
Paul Kaufman and Mike Anthony 11.9
Patrick Kavanagh 11.10
Ted Kavanagh 11.11
Helen Keller 11.12
Jaan Kenbrovin and John William Kellette 11.13
Florynce Kennedy 11.14
Jimmy Kennedy 11.15
Jimmy Kennedy and Michael Carr 11.16
Jimmy Kennedy and Hugh Williams (Will Grosz) 11.17
John F. Kennedy 11.18
Joseph P. Kennedy 11.19
Robert F. Kennedy 11.20
Jack Kerouac 11.21
Jean Kerr 11.22
Joseph Kesselring 11.23
John Maynard Keynes (Baron Keynes) 11.24
Nikita Khrushchev 11.25
Joyce Kilmer 11.26
Lord Kilmuir (Sir David Maxwell Fyfe) 11.27
Martin Luther King 11.28
Stoddard King 11.29
David Kingsley, Dennis Lyons, and Peter Lovell-Davis 11.30
Hugh Kingsmill (Hugh Kingsmill Lunn) 11.31
Neil Kinnock 11.32
Rudyard Kipling 11.33
Henry Kissinger 11.34
Fred Kitchen 11.35
Lord Kitchener 11.36
Paul Klee 11.37
Charles Knight and Kenneth Lyle 11.38
Frederick Knott 11.39
Monsignor Ronald Knox 11.40
Arthur Koestler 11.41
Jiddu Krishnamurti 11.42
Kris Kristofferson and Fred Foster 11.43
Joseph Wood Krutch 11.44
Stanley Kubrick 11.45
Satish Kumar 11.46
L 12.0
Henry Labouchere 12.1
Fiorello La Guardia 12.2
R. D. Laing 12.3
Arthur J. Lamb 12.4
Constant Lambert 12.5
Giuseppe di Lampedusa 12.6
Sir Osbert Lancaster 12.7
Bert Lance 12.8
Andrew Lang 12.9
Julia Lang 12.10
Suzanne K. Langer 12.11
Ring Lardner 12.12
Philip Larkin 12.13
Sir Harry Lauder 12.14
Stan Laurel (Arthur Stanley Jefferson) 12.15
James Laver 12.16
Andrew Bonar Law 12.17
D. H. Lawrence 12.18
T. E. Lawrence 12.19
Sir Edmund Leach 12.20
Stephen Leacock 12.21
Timothy Leary 12.22
F. R. Leavis 12.23
Fran Lebowitz 12.24
Stanislaw Lec 12.25
John le Carr (David John Moore Cornwell) 12.26
Le Corbusier (Charles douard Jeanneret) 12.27
Harper Lee 12.28
Laurie Lee 12.29
Ernest Lehman 12.30
Tom Lehrer 12.31
Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller 12.32
Fred W. Leigh 12.33
Fred W. Leigh, Charles Collins, and Lily Morris 12.34
Fred W. Leigh and George Arthurs 12.35
Curtis E. LeMay 12.36
Lenin (Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov) 12.37
John Lennon 12.38
John Lennon and Paul McCartney 12.39
Dan Leno (George Galvin) 12.40
Alan Jay Lerner 12.41
Doris Lessing 12.42
Winifred Mary Letts 12.43
Oscar Levant 12.44
Ros Levenstein 12.45
Viscount Leverhulme (William Hesketh Lever) 12.46
Ada Leverson 12.47
Bernard Levin 12.48
Claude Lvi-Strauss 12.49
Cecil Day Lewis 12.50
C. S. Lewis 12.51
John Spedan Lewis 12.52
Percy Wyndham Lewis 12.53
Sam M. Lewis and Joe Young 12.54
Sinclair Lewis 12.55
Robert Ley 12.56
Liberace (Wladziu Valentino Liberace) 12.57
Beatrice Lillie 12.58
R. M. Lindner 12.59
Audrey Erskine Lindop 12.60
Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse 12.61
Vachel Lindsay 12.62
Eric Linklater 12.63
Art Linkletter 12.64
Walter Lippmann 12.65
Joan Littlewood and Charles Chilton 12.66
Maxim Litvinov 12.67
Ken Livingstone 12.68
Richard Llewellyn (Richard Dafydd Vivian Llewellyn Lloyd) 12.69
Jack Llewelyn-Davies 12.70
David Lloyd George (Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor) 12.71
David Lodge 12.72
Frank Loesser 12.73
Jack London (John Griffith London) 12.74
Alice Roosevelt Longworth 12.75
Frederick Lonsdale 12.76
Anita Loos 12.77
Frederico Garca Lorca 12.78
Konrad Lorenz 12.79
Joe Louis 12.80
Terry Lovelock 12.81
Robert Loveman 12.82
David Low 12.83
Amy Lowell 12.84
Robert Lowell 12.85
L. S. Lowry 12.86
Malcolm Lowry 12.87
E. V. Lucas 12.88
George Lucas 12.89
Clare Booth Luce 12.90
Joanna Lumley 12.91
Sir Edwin Lutyens 12.92
Rosa Luxemburg 12.93
Lady Lytton (Pamela Frances Audrey, Countess of Lytton) 12.94
M 13.0
Alexander McArthur and H. Kingsley Long 13.1
Charles MacArthur and Ben Hecht 13.2
General Douglas MacArthur 13.3
Dame Rose Macaulay 13.4
General Anthony McAuliffe 13.5
Sir Desmond MacCarthy 13.6
Joe McCarthy 13.7
Joseph McCarthy 13.8
Mary McCarthy 13.9
Paul McCartney 13.10
David McCord 13.11
Horace McCoy 13.12
John McCrae 13.13
Carson McCullers 13.14
Derek McCulloch 13.15
Hugh MacDiarmid (Christopher Murray Grieve) 13.16
Ramsay MacDonald 13.17
A. G. Macdonell 13.18
John McEnroe 13.19
Arthur McEwen 13.20
Roger McGough 13.21
Sir Ian MacGregor 13.22
Jimmy McGregor 13.23
Dennis McHarrie 13.24
Colin MacInnes 13.25
Claude McKay 13.26
Sir Compton Mackenzie 13.27
Joyce McKinney 13.28
Alexander Maclaren 13.29
Alistair Maclean 13.30
Archibald MacLeish 13.31
Irene Rutherford McLeod 13.32
Marshall McLuhan 13.33
Ed McMahon 13.34
Harold Macmillan (Lord Stockton) 13.35
Louis MacNeice 13.36
Salvador de Madariaga 13.37
Maurice Maeterlinck 13.38
John Gillespie Magee 13.39
Magnus Magnusson 13.40
Sir John Pentland Mahaffy 13.41
Gustav Mahler 13.42
Derek Mahon 13.43
Norman Mailer 13.44
Bernard Malamud 13.45
George Leigh Mallory 13.46
Andr Malraux 13.47
Lord Mancroft (Baron Mancroft) 13.48
Winnie Mandela 13.49
Osip Mandelstam 13.50
Herman J. Mankiewicz and Orson Welles 13.51
Joseph L. Mankiewicz 13.52
Thomas Mann 13.53
Katherine Mansfield (Kathleen Mansfield Beauchamp) 13.54
Mao Tse-Tung 13.55
Edwin Markham 13.56
Dewey 'Pigmeat' Markham 13.57
Johnny Marks 13.58
Don Marquis 13.59
Anthony Marriott and Alistair Foot 13.60
Arthur Marshall 13.61
Thomas R. Marshall 13.62
Dean Martin 13.63
Holt Marvell 13.64
Chico Marx 13.65
Groucho Marx 13.66
Queen Mary 13.67
Eric Maschwitz 13.68
John Masefield 13.69
Donald Mason 13.70
Sir James Mathew 13.71
Melissa Mathison 13.72
Henri Matisse 13.73
Reginald Maudling 13.74
W. Somerset Maugham 13.75
Bill Mauldin 13.76
James Maxton 13.77
John May 13.78
Percy Mayfield 13.79
Charles H. Mayo 13.80
Margaret Mead 13.81
Shepherd Mead 13.82
Hughes Mearns 13.83
Dame Nellie Melba (Helen Porter Mitchell) 13.84
H. L. Mencken 13.85
David Mercer 13.86
Johnny Mercer 13.87
Bob Merrill 13.88
Dixon Lanier Merritt 13.89
Viola Meynell 13.90
Princess Michael of Kent 13.91
George Mikes 13.92
Edna St Vincent Millay 13.93
Alice Duer Miller 13.94
Arthur Miller 13.95
Henry Miller 13.96
Jonathan Miller 13.97
Spike Milligan (Terence Alan Milligan) 13.98
A. J. Mills, Fred Godfrey, and Bennett Scott 13.99
Irving Mills 13.100
A. A. Milne 13.101
Lord Milner (Alfred, Viscount Milner) 13.102
Adrian Mitchell 13.103
Joni Mitchell 13.104
Margaret Mitchell 13.105
Jessica Mitford 13.106
Nancy Mitford 13.107
Addison Mizner 13.108
Wilson Mizner 13.109
Walter Mondale 13.110
William Cosmo Monkhouse 13.111
Harold Monro 13.112
Marilyn Monroe 13.113
C. E. Montague 13.114
Field-Marshal Montgomery (Viscount Montgomery of Alamein) 13.115
George Moore 13.116
Marianne Moore 13.117
Larry Morey 13.118
Robin Morgan 13.119
Christian Morgenstern 13.120
Christopher Morley 13.121
Lord Morley (John, Viscount Morley of Blackburn) 13.122
Desmond Morris 13.123
Herbert Morrison (Baron Morrison of Lambeth) 13.124
Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger, and John Densmore 13.125
R. F. Morrison 13.126
Dwight Morrow 13.127
John Mortimer 13.128
J. B. Morton ('Beachcomber') 13.129
Rogers Morton 13.130
Sir Oswald Mosley 13.131
Lord Louis Mountbatten (Viscount Mountbatten of Burma) 13.132
Lord Moynihan (Berkeley Moynihan, Baron Moynihan) 13.133
Robert Mugabe 13.134
Kitty Muggeridge 13.135
Malcolm Muggeridge 13.136
Edwin Muir 13.137
Herbert J. Muller 13.138
Ethel Watts Mumford, Oliver Herford, and Addison Mizner 13.139
Lewis Mumford 13.140
Sir Alfred Munnings 13.141
Richard Murdoch, and Kenneth Horne 13.142
C. W. Murphy and Will Letters 13.143
Ed Murphy 13.144
Fred Murray 13.145
Edward R. Murrow 13.146
Benito Mussolini 13.147
A. J. Muste 13.148
N 14.0
Vladimir Nabokov 14.1
Ralph Nader 14.2
Sarojini Naidu 14.3
Fridtjof Nansen 14.4
Ogden Nash 14.5
George Jean Nathan 14.6
Terry Nation 14.7
James Ball Naylor 14.8
Jawaharlal Nehru 14.9
Allan Nevins 14.10
Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse 14.11
Huey Newton 14.12
Vivian Nicholson 14.13
Sir Harold Nicolson 14.14
Reinhold Niebuhr 14.15
Carl Nielsen 14.16
Martin Niemller 14.17
Florence Nightingale 14.18
Richard Milhous Nixon 14.19
David Nobbs 14.20
Milton Nobles 14.21
Albert J. Nock 14.22
Frank Norman and Lionel Bart 14.23
Lord Northcliffe (Alfred Charles William Harmsworth, Viscount Northcliffe) 14.24
Jack Norworth 14.25
Alfred Noyes 14.26
Bill Nye (Edgar Wilson Nye) 14.27
O 15.0
Captain Lawrence Oates 15.1
Edna O'Brien 15.2
Flann O'Brien (Brian O'Nolan or O Nuallain) 15.3
Sean O'Casey 15.4
Edwin O'Connor 15.5
Sen O'Faolin 15.6
David Ogilvy 15.7
Geoffrey O'Hara 15.8
John O'Hara 15.9
Patrick O'Keefe 15.10
Chauncey Olcott and George Graff Jr. 15.11
Frederick Scott Oliver 15.12
Laurence Olivier (Baron Olivier of Brighton) 15.13
Frank Ward O'Malley 15.14
Mary O'Malley 15.15
Eugene O'Neill 15.16
Brian O'Nolan 15.17
J. Robert Oppenheimer 15.18
Susie Orbach 15.19
Baroness Orczy 15.20
David Ormsby Gore 15.21
Jos Ortega y Gasset 15.22
Joe Orton 15.23
George Orwell (Eric Blair) 15.24
John Osborne 15.25
Sir William Osler 15.26
Peter Demianovich Ouspensky 15.27
David Owen 15.28
Wilfred Owen 15.29
Oxford and Asquith, Countess of 15.30
Oxford and Asquith, Earl of 15.31
P 16.0
Vance Packard 16.1
William Tyler Page 16.2
Reginald Paget 16.3
Gerald Page-Wood 16.4
Revd Ian Paisley 16.5
Michael Palin 16.6
Norman Panama and Melvin Frank 16.7
Dame Christabel Pankhurst 16.8
Emmeline Pankhurst 16.9
Emmeline Pankhurst, Dame Christabel Pankhurst, and Annie Kenney 16.10
Charlie Parker 16.11
Dorothy Parker 16.12
Dorothy Parker, Alan Campbell, and Robert Carson 16.13
Ross Parker and Hugh Charles 16.14
C. Northcote Parkinson 16.15
'Banjo' Paterson (Andrew Barton Paterson) 16.16
Alan Paton 16.17
Norman Vincent Peale 16.18
Charles S. Pearce 16.19
Hesketh Pearson 16.20
Lester Pearson 16.21
Charles Pguy 16.22
Vladimir Peniakoff 16.23
William H. Penn 16.24
S. J. Perelman 16.25
S. J. Perelman, Will B. Johnstone, and Arthur Sheekman 16.26
Carl Perkins 16.27
Frances Perkins 16.28
Juan Pern 16.29
Ted Persons 16.30
Henri Philippe Ptain 16.31
Laurence Peter and Raymond Hull 16.32
Kim Philby (Harold Adrian Russell Philby) 16.33
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh 16.34
Morgan Phillips 16.35
Stephen Phillips 16.36
Eden Phillpotts 16.37
Pablo Picasso 16.38
Wilfred Pickles 16.39
Harold Pinter 16.40
Luigi Pirandello 16.41
Armand J. Piron 16.42
Robert Pirosh, George Seaton, and George Oppenheimer 16.43
Robert M. Pirsig 16.44
Walter B. Pitkin 16.45
Ruth Pitter 16.46
Sylvia Plath 16.47
William Plomer 16.48
Henri Poincar 16.49
Georges Pompidou 16.50
Arthur Ponsonby (first Baron Ponsonby of Shulbrede) 16.51
Sir Karl Popper 16.52
Cole Porter 16.53
Beatrix Potter 16.54
Gillie Potter (Hugh William Peel) 16.55
Stephen Potter 16.56
Ezra Pound 16.57
Anthony Powell 16.58
Enoch Powell 16.59
Sandy Powell 16.60
Vince Powell and Harry Driver 16.61
Jacques Prvert 16.62
J. B. Priestley 16.63
V. S. Pritchett 16.64
Marcel Proust 16.65
Olive Higgins Prouty 16.66
John Pudney 16.67
Mario Puzo 16.68
Q 17.0
Q 17.1
Salvatore Quasimodo 17.2
Peter Quennell 17.3
Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch (often used the pseudonym 'Q') 17.4
R 18.0
James Rado and Gerome Ragni 18.1
John Rae 18.2
Milton Rakove 18.3
Sir Walter Raleigh 18.4
Srinivasa Ramanujan 18.5
John Crowe Ransom 18.6
Arthur Ransome 18.7
Frederic Raphael 18.8
Terence Rattigan 18.9
Gwen Raverat 18.10
Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank 18.11
Ted Ray (Charles Olden) 18.12
Sam Rayburn 18.13
Sir Herbert Read 18.14
Nancy Reagan 18.15
Ronald Reagan 18.16
Erell Reaves 18.17
Henry Reed 18.18
John Reed 18.19
Max Reger 18.20
Charles A. Reich 18.21
Keith Reid and Gary Brooker 18.22
Erich Maria Remarque 18.23
Dr Montague John Rendall 18.24
James Reston 18.25
David Reuben 18.26
Charles Revson 18.27
Malvina Reynolds 18.28
Quentin Reynolds 18.29
Cecil Rhodes 18.30
Jean Rhys (Ella Gwendolen Rees Williams) 18.31
Grantland Rice 18.32
Tim Rice 18.33
Mandy Rice-Davies 18.34
Dicky Richards 18.35
Frank Richards (Charles Hamilton) 18.36
I. A. Richards 18.37
Sir Ralph Richardson 18.38
Hans Richter 18.39
Rainer Maria Rilke 18.40
Hal Riney 18.41
Robert L. Ripley 18.42
Csar Ritz 18.43
Joan Riviere 18.44
Lord Robbins (Lionel Charles Robbins, Baron Robbins) 18.45
Leo Robin 18.46
Leo Robin and Ralph Rainger 18.47
Edwin Arlington Robinson 18.48
Rt. Rev John Robinson (Bishop of Woolwich) 18.49
John D. Rockefeller 18.50
Knute Rockne 18.51
Cecil Rodd 18.52
Gene Roddenberry 18.53
Theodore Roethke 18.54
Will Rogers 18.55
Frederick William Rolfe ('Baron Corvo') 18.56
Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli 18.57
Eleanor Roosevelt 18.58
Franklin D. Roosevelt 18.59
Theodore Roosevelt 18.60
Arthur Rose and Douglas Furber 18.61
Billy Rose 18.62
Billy Rose and Marty Bloom 18.63
Billy Rose and Willie Raskin 18.64
William Rose 18.65
Lord Rosebery (Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery) 18.66
Ethel Rosenberg and Julius Rosenberg 18.67
Alan S. C. Ross 18.68
Harold Ross 18.69
Sir Ronald Ross 18.70
Jean Rostand 18.71
Leo Rosten 18.72
Philip Roth 18.73
Dan Rowan and Dick Martin 18.74
Helen Rowland 18.75
Richard Rowland 18.76
Maude Royden 18.77
Naomi Royde-Smith 18.78
Paul Alfred Rubens 18.79
Damon Runyon 18.80
Dean Rusk 18.81
Bertrand Russell (Bertrand Arthur William, third Earl Russell) 18.82
Dora Russell (Countess Russell) 18.83
George William Russell 18.84
John Russell 18.85
Ernest Rutherford (Baron Rutherford of Nelson) 18.86
Gilbert Ryle 18.87
S 19.0
Rafael Sabatini 19.1
Oliver Sacks 19.2
Victoria ('Vita') Sackville-West 19.3
Franoise Sagan 19.4
Antoine de Saint-Exupry 19.5
George Saintsbury 19.6
Saki (Hector Hugh Munro) 19.7
J. D. Salinger 19.8
Lord Salisbury (Robert Arthur James Gascoyne-Cecil, fifth Marquess of Salisbury) 19.9
Anthony Sampson 19.10
Lord Samuel (Herbert Louis, first Viscount Samuel) 19.11
Carl Sandburg 19.12
Henry 'Red' Sanders 19.13
William Sansom 19.14
George Santayana 19.15
'Sapper' (Herman Cyril MacNeile) 19.16
John Singer Sargent 19.17
Leslie Sarony 19.18
Nathalie Sarraute 19.19
Jean-Paul Sartre 19.20
Siegfried Sassoon 19.21
Erik Satie 19.22
Telly Savalas 19.23
Dorothy L. Sayers 19.24
Al Scalpone 19.25
Hugh Scanlon (Baron Scanlon) 19.26
Arthur Scargill 19.27
Age Scarpelli, Luciano Vincenzoni, and Sergio Leone 19.28
Moritz Schlick 19.29
Artur Schnabel 19.30
Arnold Schoenberg 19.31
Budd Schulberg 19.32
Diane B. Schulder 19.33
E. F. Schumacher 19.34
Albert Schweitzer 19.35
Kurt Schwitters 19.36
Martin Scorsese and Mardik Martin 19.37
C. P. Scott 19.38
Paul Scott 19.39
Robert Falcon Scott 19.40
Florida Scott-Maxwell 19.41
Alan Seeger 19.42
Pete Seeger 19.43
Erich Segal 19.44
W. C. Sellar and R. J. Yeatman 19.45
Robert W. Service 19.46
Anne Sexton 19.47
James Seymour and Rian James 19.48
Peter Shaffer 19.49
Eileen Shanahan 19.50
Bill Shankly 19.51
Tom Sharpe 19.52
George Bernard Shaw 19.53
Sir Hartley Shawcross (Baron Shawcross) 19.54
Patrick Shaw-Stewart 19.55
Gloria Shayne 19.56
E. A. Sheppard 19.57
Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart 19.58
Emanuel Shinwell (Baron Shinwell) 19.59
Jean Sibelius 19.60
Walter Sickert 19.61
Maurice Sigler and Al Hoffman 19.62
Alan Sillitoe 19.63
Frank Silver and Irving Cohn 19.64
Georges Simenon 19.65
James Simmons 19.66
Paul Simon 19.67
Harold Simpson 19.68
Kirke Simpson 19.69
N. F. Simpson 19.70
Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake 19.71
C. H. Sisson 19.72
Dame Edith Sitwell 19.73
Sir Osbert Sitwell 19.74
'Red Skelton' (Richard Skelton) 19.75
B. F. Skinner 19.76
Elizabeth Smart 19.77
Alfred Emanuel Smith 19.78
Sir Cyril Smith 19.79
Dodie Smith 19.80
Edgar Smith 19.81
F. E. Smith (Earl of Birkenhead) 19.82
Ian Smith 19.83
Logan Pearsall Smith 19.84
Stevie Smith (Florence Margaret Smith) 19.85
John Snagge 19.86
C. P. Snow (Baron Snow of Leicester) 19.87
Philip Snowden (Viscount Snowden) 19.88
Alexander Solzhenitsyn 19.89
Anastasio Somoza 19.90
Stephen Sondheim 19.91
Susan Sontag 19.92
Donald Soper (Baron Soper) 19.93
Charles Hamilton Sorley 19.94
Henry D. Spalding 19.95
Muriel Spark 19.96
John Sparrow 19.97
Countess Spencer (Raine Spencer) 19.98
Sir Stanley Spencer 19.99
Stephen Spender 19.100
Oswald Spengler 19.101
Steven Spielberg 19.102
Dr Benjamin Spock 19.103
William Archibald Spooner 19.104
Sir Cecil Spring Rice 19.105
Bruce Springsteen 19.106
Sir J. C. Squire 19.107
Joseph Stalin (Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili) 19.108
Charles E. Stanton 19.109
Frank L. Stanton 19.110
Dame Freya Stark 19.111
Enid Starkie 19.112
Christina Stead 19.113
Sir David Steel 19.114
Lincoln Steffens 19.115
Gertrude Stein 19.116
John Steinbeck 19.117
Gloria Steinem 19.118
James Stephens 19.119
Andrew B. Sterling 19.120
Wallace Stevens 19.121
Adlai Stevenson 19.122
Anne Stevenson 19.123
Caskie Stinnett 19.124
Rt. Revd Mervyn Stockwood 19.125
Tom Stoppard 19.126
Lytton Strachey 19.127
Igor Stravinsky 19.128
Simeon Strunsky 19.129
G. A. Studdert Kennedy 19.130
Terry Sullivan 19.131
Arthur Hays Sulzberger 19.132
Edith Summerskill 19.133
Jacqueline Susann (Mrs Irving Mansfield) 19.134
Hannen Swaffer 19.135
Herbert Bayard Swope 19.136
Eric Sykes and Max Bygraves 19.137
John Millington Synge 19.138
Thomas Szasz 19.139
George Szell 19.140
Albert von Szent-Gyrgyi 19.141
T 20.0
Sir Rabindranath Tagore 20.1
Nellie Talbot 20.2
S. G. Tallentyre (E. Beatrice Hall) 20.3
Booth Tarkington 20.4
A. J. P. Taylor 20.5
Bert Leston Taylor 20.6
Norman Tebbit 20.7
Archbishop William Temple 20.8
A. S. J. Tessimond 20.9
Margaret Thatcher 20.10
Sam Theard and Fleecie Moore 20.11
Diane Thomas 20.12
Dylan Thomas 20.13
Edward Thomas 20.14
Gwyn Thomas 20.15
Francis Thompson 20.16
Hunter S. Thompson 20.17
Lord Thomson (Roy Herbert Thomson, Baron Thomson of Fleet) 20.18
Jeremy Thorpe 20.19
James Thurber 20.20
Paul Tillich 20.21
Dion Titheradge 20.22
Alvin Toffler 20.23
J. R. R. Tolkien 20.24
Nicholas Tomalin 20.25
Barry Took and Marty Feldman 20.26
Sue Townsend 20.27
Pete Townshend 20.28
Polly Toynbee 20.29
Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree 20.30
Herbert Trench 20.31
G. M. Trevelyan 20.32
Lionel Trilling 20.33
Tommy Trinder 20.34
Leon Trotsky (Lev Davidovich Bronstein) 20.35
Harry S. Truman 20.36
Barbara W. Tuchman 20.37
Sophie Tucker 20.38
Walter James Redfern Turner 20.39
Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens) 20.40
Kenneth Tynan 20.41
U 21.0
Miguel de Unamuno 21.1
John Updike 21.2
Sir Peter Ustinov 21.3
V 22.0
Paul Valry 22.1
Paul Vance and Lee Pockriss 22.2
Vivien van Damm 22.3
Laurens van der Post 22.4
Bartolomeo Vanzetti 22.5
Harry Vaughan 22.6
Ralph Vaughan Williams 22.7
Thorstein Veblen 22.8
Gore Vidal 22.9
King Vidor 22.10
Jos Antonio Viera Gallo 22.11
W 23.0
John Wain 23.1
Jerry Wald and Richard Macaulay 23.2
Prince of Wales 23.3
Arthur Waley 23.4
Edgar Wallace 23.5
George Wallace 23.6
Henry Wallace 23.7
Graham Wallas 23.8
Sir Hugh Walpole 23.9
Andy Warhol 23.10
Jack Warner (Horace Waters) 23.11
Ned Washington 23.12
Sir William Watson 23.13
Evelyn Waugh 23.14
Frederick Weatherly 23.15
Beatrice Webb 23.16
Geoffrey Webb and Edward J. Mason 23.17
Jim Webb 23.18
Sidney Webb (Baron Passfield) 23.19
Sidney Webb (Baron Passfield) and Beatrice Webb 23.20
Simone Weil 23.21
Johnny Weissmuller 23.22
Thomas Earle Welby 23.23
Fay Weldon 23.24
Colin Welland 23.25
Orson Welles 23.26
H. G. Wells 23.27
Arnold Wesker 23.28
Mae West 23.29
Dame Rebecca West (Cicily Isabel Fairfield) 23.30
Edith Wharton 23.31
E. B. White 23.32
T. H. White 23.33
Alfred North Whitehead 23.34
Bertrand Whitehead 23.35
Katharine Whitehorn 23.36
George Whiting 23.37
Gough Whitlam 23.38
Charlotte Whitton 23.39
William H. Whyte 23.40
Anna Wickham (Edith Alice Mary Harper) 23.41
Richard Wilbur 23.42
Billy Wilder (Samuel Wilder) 23.43
Billy Wilder and I. A. L. Diamond 23.44
Thornton Wilder 23.45
Kaiser Wilhelm II 23.46
Geoffrey Willans and Ronald Searle 23.47
Harry Williams 23.48
Kenneth Williams 23.49
Tennessee Williams (Thomas Lanier Williams) 23.50
William Carlos Williams 23.51
Ted Willis (Edward Henry Willis, Baron Willis of Chislehurst) 23.52
Wendell Willkie 23.53
Angus Wilson 23.54
Charles E. Wilson 23.55
Edmund Wilson 23.56
Harold Wilson (Baron Wilson of Rievaulx) 23.57
McLandburgh Wilson 23.58
Sandy Wilson 23.59
Woodrow Wilson 23.60
Robb Wilton 23.61
Arthur Wimperis 23.62
Owen Wister 23.63
Ludwig Wittgenstein 23.64
P. G. Wodehouse 23.65
Humbert Wolfe 23.66
Thomas Wolfe 23.67
Tom Wolfe 23.68
Woodbine Willie 23.69
Lt.-Commander Thomas Woodroofe 23.70
Harry Woods 23.71
Virginia Woolf 23.72
Alexander Woollcott 23.73
Frank Lloyd Wright 23.74
Woodrow Wyatt (Baron Wyatt) 23.75
Laurie Wyman 23.76
George Wyndham 23.77
Tammy Wynette (Wynette Pugh) and Billy Sherrill 23.78
Y 24.0
R. J. Yeatman 24.1
W. B. Yeats 24.2
Jack Yellen 24.3
Michael Young 24.4
Waldemar Young et al. 24.5
Z 25.0
Darryl F. Zanuck 25.1
Emiliano Zapata 25.2
Frank Zappa 25.3
Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale 25.4
Ronald L. Ziegler 25.5
Grigori Zinoviev 25.6
1.0 A
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1.1 Bud Abbott and Lou Costello (Louis Francis Cristillo)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Bud Abbott 1895-1974
Lou Costello 1906-1959
Abbott: Now, on the St Louis team we have Who's on first, What's on
second, I Don't Know is on third.
Costello: That's what I want to find out.
Naughty Nineties (1945 film), in R. J. Anobile Who's On First? (1973)
p. 224
1.2 Dannie Abse
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1923-
I know the colour rose, and it is lovely,
But not when it ripens in a tumour;
And healing greens, leaves and grass, so springlike,
In limbs that fester are not springlike.
A Small Desperation (1968) "Pathology of Colours"
So in the simple blessing of a rainbow,
In the bevelled edge of a sunlit mirror,
I have seen visible, Death's artifact
Like a soldier's ribbon on a tunic tacked.
A Small Desperation (1968) "Pathology of Colours"
That Greek one then is my hero, who watched the bath water rise above his
navel and rushed out naked, "I found it, I found it" into the street in
all his shining, and forgot that others would only stare at his genitals.
Walking under Water (1952) "Letter to Alex Comfort"
1.3 Goodman Ace
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1899-1982
Jane and I got mixed up with a television show--or as we call it back east
here: TV--a clever contraction derived from the words Terrible Vaudeville.
However, it is our latest medium--we call it a medium because nothing's
well done. It was discovered, I suppose you've heard, by a man named
Fulton Berle, and it has already revolutionized social grace by cutting
down parlour conversation to two sentences: "What's on television?" and
"Good night."
Letter to Groucho Marx, in The Groucho Letters (1967) p. 114
1.4 Dean Acheson
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1893-1971
The first requirement of a statesman is that he be dull. This is not
always easy to achieve.
In Observer 21 June 1970
I will undoubtedly have to seek what is happily known as gainful
employment, which I am glad to say does not describe holding public
office.
In Time 22 Dec. 1952
Great Britain has lost an empire and has not yet found a role.
Speech at the Military Academy, West Point, 5 Dec. 1962, in Vital
Speeches 1 Jan. 1963, p. 163
A memorandum is written not to inform the reader but to protect the
writer.
In Wall Street Journal 8 Sept. 1977
1.5 J. R. Ackerley
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1896-1967
I was born in 1896 and my parents were married in 1919.
My Father and Myself (1968) ch. 1
1.6 Douglas Adams
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1952-
Don't panic.
Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979) preface
"Life," said Marvin, "don't talk to me about Life."
Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979) ch. 11
And of course I've got this terrible pain in all the diodes down my left
hand side.
Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979) ch. 13
The Answer to the Great Question Of....Life, the Universe and
Everything....Is....Forty-two.
Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979) ch. 27
"The first ten million years were the worst," said Marvin, "and the second
ten million years, they were the worst too. The third ten million I didn't
enjoy at all. After that I went into a bit of a decline."
Restaurant at the End of the Universe (1980) ch. 18
1.7 Frank Adams and Will M. Hough
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
I wonder who's kissing her now.
Title of song (1909)
1.8 Franklin P. Adams
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1881-1960
When the political columnists say "Every thinking man" they mean
themselves, and when candidates appeal to "Every intelligent voter" they
mean everybody who is going to vote for them.
Nods and Becks (1944) p. 3
Years ago we discovered the exact point, the dead centre of middle age. It
occurs when you are too young to take up golf and too old to rush up to
the net.
Nods and Becks (1944) p. 53
The trouble with this country is that there are too many politicians who
believe, with a conviction based on experience, that you can fool all of
the people all of the time.
Nods and Becks (1944) p. 74
Elections are won by men and women chiefly because most people vote
against somebody rather than for somebody.
Nods and Becks (1944) p. 206
1.9 Henry Brooks Adams
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1838-1918
Politics, as a practice, whatever its professions, has always been the
systematic organization of hatreds.
Education of Henry Adams (1907) ch. 1
A friend in power is a friend lost.
Education of Henry Adams (1907) ch. 7
Chaos often breeds life, when order breeds habit.
Education of Henry Adams (1907) ch. 16
One friend in a lifetime is much; two are many; three are hardly possible.
Friendship needs a certain parallelism of life, a community of thought, a
rivalry of aim.
Education of Henry Adams (1907) ch. 20
What one knows is, in youth, of little moment; they know enough who know
how to learn.
Education of Henry Adams (1907) ch. 21
Practical politics consists in ignoring facts.
Education of Henry Adams (1907) ch. 22
Some day science may have the existence of mankind in its power, and the
human race commit suicide, by blowing up the world.
Letter 11 Apr. 1862, in Letters of Henry Adams (1982) vol. 1, p. 290
1.10 Harold Adamson
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1906-1980
Comin' in on a wing and a pray'r.
Title of song (1943)
1.11 George Ade
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1866-1944
"Whom are you?" he asked, for he had attended business college.
Chicago Record 16 Mar. 1898, "The Steel Box"
Anybody can Win, unless there happens to be a Second Entry.
Fables in Slang (1900) p. 133
After being Turned Down by numerous Publishers, he had decided to write
for posterity.
Fables in Slang (1900) p. 158
If it were not for the presents, an elopement would be preferable.
Forty Modern Fables (1901) p. 218
R-E-M-O-R-S-E!
Those dry Martinis did the work for me;
Last night at twelve I felt immense,
Today I feel like thirty cents.
My eyes are bleared, my coppers hot,
I'll try to eat, but I cannot.
It is no time for mirth and laughter,
The cold, gray dawn of the morning after.
Sultan of Sulu (1903) act 2, p. 63
1.12 Konrad Adenauer
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1876-1967
A thick skin is a gift from God.
In New York Times 30 Dec. 1959, p. 5
1.13 Alfred Adler
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1870-1937
It is always easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.
In Phyllis Bottome Alfred Adler (1939) p. 76
The truth is often a terrible weapon of aggression. It is possible to lie,
and even to murder, for the truth.
Problems of Neurosis (1929) ch. 2
1.14 Polly Adler
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1900-1962
A house is not a home.
Title of book (1954)
1.15 AE (A.E., ) (George William Russell)
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1867-1935
In ancient shadows and twilights
Where childhood had strayed,
The world's great sorrows were born
And its heroes were made.
In the lost boyhood of Judas
Christ was betrayed.
Vale and Other Poems (1931) "Germinal"
1.16 Herbert Agar
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1897-1980
The truth which makes men free is for the most part the truth which men
prefer not to hear.
Time for Greatness (1942) ch. 7
1.17 James Agate
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1877-1947
I don't know very much, but what I do know I know better than anybody, and
I don't want to argue about it. I know what I think about an actor or an
actress, and am not interested in what anybody else thinks. My mind is not
a bed to be made and re-made.
Ego 6 (1944) 9 June 1943
1.18 Spiro T. Agnew
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1918-
I didn't say I wouldn't go into ghetto areas. I've been in many of them
and to some extent I would have to say this: If you've seen one city slum
you've seen them all.
In Detroit Free Press 19 Oct. 1968
A spirit of national masochism prevails, encouraged by an effete corps of
impudent snobs who characterize themselves as intellectuals.
Speech in New Orleans, 19 Oct. 1969, in Frankly Speaking (1970) ch. 3
1.19 Max Aitken
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See Lord Beaverbrook (2.35)
1.20 Zo Akins
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1886-1958
The Greeks had a word for it.
Title of play (1930)
1.21 Alain (mile-Auguste Chartier)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1868-1951
Rien n'est plus dangereux qu'une ide,quand on n'a qu'une ide.
Nothing is more dangerous than an idea, when you have only one idea.
Propos sur la religion (Remarks on Religion, 1938) no. 74
1.22 Edward Albee
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1928-
Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Title of play (1962). Cf. Frank E. Churchill
I have a fine sense of the ridiculous, but no sense of humour.
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962) act 1
1.23 Richard Aldington
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1892-1962
Patriotism is a lively sense of collective responsibility. Nationalism is
a silly cock crowing on its own dunghill.
Colonel's Daughter (1931) pt. 1, ch. 6
1.24 Brian Aldiss
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1925-
Keep violence in the mind
Where it belongs.
Barefoot in the Head (1969) (last lines of concluding poem "Charteris")
1.25 Nelson Algren
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1909-
Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat at a place called
Mom's. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own.
In Newsweek 2 July 1956
A walk on the wild side.
Title of novel (1956)
I got a glimpse into the uses of a certain kind of criticism this past
summer at a writers' conference into how the avocation of assessing the
failures of better men can be turned into a comfortable livelihood,
providing you back it up with a Ph.D. I saw how it was possible to gain a
chair of literature on no qualification other than persistence in nipping
the heels of Hemingway, Faulkner, and Steinbeck. I know, of course, that
there are true critics, one or two. For the rest all I can say is, Deal
around me.
In Malcolm Cowley (ed.) Writers at Work (1958) 1st Ser. p. 222
1.26 Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1942-
Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.
Catch-phrase used from circa 1964, in G. Sullivan Cassius Clay Story
(1964) ch. 8
I'm the greatest.
Catch-phrase used from 1962, in Louisville Times 16 Nov. 1962
1.27 Fred Allen (John Florence Sullivan)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1894-1956
California is a fine place to live--if you happen to be an orange.
American Magazine Dec. 1945, p. 120
Hollywood is a place where people from Iowa mistake each other for stars.
In Maurice Zolotow No People like Show People (1951) ch. 8
Committee--a group of men who individually can do nothing but as a group
decide that nothing can be done.
In Laurence J. Peter Quotations for our Time (1978) p. 120
1.28 Woody Allen (Allen Stewart Konigsberg)
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1935-
It's not that I'm afraid to die. I just don't want to be there when it
happens.
Death (1975) p. 63
Is sex dirty? Only if it's done right.
Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Sex (1972 film)
If it turns out that there is a God, I don't think that he's evil. But the
worst that you can say about him is that basically he's an underachiever.
Love and Death (1975 film)
The lion and the calf shall lie down together but the calf won't get much
sleep.
New Republic 31 Aug. 1974 "The Scrolls"
Not only is there no God, but try getting a plumber on weekends.
New Yorker 27 Dec. 1969 "My Philosophy"
If only God would give me some clear sign! Like making a large deposit in
my name at a Swiss bank.
New Yorker 5 Nov. 1973 "Selections from the Allen Notebooks"
On bisexuality: It immediately doubles your chances for a date on Saturday
night.
New York Times 1 Dec. 1975, p. 33
More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path
leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction.
Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.
Side Effects (1980) "My Speech to the Graduates"
Take the money and run.
Title of film (1968)
On the plus side, death is one of the few things that can be done as
easily lying down.
Without Feathers (1976) "Early Essays"
Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons.
Without Feathers (1976) "Early Essays"
My one regret in life is that I am not someone else.
Epigraph to Eric Lax Woody Allen and his Comedy (1975)
And my parents finally realize that I'm kidnapped and they snap into
action immediately: They rent out my room.
In Eric Lax Woody Allen and his Comedy (1975) ch. 1
I don't want to achieve immortality through my work....I want to achieve
it through not dying.
In Eric Lax Woody Allen and his Comedy (1975) ch. 12
It was partially my fault that we got divorced.... I tended to place my
wife under a pedestal.
At night-club in Chicago, Mar. 1964, recorded on Woody Allen Volume Two
(Colpix CP 488) side 1, band 6
I must say...a fast word about oral contraception. I asked a girl to go
to bed with me and she said "no."
At night-club in Washington, Apr. 1965, recorded on Woody Allen Volume Two
(Colpix CP 488) side 4, band 6
1.29 Woody Allen (Allen Stewart Konigsberg) and Marshall Brickman
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Woody Allen 1935-
Marshall Brickman 1941-
That [sex] was the most fun I ever had without laughing.
Annie Hall (1977 film)
Don't knock masturbation. It's sex with someone I love.
Annie Hall (1977 film)
I feel that life is--is divided up into the horrible and the miserable.
Annie Hall (1977 film)
My brain? It's my second favourite organ.
Sleeper (1973 film)
I'm not the heroic type, really. I was beaten up by Quakers.
Sleeper (1973 film)
1.30 Margery Allingham
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1904-1966
Once sex rears its ugly 'ead it's time to steer clear.
Flowers for the Judge (1936) ch. 4
1.31 Joseph Alsop
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Gratitude, like love, is never a dependable international emotion.
In Observer 30 Nov. 1952
1.32 Robert Altman
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1922-
After all, what's a cult? It just means not enough people to make a
minority.
In Guardian 11 Apr. 1981
1.33 Leo Amery
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1873-1955
I will quote certain other words. I do it with great reluctance, because I
am speaking of those who are old friends and associates of mine, but they
are words which, I think, are applicable to the present situation. This is
what Cromwell said to the Long Parliament when he thought it was no longer
fit to conduct the affairs of the nation: "You have sat too long here for
any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with
you. In the name of God, go."
Hansard 7 May 1940, col. 1150. Cf. Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (1979)
169:26
Speak for England.
Said to Arthur Greenwood in House of Commons, 2 Sept. 1939, in L. Amery
My Political Life (1955) vol. 3, p. 324
For twenty years he [H. H. Asquith] has held a season-ticket on the line
of least resistance and has gone wherever the train of events has carried
him, lucidly justifying his position at whatever point he has happened to
find himself.
Quarterly Review July 1914, p. 276
1.34 Kingsley Amis
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1922-
The delusion that there are thousands of young people about who are
capable of benefiting from university training, but have somehow failed to
find their way there, is...a necessary component of the expansionist
case....More will mean worse.
Encounter July 1960
The point about white Burgundies is that I hate them myself. I take
whatever my wine supplier will let me have at a good price (which I would
never dream of doing with any other drinkable). I enjoyed seeing those
glasses of Chablis or Pouilly Fuiss, so closely resembling a blend of
cold chalk soup and alum cordial with an additive or two to bring it to
the colour of children's pee, being peered and sniffed at, rolled round
the shrinking tongue and forced down somehow by parties of young
technology dons from Cambridge or junior television producers and their
girls.
The Green Man (1969) ch. 1
Dixon...tried to flail his features into some sort of response to humour.
Mentally, however, he was making a different face and promising himself
he'd make it actually when next alone. He'd draw his lower lip in under
his top teeth and by degrees retract his chin as far as possible, all this
while dilating his eyes and nostrils. By these means he would, he was
confident, cause a deep dangerous flush to suffuse his face.
Lucky Jim (1953) ch. 1
Alun's life was coming to consist more and more exclusively of being told
at dictation speed what he knew.
The Old Devils (1986) ch. 7
Outside every fat man there was an even fatter man trying to close in.
One Fat Englishman (1963) ch. 3. See also Cyril Connolly (3.85) and
George Orwell (15.24)
He was of the faith chiefly in the sense that the church he currently did
not attend was Catholic.
One Fat Englishman (1963) ch. 8
1.35 Maxwell Anderson
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1888-1959
But it's a long, long while
From May to December;
And the days grow short
When you reach September.
September Song (1938 song; music by Kurt Weill)
1.36 Maxwell Anderson and Lawrence Stallings
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Maxwell Anderson 1888-1959
Lawrence Stallings 1894-1968
What price glory?
Title of play (1924)
1.37 Robert Anderson
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1917-
All you're supposed to do is every once in a while give the boys a little
tea and sympathy.
Tea and Sympathy (1957) act 1
1.38 James Anderton
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1932-
God works in mysterious ways. Given my love of God and my belief in God
and in Jesus Christ, I have to accept that I may well be used by God in
this way [as a prophet].
In radio interview, 18 Jan. 1987, in Daily Telegraph 19 Jan. 1987
Everywhere I go I see increasing evidence of people swirling about in a
human cesspit of their own making.
Speech at seminar on AIDS, 11 Dec. 1986, in Guardian 12 Dec. 1986
1.39 Sir Norman Angell
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1872-1967
The great illusion.
Title of book (1910), first published as "Europe's optical illusion"
(1909), on the futility of war
1.40 Maya Angelou (Maya Johnson)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1928-
I know why the caged bird sings.
Title of book (1969), taken from the last line of "Sympathy" by Paul
Laurence Dunbar in Lyrics of Hearthside (1899). Cf. Oxford Dictionary of
Quotations (1979) 567:10
1.41 Paul Anka
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1941-
And now the end is near
And so I face the final curtain,
My friend, I'll say it clear,
I'll state my case of which I'm certain.
I've lived a life that's full, I've travelled each and ev'ry highway
And more, much more than this. I did it my way.
My Way (1969 song; music by Claude Franois and Jacques Revaux)
1.42 Princess Anne (HRH the Princess Royal)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1950-
It could be said that the Aids pandemic is a classic own-goal scored by
the human race against itself.
In Daily Telegraph 27 Jan. 1988
1.43 Anonymous
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Access--your flexible friend.
Advertising slogan for Access credit cards, 1981 onwards, in Nigel Rees
Slogans (1982) p. 91
All the way with LBJ.
US Democratic Party campaign slogan, in Washington Post 4 June 1960
American Express?...That'll do nicely, sir.
Advertisement for American Express credit card, 1970s, in F. Jenkins
Advertising (1985) ch. 1
Arbeit macht frei.
Work liberates.
Words inscribed on the gates of Dachau concentration camp, 1933
Australians wouldn't give a XXXX for anything else.
Advertisement for Castlemaine lager, 1986 onwards, in Philip Kleinman The
Saatchi and Saatchi Story (1987) ch. 5
Ban the bomb.
US anti-nuclear slogan, 1953 onwards, adopted by the Campaign for Nuclear
Disarmament
A bayonet is a weapon with a worker at each end.
British pacifist slogan (1940)
The best defence against the atom bomb is not to be there when it goes
off.
Contributor to British Army Journal, in Observer 20 Feb. 1949
Better red than dead.
Slogan of nuclear disarmament campaigners, late 1950s
Bigamy is having one husband too many. Monogamy is the same.
In Erica Jong Fear of Flying (1973) ch. 1 (epigraph)
A bigger bang for a buck.
Description of Charles E. Wilson's defence policy, in Newsweek 22 Mar.
1954
Black is beautiful.
Slogan of American civil rights campaigners in the mid-1960s, cited in
Newsweek 11 July 1966
Burn, baby, burn.
Black extremist slogan used in Los Angeles riots, August 1965, in Los
Angeles Times 15 Aug 1965, p. 1
The butler did it!
In Nigel Rees Sayings of the Century (1984) p. 45 (as a solution for
detective stories. Rees cannot trace the origin of the phrase, but he
quotes a correspondent who recalls hearing it at a cinema circa 1916)
A camel is a horse designed by a committee.
In Financial Times 31 Jan. 1976
Can't act. Slightly bald. Also dances.
Studio official's comment on Fred Astaire, in Bob Thomas Astaire (1985)
ch. 3
Can you tell Stork from butter?
Advertisement for Stork margarine, from circa 1956
Careless talk costs lives.
World War II publicity slogan, in J. Darracott and B. Loftus Second World
War Posters (1972) p. 28
Coughs and sneezes spread diseases. Trap the germs in your handkerchief.
1942 health slogan, in J. Darracott and B. Loftus Second World War
Posters (1972) p. 19
[Death is] nature's way of telling you to slow down.
Newsweek, 25 Apr. 1960, p. 70
Do not fold, spindle or mutilate in any way.
1950s instruction on punched cards, found in various forms circa 1935
onwards
Don't ask a man to drink and drive.
UK road safety slogan, from 1964
Don't die of ignorance.
Slogan used in AIDS publicity campaign, 1987: see The Times 9 and 13 Jan.
1987
Ein Reich, ein Volk, ein Fhrer.
One realm, one people, one leader.
Nazi Party slogan, early 1930s
Even your closest friends won't tell you.
US advertisement for Listerine mouthwash, in Woman's Home Companion Nov.
1923, p. 63
Every picture tells a story.
Advertisement for Doan's Backache Kidney Pills, in Daily Mail 26 Feb.
1904
Expletive deleted.
Submission of Recorded Presidential Conversations to the Committee on the
Judiciary of the House of Representatives by President Richard M. Nixon 30
Apr. 1974, app. 1, p. 2
Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to
leap tall buildings at a single bound! Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird!
It's a plane! It's Superman! Yes, it's Superman! Strange visitor from
another planet, who came to earth with powers and abilities far beyond
those of mortal men. Superman! Who can change the course of mighty rivers,
bend steel with his bare hands, and who--disguised as Clark Kent,
mild-mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper--fights a never
ending battle for truth, justice and the American way!
Preamble to Superman, US radio show, 1940 onwards
The following is a copy of Orders issued by the German Emperor on August
19th: "It is my Royal and Imperial command that you concentrate your
energies for the immediate present upon one single purpose, and that is
that you address all your skill and all the valour of my soldiers to
exterminate first, the treacherous English, walk over General French's
contemptible little army...."
Annexe to B.E.F. [British Expeditionary Force] Routine Orders of 24
September 1914, in Arthur Ponsonby Falsehood in Wartime (1928) ch. 10
(although this is often attributed to Kaiser Wilhelm II, it was most
probably fabricated by the British)
Frankie and Albert were lovers, O Lordy, how they could love.
Swore to be true to each other, true as the stars above;
He was her man, but he done her wrong.
"Frankie and Albert" in John Huston Frankie and Johnny (1930) p. 95 (St
Louis ballad later better known as "Frankie and Johnny")
Full of Eastern promise.
Advertising slogan for Fry's Turkish Delight, 1950s onwards
God gave Noah the rainbow sign,
No more water, the fire next time.
Home in that Rock (Negro spiritual). Cf. James Baldwin 16:14
God is not dead but alive and working on a much less ambitious project.
Graffito quoted in Guardian 26 Nov. 1975
Gotcha!
Headline on the sinking of the General Belgrano, in Sun 4 May 1982
Go to work on an egg.
Advertising slogan for the British Egg Marketing Board, from 1957; perhaps
written by Fay Weldon or Mary Gowing: see Nigel Rees Slogans (1982) p. 133
The Governments of the States parties to this Constitution on behalf of
their peoples declare, that since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in
the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed.
Constitution of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organisation (1945), in UK Parliamentary Papers 1945-6 vol. 26
The hands that do dishes can be soft as your face, with mild green Fairy
Liquid.
Advertising slogan for Procter & Gamble's washing-up liquid
Hark the herald angels sing
Mrs Simpson's pinched our king.
1936 children's rhyme quoted in letter from Clement Attlee, 26 Dec.
1938, in Kenneth Harris Attlee (1982) ch. 11
Have you heard? The Prime Minister [Lloyd George] has resigned and
Northcliffe has sent for the King.
1919 saying in Hamilton Fyfe Northcliffe, an Intimate Biography (1930)
ch. 16
Here we go, here we go, here we go.
Song sung by football supporters etc., 1980s
His [W. S. Gilbert's] foe was folly and his weapon wit.
Inscription on memorial to Gilbert on the Victoria Embankment, London,
1915
I don't like the family Stein!
There is Gert, there is Ep, there is Ein.
Gert's writings are punk,
Ep's statues are junk,
Nor can anyone understand Ein.
In R. Graves and A. Hodge The Long Weekend (1940) ch. 12 (rhyme current in
the USA in the 1920s)
If it moves, salute it; if it doesn't move, pick it up; and if you can't
pick it up, paint it.
1940s saying, in Paul Dickson The Official Rules (1978) p. 21
If you want to get ahead, get a hat.
Advertising slogan for the Hat Council, UK, 1965
Ils ne passeront pas.
They shall not pass.
Slogan used by French army at defence of Verdun in 1916 ; variously
attributed to Marshal Ptain and to General Robert Nivelle. Cf. Dolores
Ibarruri 109:18
I'm backing Britain.
Slogan coined by workers at the Colt factory, Surbiton, Surrey and
subsequently used in a national campaign, in The Times 1 Jan. 1968
I'm worried about Jim.
Frequent line in Mrs Dale's Diary, BBC radio series 1948-69: see Denis
Gifford The Golden Age of Radio (1985) p. 179 (where the line is given as
"I'm a little worried about Jim")
The iron lady.
In Sunday Times 25 Jan. 1976 (name given to Margaret Thatcher, then Leader
of the Opposition, by the Soviet defence ministry newspaper Red Star,
which accused her of trying to revive the cold war)
Is your journey really necessary?
1939 slogan (coined to discourage Civil Servants from going home for
Christmas), in Norman Longmate How We Lived Then (1971) ch. 25
It became necessary to destroy the town to save it.
Comment by unidentified United States Army Major in Associated Press
Report, New York Times 8 Feb. 1968 [the town referred to is Ben Tre,
Vietnam]
It's for you-hoo!
Slogan for British Telecom television advertisements, 1985 onwards
It's that man again...! At the head of a cavalcade of seven black motor
cars Hitler swept out of his Berlin Chancellery last night on a mystery
journey.
Headline in Daily Express 2 May 1939 [the abbreviation ITMA was used as
title of a BBC radio show from 19 Sept. 1939]
It will play in Peoria.
In New York Times 9 June 1973 (catch-phrase of the Nixon administration)
Je suis Marxiste--tendance Groucho.
I am a Marxist--of the Groucho tendency.
Slogan used at Nanterre in Paris, 1968
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water.
Advertisement for Jaws 2 (1978 film)
Kentucky Fried Chicken...."It's finger lickin' good."
American Restaurant Magazine June 1958
King's Moll Reno'd in Wolsey's Home Town.
In Frances Donaldson Edward VIII (1974) ch. 7 (American newspaper headline
referring to Mrs Simpson's divorce proceedings in Ipswich)
Labour isn't working.
In Philip Kleinman The Saatchi and Saatchi Story (1987) ch. 2 (British
Conservative Party slogan, 1978-9, on poster showing a long queue outside
an unemployment office)
LBJ, LBJ, how many kids have you killed today?
In Jacquin Sanders The Draft and the Vietnam War (1966) ch. 3
(anti-Vietnam marching slogan)
Let's get out of these wet clothes and into a dry Martini.
Line coined in 1920s by press agent for Robert Benchley (and often
attributed to Benchley), in Howard Teichmann Smart Alec (1976) ch. 9. Cf.
Mae West 225:10
Let the train take the strain.
British Rail advertising slogan, 1970 onwards
Let your fingers do the walking.
1960s advertisement for Bell system Telephone Directory Yellow Pages, in
Harold S. Sharp Advertising Slogans of America (1984) p. 44
Liberty is always unfinished business.
Title of 36th Annual Report of the American Civil Liberties Union,
July 1955 -30 June 1956
Life is a sexually transmitted disease.
In D. J. Enright (ed.) Faber Book of Fevers and Frets (1989) (graffito in
the London Underground)
Life's better with the Conservatives. Don't let Labour ruin it.
In David Butler and Richard Rose British General Election of 1959 (1960)
ch. 3 (Conservative Party election slogan)
Lloyd George knows my father,
My father knows Lloyd George.
Comic song consisting of these two lines sung over and over again to the
tune of Onward, Christian Soldiers, perhaps originally by Tommy Rhys
Roberts (1910-75); sometimes with "knew" instead of "knows"
Lousy but loyal.
London East End slogan at George V's Jubilee (1935), in Nigel Rees Slogans
(1982)
Mademoiselle from Armenteers,
Hasn't been kissed for forty years,
Hinky, dinky, parley-voo.
Song of World War I, variously ascribed to Edward Rowland and Harry
Carlton
Make do and mend.
Wartime slogan, 1940s
Make love not war.
Student slogan, 1960s
The man from Del Monte says "Yes."
Advertising slogan for tinned fruit, 1985
The man you love to hate.
Billing for Erich von Stroheim in the film The Heart of Humanity (1918),
in Peter Noble Hollywood Scapegoat (1950) ch. 2
Mother may I go and bathe?
Yes, my darling daughter.
Hang your clothes on yonder tree,
But don't go near the water.
In Iona and Peter Opie Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (1951) p. 314.
Cf. Walter de la Mare 66:20
The nearest thing to death in life
Is David Patrick Maxwell Fyfe,
Though underneath that gloomy shell
He does himself extremely well.
In E. Grierson Confessions of a Country Magistrate (1972) p. 35 (rhyme
about Sir David Maxwell Fyfe, said to have been current on the Northern
circuit in the late 1930s)
Nil carborundum illegitimi.
Mock-Latin proverb translated as "Don't let the bastards grind you down";
often simply "nil carborundum" or "illegitimi non carborundum"
No manager ever got fired for buying IBM.
IBM advertising slogan
Nice one, Cyril.
1972 television advertising campaign for Wonderloaf; taken up by
supporters of Cyril Knowles, Tottenham Hotspur footballer; the Spurs team
later made a record featuring the line
No more Latin, no more French,
No more sitting on a hard board bench.
Rhyme used by children at the end of school term: see Iona and Peter Opie
Lore and Language of Schoolchildren (1959) ch. 13; also found with
variants such as: No more Latin, no more Greek, No more cares to make me
squeak
Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.
Graffito, used as title of book by Simone Signoret
Not so much a programme, more a way of life!
Title of BBC television series, 1964
O Death, where is thy sting-a-ling-a-ling,
O grave, thy victory?
The bells of Hell go ting-a-ling-a-ling
For you but not for me.
For You But Not For Me (song of World War I) in S. Louis Guiraud (ed.)
Songs That Won the War (1930). Cf. Corinthians 15:55
Once again we stop the mighty roar of London's traffic and from the great
crowds we bring you some of the interesting people who have come by land,
sea and air to be in town tonight.
In Town Tonight (BBC radio series, 1933-60) introductory words
Power to the people.
Slogan of the Black Panther movement, circa 1968 onwards, in Black Panther
14 Sept. 1968
Puella Rigensis ridebat
Quam tigris in tergo vehebat;
Externa profecta,
Interna revecta,
Risusque cum tigre manebat.
There was a young lady of Riga
Who went for a ride on a tiger;
They returned from the ride
With the lady inside,
And a smile on the face of the tiger.
In R. L. Green (ed.) A Century of Humorous Verse (1959) p. 285
The [or A] quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
Sentence used by typists etc. to ensure that all letters of the alphabet
are printing properly: see R. Hunter Middleton's introduction to The Quick
Brown Fox (1945) by Richard H. Templeton Jr.
The rabbit has a charming face:
Its private life is a disgrace.
I really dare not name to you
The awful things that rabbits do.
The Rabbit, in The Week-End Book (1925) p. 171
See the happy moron,
He doesn't give a damn,
I wish I were a moron,
My God! perhaps I am!
Eugenics Review July 1929
She was poor but she was honest
Victim of a rich man's game.
First he loved her, than he left her,
And she lost her maiden name. save
See her on the bridge at midnight,
Saying "Farewell, blighted love."
Then a scream, a splash and goodness,
What is she a-doin' of?
It's the same the whole world over,
It's the poor wot gets the blame,
It's the rich wot gets the gravy.
Ain't it all a bleedin shame?
She was Poor but she was Honest (song sung by British soldiers in World
War I)
Shome mishtake, shurely?
Catch-phrase in Private Eye magazine, 1980s
Snap! Crackle! Pop!
Slogan for Kellogg's Rice Krispies, from circa 1928
So farewell then....
Frequent opening of poems by "E. J. Thribb" in Private Eye magazine, 1970s
onwards, usually as an obituary
Some television programmes are so much chewing gum for the eyes.
John Mason Brown, quoting a friend of his young son, in interview 28 July
1955, in James Beasley Simpson Best Quotes of '50, '55, '56 (1957) p. 233
Sticks nix hick pix.
Variety 17 July 1935 (headline on lack of interest for farm dramas in
rural areas)
Stop-look-and-listen.
Safety slogan current in the US from 1912
Take me to your leader.
Catch-phrase from science-fiction stories
Tell Sid.
Advertising slogan for the privatization of British Gas, 1986, in Philip
Kleinman The Saatchi and Saatchi Story (1987) ch. 11
There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world; and that is
an idea whose time has come.
Nation 15 Apr. 1943. Cf. Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (1979) 267:11
There is so much good in the worst of us,
And so much bad in the best of us,
That it hardly becomes [or saveoves] any of us
To talk about the rest of us.
Attributed to many authors, especially Edward Wallis Hoch (1849-1945)
because printed in the Marion Record (Kansas) which he owned, but
disclaimed by him
There was a faith-healer of Deal
Who said, "Although pain isn't real,
If I sit on a pin
And it punctures my skin,
I dislike what I fancy I feel."
The Week-End Book (1925) p. 158
They [Jacob Epstein's sculptures for the former BMA building in the
Strand] are a form of statuary which no careful father would wish his
daughter, or no discerning young man his fiance, to see.
Evening Standard 19 June 1908
They come as a boon and a blessing to men,
The Pickwick, the Owl, and the Waverley pen.
Advertisement by MacNiven and H. Cameron Ltd., circa 1920
[This film] is so cryptic as to be almost meaningless. If there is a
meaning, it is doubtless objectionable.
The British Board of Film Censors, banning Jean Cocteau's film The
Seashell and the Clergyman (1929), in J. C. Robertson Hidden Cinema (1989)
ch. 1
Though I yield to no one in my admiration for Mr Coolidge, I do wish he
did not look as if he had been weaned on a pickle.
Anonymous remark reported in Alice Roosevelt Longworth Crowded Hours
(1933) ch. 21
To err is human but to really foul things up requires a computer.
Farmers' Almanac for 1978 (1977) "Capsules of Wisdom"
Top people take The Times.
Advertising slogan for The Times newspaper from Jan. 1959: see I.
McDonald History of The Times (1984) vol. 5, ch. 16
Tous les tres humains naissent libres et gaux en dignit et en droits.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) Article 1 (modified from a
draft by Ren Cassin)
Ulster says no.
Slogan coined in response to the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 15 Nov. 1985,
in Irish Times 25 Nov. 1985
Vorsprung durch Technik.
Progress through technology.
Advertising slogan for Audi cars, from 1986
Vote early. Vote often.
Chicago (and Irish) election proverb, in David Frost and Michael Shea
Mid-Atlantic Companion (1986) p. 95
Wall St. lays an egg.
Variety 30 Oct. 1929 (headline on the Wall Street Crash)
War will cease when men refuse to fight.
Pacifist slogan, from circa 1936 (often "Wars will cease..."): see
Birmingham Gazette 21 Nov. 1936, p. 3, and Peace News 15 Oct. 1938, p. 12
We are the Ovaltineys,
Little [or Happy] girls and boys.
We are the Ovaltineys (song promoting the drink Ovaltine, from circa
1935)
The weekend starts here.
Catch-phrase of Ready, Steady, Go, British television series, circa 1963
We're number two. We try harder.
Advertising slogan for Avis car rentals
We're here
Because
We're here
Because
We're here
Because we're here.
In John Brophy and Eric Partridge Songs and Slang of the British Soldier
1914-18 (1930) p. 33 (sung to the tune of Auld Lang Syne )
We shall not be moved.
Title of song (1931)
We shall not pretend that there is nothing in his long career which those
who respect and admire him would wish otherwise.
The Times 23 Jan. 1901 (leading article on the accession of Edward VII)
We shall overcome,
We shall overcome,
We shall overcome some day.
Oh, deep in my heart
I do believe
We shall overcome some day.
We Shall Overcome (song derived from several sources, notably the singers
Zilphia Horton and Pete Seeger)
Who dares wins.
Motto on badge of British Special Air Service regiment, from 1942 (see J.
L. Collins Elite Forces: the SAS (1986) introduction)
Whose finger do you want on the trigger?
Daily Mirror 21 Sept. 1951
Winston is back.
Board of Admiralty signal to the Fleet on Winston Churchill's
reappointment as First Sea Lord, 3 Sept. 1939, in Martin Gilbert Winston
S. Churchill (1976) vol. 5, ch. 53
Would you like to sin
With Elinor Glyn
On a tiger skin?
Or would you prefer
To err
With her
On some other fur?
In A. Glyn Elinor Glyn (1955) bk. 2
1.44 Jean Anouilh
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1910-1987
Dieu est avec tout le monde....Et, en fin de compte, il est toujours avec
ceux qui ont beaucoup d'argent et de grosses armes.
God is on everyone's side....And, in the last analysis, he is on the side
with plenty of money and large armies.
L'Alouette (The Lark, 1953) p. 120
Il y a l'amour bien sr. Et puis il y a la vie, son ennemie.
There is love of course. And then there's life, its enemy.
Ardle(1949) p. 8
Vous savez bien que l'amour, c'est avant tout le don de soi!
You know very well that love is, above all, the gift of oneself!
Ardle(1949) p. 79
C'est trs jolie la vie, mais cela n'a pas de forme. L'art a pour objet de
lui en donner une prcisment et de faire par tous les artifices
possibles--plus vrai que le vrai.
Life is very nice, but it has no shape. The object of art is actually to
give it some and to do it by every artifice possible--truer than the
truth.
La Rptition (The Rehearsal, 1950) act 2
1.45 Guillaume Apollinaire
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1880-1918
Sous le pont Mirabeau coule la Seine.
Et nos amours, faut-il qu'il m'en souvienne?
La joie venait toujours aprs la peine.
Vienne la nuit, sonne l'heure,
Les jours s'en vont, je demeure.
Under Mirabeau Bridge flows the Seine.
And our loves, must I remember them?
Joy always comes after pain.
Let night come, ring out the hour,
The days go by, I remain.
Les Soires de Paris Feb. 1912 "Le Pont Mirabeau"
Les souvenirs sont cors de chasse
Dont meurt le bruit parmi le vent.
Memories are hunting horns
Whose sound dies on the wind.
Les Soires de Paris Sept. 1912 "Cors de Chasse"
1.46 Sir Edward Appleton
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1892-1965
I do not mind what language an opera is sung in so long as it is a
language I don't understand.
In Observer 28 Aug. 1955
1.47 Louis Aragon
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1897-1982
O mois des floraisons mois des mtamorphoses
Mai qui fut sans nuage et Juin poignard
Je n'oublierai jamais les lilas ni les roses
Ni ceux que le printemps dans ses plis a gard.
O month of flowerings, month of metamorphoses,
May without cloud and June that was stabbed,
I shall never forget the lilac and the roses
Nor those whom spring has kept in its folds.
Le Crve-Cur(Heartbreak, 1940) "Les lilas et les roses"
1.48 Hannah Arendt
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1906-1975
Under conditions of tyranny it is far easier to act than to think.
In W. H. Auden A Certain World (1970) p. 369
It was as though in those last minutes he [Eichmann] was summing up the
lessons that this long course in human wickedness had taught us--the
lesson of the fearsome, word-and-thought-defying banality of evil.
Eichmann in Jerusalem: a Report on the Banality of Evil (1963) ch. 15
It is well known that the most radical revolutionary will become a
conservative on the day after the revolution.
New Yorker 12 Sept. 1970, p. 88
1.49 G. D. Armour
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1864-1949
Look here, Steward, if this is coffee, I want tea; but if this is tea,
then I wish for coffee.
Punch 23 July 1902 (cartoon caption)
1.50 Harry Armstrong
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1879-1951
There's an old mill by the stream, Nellie Dean,
Where we used to sit and dream, Nellie Dean.
And the waters as they flow
Seem to murmur sweet and low,
"You're my heart's desire; I love you, Nellie Dean."
Nellie Dean (1905 song)
1.51 Louis Armstrong
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1901-1971
All music is folk music, I ain't never heard no horse sing a song.
In New York Times 7 July 1971, p. 41
If you still have to ask...shame on you.
Habitual reply when asked what jazz is, in Max Jones et al. Salute to
Satchmo (1970) p. 25
1.52 Neil Armstrong
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1930-
That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.
In New York Times 31 July 1969, p. 20
1.53 Sir Robert Armstrong
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1927-
It [a letter] contains a misleading impression, not a lie. It was being
economical with the truth.
In Supreme Court, New South Wales, 18 Nov. 1986, in Daily Telegraph 19
Nov. 1986. Cf. Edmund Burke's Two letters on Proposals for Peace (1796)
pt. 1, p. 137: Falsehood and delusion are allowed in no case whatsoever:
But, as in the exercise of all the virtues, there is an economy of truth.
1.54 Raymond Aron
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1905-
La pense politique, en France, est rtrospective ou utopique.
Political thought, in France, is retrospective or utopian.
L'opium des intellectuels (The opium of the intellectuals, 1955) ch. 1
1.55 George Asaf
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1880-1951
What's the use of worrying?
It never was worth while,
So, pack up your troubles in your old kit-bag,
And smile, smile, smile.
Pack up your Troubles (1915 song; music by Felix Powell)
1.56 Dame Peggy Ashcroft
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1907-
It seems silly that more people should see me in "Jewel in the Crown" than
in all my years in the theatre.
In Observer 18 Mar. 1984
1.57 Daisy Ashford
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1881-1972
Mr Salteena was an elderly man of 42 and was fond of asking peaple to stay
with him.
Young Visiters (1919) ch. 1
I do hope I shall enjoy myself with you. I am fond of digging in the
garden and I am parshial to ladies if they are nice I suppose it is my
nature. I am not quite a gentleman but you would hardly notice it but
can't be helped anyhow.
Young Visiters (1919) ch. 1
You look rather rash my dear your colors dont quite match your face.
Young Visiters (1919) ch. 2
My own room is next the bath room said Bernard it is decerated dark red as
I have somber tastes. The bath room has got a tip up bason and a hose
thing for washing your head.
Young Visiters (1919) ch. 2
Bernard always had a few prayers in the hall and some whiskey afterwards
as he was rarther pious but Mr Salteena was not very addicted to prayers
so he marched up to bed.
Young Visiters (1919) ch. 3
It was a sumpshous spot all done up in gold with plenty of looking
glasses.
Young Visiters (1919) ch. 5
Oh I see said the Earl but my own idear is that these things are as piffle
before the wind.
Young Visiters (1919) ch. 5
The bearer of this letter is an old friend of mine not quite the right
side of the blanket as they say in fact he is the son of a first rate
butcher but his mother was a decent family called Hyssopps of the Glen so
you see he is not so bad and is desireus of being the correct article.
Young Visiters (1919) ch. 5
Ethel patted her hair and looked very sneery.
Young Visiters (1919) ch. 8
My life will be sour grapes and ashes without you.
Young Visiters (1919) ch. 8
Oh Bernard muttered Ethel this is so sudden. No no cried Bernard and
taking the bull by both horns he kissed her violently on her dainty face.
My bride to be he murmered several times.
Young Visiters (1919) ch. 9
1.58 Isaac Asimov
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1920-
The three fundamental Rules of Robotics....One, a robot may not injure a
human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to
harm....Two...a robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except
where such orders would conflict with the First Law...three, a robot must
protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict
with the First or Second Laws.
I, Robot (1950) "Runaround"
1.59 Elizabeth Asquith (Princess Antoine Bibesco)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1897-1945
Kitchener is a great poster.
In Margot Asquith More Memories (1933) ch. 6
1.60 Herbert Henry Asquith (Earl of Oxford and Asquith)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1852-1928
We had better wait and see.
Hansard 3 Mar. 1910, col. 972 (expression used in various forms when
answering questions on the Finance Bill)
Happily there seems to be no reason why we should be anything more than
spectators [of the approaching war].
Letters to Venetia Stanley (1982) 24 July 1914
Youth would be an ideal state if it came a little later in life.
In Observer 15 Apr. 1923
[The War Office kept three sets of figures:] one to mislead the public,
another to mislead the Cabinet, and the third to mislead itself.
In Alistair Horne Price of Glory (1962) ch. 2
We shall never sheath the sword which we have not lightly drawn until
Belgium recovers in full measure all and more than all that she has
sacrificed, until France is adequately secured against the menace of
aggression, until the rights of the smaller nationalities of Europe are
placed upon an unassailable foundation, and until the military domination
of Prussia is wholly and finally destroyed.
Speech at the Guildhall, 9 Nov. 1914, in The Times 10 Nov. 1914
It is fitting that we should have buried the Unknown Prime Minister [Bonar
Law] by the side of the Unknown Soldier.
In Robert Blake The Unknown Prime Minister (1955) p. 531
1.61 Margot Asquith (Countess of Oxford and Asquith)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1864-1945
It [10 Downing Street] is an inconvenient house with three poor
staircases, and after living there a few weeks I made up my mind that
owing to the impossibility of circulation I could only entertain my
Liberal friends at dinner or at garden parties.
Autobiography (1922) vol. 2, ch. 5
Ettie [Lady Desborough] is an ox: she will be made into Bovril when she
dies.
In Jeanne Mackenzie Children of the Souls (1986) ch. 4
Jean Harlow kept calling Margot Asquith by her first name, or kept trying
to: she pronounced it Margot. Finally Margot set her right. "No, no,
Jean. The t is silent, as in Harlow."
T. S. Matthews Great Tom (1973) ch. 7
The King [George V] told me he would never have died if it had not been
for that fool Dawson of Penn.
In letter from Mark Bonham Carter to Kenneth Rose 23 Oct. 1978, quoted in
Kenneth Rose King George V (1983) ch. 9
Lord Birkenhead is very clever but sometimes his brains go to his head.
In Listener 11 June 1953 "Margot Oxford: a Personal Impression" by Lady
Violet Bonham Carter
She [Lady Desborough] tells enough white lies to ice a wedding cake.
In Listener 11 June 1953 "Margot Oxford: a Personal Impression" by Lady
Violet Bonham Carter
He [Lloyd George?] can't see a belt without hitting below it.
In Listener 11 June 1953 "Margot Oxford: a Personal Impression" by Lady
Violet Bonham Carter
1.62 Raymond Asquith
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1878-1916
The sun like a Bishop's bottom
Rosy and round and hot
Looked down upon us who shot 'em
And down on the devils we shot.
And the stink of the damned dead niggers
Went up to the Lord high God
But we stuck to our starboard triggers
Though we yawned like dying cod.
Letter, 4 Mar. 1900, in J. Jolliffe Raymond Asquith Life and Letters
(1980) p. 64
1.63 Nancy Astor (Viscountess Astor)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1879-1964
One reason why I don't drink is because I wish to know when I am having a
good time.
In Christian Herald June 1960, p. 31
I married beneath me, all women do.
In Dictionary of National Biography 1961-1970 (1981) p. 43
After a heated argument on some trivial matter Nancy...shouted, "If I were
your wife I would put poison in your coffee!" Whereupon Winston
[Churchill] with equal heat and sincerity answered, "And if I were your
husband I would drink it."
Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan Glitter and Gold (1952) ch. 7
Jakie, is it my birthday or am I dying?
In J. Grigg Nancy Astor (1980) p. 184
1.64 Brooks Atkinson
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1894-1984
After each war there is a little less democracy to save.
Once Around the Sun (1951) 7 Jan.
In every age "the good old days" were a myth. No one ever thought they
were good at the time. For every age has consisted of crises that seemed
intolerable to the people who lived through them.
Once Around the Sun (1951) 8 Feb.
There is a good deal of solemn cant about the common interests of capital
and labour. As matters stand, their only common interest is that of
cutting each other's throat.
Once Around the Sun (1951) 7 Sept.
1.65 E. L. Atkinson and Apsley Cherry-Garrard
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
E. L. Atkinson 1882-1929
Apsley Cherry-Garrard 1882-1959
Hereabouts died a very gallant gentleman, Captain L. E. G. Oates of the
Inniskilling Dragoons. In March 1912, returning from the Pole, he walked
willingly to his death in a blizzard to try and save his comrades, beset
by hardships.
Epitaph on cairn erected in the Antarctic, 15 Nov. 1912, in Apsley
Cherry-Garrard Worst Journey in the World (1922) p. 487
1.66 Clement Attlee
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1883-1967
Few thought he was even a starter
There were many who thought themselves smarter
But he ended PM
CH and OM
An earl and a knight of the garter.
Letter to Tom Attlee, 8 Apr. 1956, in Kenneth Harris Attlee (1982) p. 545
(describing himself)
I should be a sad subject for any publicity expert. I have none of the
qualities which create publicity.
In Harold Nicolson Diary (1968) 14 Jan. 1949
I think the British have the distinction above all other nations of being
able to put new wine into old bottles without bursting them.
Hansard 24 Oct. 1950, col. 2705
The voice we heard was that of Mr Churchill but the mind was that of Lord
Beaverbrook.
Speech on radio, 5 June 1945, in Francis Williams Prime Minister Remembers
(1961) ch. 6
I remember he [Winston Churchill] complained once in Opposition that a
matter had been brought up several times in Cabinet and I had to say, "I
must remind the Right Honourable Gentleman that a monologue is not a
decision."
In Francis Williams Prime Minister Remembers (1961) ch. 7
You have no right whatever to speak on behalf of the Government. Foreign
Affairs are in the capable hands of Ernest Bevin. I can assure you there
is widespread resentment in the Party at your activities and a period of
silence on your part would be welcome.
Letter to Harold Laski, 20 Aug. 1945, in Francis Williams Prime Minister
Remembers (1961) ch. 11
[Russian Communism is] the illegitimate child of Karl Marx and Catherine
the Great.
Speech at Aarhus University, 11 Apr. 1956, in The Times 12 Apr. 1956
Democracy means government by discussion, but it is only effective if you
can stop people talking.
Speech at Oxford, 14 June 1957, in The Times 15 June 1957
1.67 W. H. Auden
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1907-1973
Some thirty inches from my nose
The frontier of my Person goes,
And all the untilled air between
Is private pagus or demesne.
Stranger, unless with bedroom eyes
I beckon you to fraternize,
Beware of rudely crossing it:
I have no gun, but I can spit.
About the House (1966) "Prologue: the Birth of Architecture"
Sob, heavy world,
Sob as you spin
Mantled in mist, remote from the happy.
Age of Anxiety (1947) p. 104
I'll love you, dear, I'll love you
Till China and Africa meet
And the river jumps over the mountain
And the salmon sing in the street.
I'll love you till the ocean
Is folded and hung up to dry
And the seven stars go squawking
Like geese about the sky.
Another Time (1940) "As I Walked Out One Evening"
O plunge your hands in water,
Plunge them in up to the wrist;
Stare, stare in the basin
And wonder what you've missed.
The glacier knocks in the cupboard,
The desert sighs in the bed,
And the crack in the tea-cup opens
A lane to the land of the dead.
Another Time (1940) "As I Walked Out One Evening"
Perfection, of a kind, was what he was after,
And the poetry he invented was easy to understand;
He knew human folly like the back of his hand,
And was greatly interested in armies and fleets;
When he laughed, respectable senators burst with laughter,
And when he cried the little children died in the streets.
Another Time (1940) "Epitaph on a Tyrant"
To us he is no more a person
Now but a whole climate of opinion.
Another Time (1940) "In Memory of Sigmund Freud"
He disappeared in the dead of winter:
The brooks were frozen, the airports almost deserted,
And snow disfigured the public statues;
The mercury sank in the mouth of the dying day.
What instruments we have agree
The day of his death was a dark cold day.
Another Time (1940) "In Memory of W. B. Yeats"
You were silly like us: your gift survived it all;
The parish of rich women, physical decay,
Yourself; mad Ireland hurt you into poetry.
Now Ireland has her madness and her weather still,
For poetry makes nothing happen: it survives
In the valley of its saying where executives
Would never want to tamper; it flows south
From ranches of isolation and the busy griefs,
Raw towns that we believe and die in; it survives,
A way of happening, a mouth.
Another Time (1940) "In Memory of W. B. Yeats"
Earth, receive an honoured guest;
William Yeats is laid to rest:
Let the Irish vessel lie
Emptied of its poetry.
Another Time (1940) "In Memory of W. B. Yeats"
In the nightmare of the dark
All the dogs of Europe bark,
And the living nations wait,
Each sequestered in its hate;
Intellectual disgrace
Stares from every human face,
And the seas of pity lie
Locked and frozen in each eye.
Another Time (1940) "In Memory of W. B. Yeats"
In the deserts of the heart
Let the healing fountain start,
In the prison of his days
Teach the free man how to praise.
Another Time (1940) "In Memory of W. B. Yeats"
About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters: how well they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully
along.
Another Time (1940) "Muse des Beaux Arts"
They never forgot
That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.
Another Time (1940) "Muse des Beaux Arts"
Lay your sleeping head, my love,
Human on my faithless arm;
Time and fevers burn away
Individual beauty from
Thoughtful children, and the grave
Proves the child ephemeral:
But in my arms till break of day
Let the living creature lie,
Mortal, guilty, but to me
The entirely beautiful.
Another Time (1940) no. 18, p. 43
I and the public know
What all schoolchildren learn,
Those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return.
Another Time (1940) "September 1, 1939"
All I have is a voice
To undo the folded lie,
The romantic lie in the brain
Of the sensual man-in-the-street
And the lie of Authority
Whose buildings grope the sky:
There is no such thing as the State
And no one exists alone;
Hunger allows no choice
To the citizen or the police;
We must love one another or die.
Another Time (1940) "September 1, 1939"
Our researchers into Public Opinion are content
That he held the proper opinions for the time of year;
When there was peace, he was for peace; when there was war, he went.
Another Time (1940) "The Unknown Citizen"
Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd:
Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.
Another Time (1940) "The Unknown Citizen"
All sin tends to be addictive, and the terminal point of addiction is what
is called damnation.
A Certain World (1970) "Hell"
Of course, Behaviourism "works." So does torture. Give me a no-nonsense,
down-to-earth behaviourist, a few drugs, and simple electrical appliances,
and in six months I will have him reciting the Athanasian Creed in public.
A Certain World (1970) "Behaviourism"
A poet's hope: to be,
like some valley cheese,
local, but prized elsewhere.
Collected Poems (1976) p. 639
It is a sad fact about our culture that a poet can earn much more money
writing or talking about his art than he can by practising it.
Dyer's Hand (1963) foreword
Between the ages of twenty and forty we are engaged in the process of
discovering who we are, which involves learning the difference between
accidental limitations which it is our duty to outgrow and the necessary
limitations of our nature beyond which we cannot trespass with impunity.
Dyer's Hand (1963) "Reading"
Some books are undeservedly forgotten; none are undeservedly remembered.
Dyer's Hand (1963) "Reading"
One cannot review a bad book without showing off.
Dyer's Hand (1963) "Reading"
No poet or novelist wishes he were the only one who ever lived, but most
of them wish they were the only one alive, and quite a number fondly
believe their wish has been granted.
Dyer's Hand (1963) "Writing"
It takes little talent to see clearly what lies under one's nose, a good
deal of it to know in which direction to point that organ.
Dyer's Hand (1963) "Writing"
The true men of action in our time, those who transform the world, are not
the politicians and statesmen, but the scientists. Unfortunately poetry
cannot celebrate them, because their deeds are concerned with things, not
persons, and are, therefore, speechless. When I find myself in the company
of scientists, I feel like a shabby curate who has strayed by mistake into
a drawing room full of dukes.
Dyer's Hand (1963) "The Poet and the City"
The image of myself which I try to create in my own mind in order that may
love myself is very different from the image which I try to create in the
minds of others in order that they may love me.
Dyer's Hand (1963) "Hic et Ille"
Almost all of our relationships begin and most of them continue as forms
of mutual exploitation, a mental or physical barter, to be terminated when
one or both parties run out of goods.
Dyer's Hand (1963) "Hic et Ille"
Man is a history-making creature who can neither repeat his past nor leave
it behind.
Dyer's Hand (1963) "D. H. Lawrence"
Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator, but
among those whom I love, I can: all of them make me laugh.
Dyer's Hand (1963) "Notes on the Comic"
At Dirty Dick's and Sloppy Joe's
We drank our liquor straight,
Some went upstairs with Margery,
And some, alas, with Kate.
For the Time Being (1944) "The Sea and the Mirror"--"Master and
Boatswain"
My Dear One is mine as mirrors are lonely.
For the Time Being (1944) "The Sea and the Mirror"--"Miranda"
The desires of the heart are as crooked as corkscrews
Not to be born is the best for man
The second best is a formal order
The dance's pattern, dance while you can.
Dance, dance, for the figure is easy
The tune is catching and will not stop
Dance till the stars come down with the rafters
Dance, dance, dance till you drop.
Letter from Iceland (1937, by Auden and MacNeice) "Letter to William
Coldstream, Esq."
And make us as Newton was, who in his garden watching
The apple falling towards England, became aware
Between himself and her of an eternal tie.
Look, Stranger! (1936) no. 1
Out on the lawn I lie in bed,
Vega conspicuous overhead.
Look, Stranger! (1936) no. 2
Let the florid music praise,
The flute and the trumpet,
Beauty's conquest of your face:
In that land of flesh and bone,
Where from citadels on high
Her imperial standards fly,
Let the hot sun
Shine on, shine on.
Look, Stranger! (1936) no. 4
Look, stranger, at this island now
The leaping light for your delight discovers,
Stand stable here
And silent be,
That through the channels of the ear
May wander like a river
The swaying sound of the sea.
Look, Stranger! (1936) no. 5
O what is that sound which so thrills the ear
Down in the valley drumming, drumming?
Only the scarlet soldiers, dear,
The soldiers coming.
Look, Stranger! (1936) no. 6
O it's broken the lock and splintered the door,
O it's the gate where they're turning, turning;
Their boots are heavy on the floor
And their eyes are burning.
Look, Stranger! (1936) no. 6
A shilling life will give you all the facts.
Look, Stranger! (1936) no. 13
August for the people and their favourite islands.
Daily the steamers sidle up to meet
The effusive welcome of the pier.
Look, Stranger! (1936) no. 30
Geniuses are the luckiest of mortals because what they must do is the same
as what they most want to do.
In Dag Hammarskjld Markings (1964) foreword
I see it often since you've been away:
The island, the veranda, and the fruit;
The tiny steamer breaking from the bay;
The literary mornings with its hoot;
Our ugly comic servant; and then you,
Lovely and willing every afternoon.
New Verse Oct. 1933, p. 15
At the far end of the enormous room
An orchestra is playing to the rich.
New Verse Oct. 1933, p. 15
To the man-in-the-street, who, I'm sorry to say,
Is a keen observer of life,
The word "Intellectual" suggests straight away
A man who's untrue to his wife.
New Year Letter (1961) note to line 1277
This is the Night Mail crossing the Border,
Bringing the cheque and the postal order,
Letters for the rich, letters for the poor,
The shop at the corner, the girl next door.
Pulling up Beattock, a steady climb:
The gradient's against her, but she's on time.
Past cotton-grass and moorland border,
Shovelling white steam over her shoulder.
Night Mail (1936) in Collected Shorter Poems (1966)
Letters of thanks, letters from banks,
Letters of joy from girl and boy,
Receipted bills and invitations
To inspect new stock or to visit relations,
And applications for situations,
And timid lovers' declarations,
And gossip, gossip from all the nations.
Night Mail (1936) in Collected Shorter Poems (1966)
Altogether elsewhere, vast
Herds of reindeer move across
Miles and miles of golden moss,
Silently and very fast.
Nones (1951) "The Fall of Rome"
Private faces in public places
Are wiser and nicer
Than public faces in private places.
Orators (1932) dedication
Sir, no man's enemy, forgiving all
But will his negative inversion, be prodigal:
Send to us power and light, a sovereign touch
Curing the intolerable neutral itch,
The exhaustion of weaning, the liar's quinsy,
And the distortions of ingrown virginity.
Poems (1930) "Sir, No Man's Enemy"
Harrow the house of the dead; look shining at
New styles of architecture, a change of heart.
Poems (1930) "Sir, No Man's Enemy"
Let us honour if we can
The vertical man
Though we value none
But the horizontal one.
Poems (1930) "To Christopher Isherwood"
To ask the hard question is simple.
Poems (1933) no. 27
This great society is going smash;
They cannot fool us with how fast they go,
How much they cost each other and the gods!
A culture is no better than its woods.
Shield of Achilles (1955) "Bucolics"
To save your world you asked this man to die:
Would this man, could he see you now, ask why?
Shield of Achilles (1955) "Epitaph for the Unknown Soldier"
Out of the air a voice without a face
Proved by statistics that some cause was just
In tones as dry and level as the place.
Shield of Achilles (1955) "The Shield of Achilles"
Tomorrow for the young the poets exploding like bombs,
The walks by the lake, the weeks of perfect communion;
Tomorrow the bicycle races
Through the suburbs on summer evenings. But today the struggle.
Spain (1937) p. 11
The stars are dead. The animals will not look:
We are left alone with our day, and the time is short, and
History to the defeated
May say Alas but cannot help nor pardon.
Spain (1937) p. 12
In a garden shady this holy lady
With reverent cadence and subtle psalm,
Like a black swan as death came on
Poured forth her song in perfect calm:
And by ocean's margin this innocent virgin
Constructed an organ to enlarge her prayer,
And notes tremendous from her great engine
Thundered out on the Roman air.
Blonde Aphrodite rose up excited,
Moved to delight by the melody,
White as an orchid she rode quite naked
In an oyster shell on top of the sea.
Three Songs for St Cecilia's Day (1941). Dedicated to Benjamin Britten,
and set to music by Britten as Hymn to St Cecilia , op. 27 (1942)
Blessed Cecilia, appear in visions
To all musicians, appear and inspire:
Translated Daughter, come down and startle
Composing mortals with immortal fire.
Three Songs for St Cecilia's Day (1941)
No opera plot can be sensible, for in sensible situations people do not
sing. An opera plot must be, in both senses of the word, a melodrama.
Times Literary Supplement 2 Nov. 1967, p. 1038
Your cameraman might enjoy himself because my face looks like a
wedding-cake left out in the rain.
In Humphrey Carpenter W. H. Auden (1981) pt. 2, ch. 6
You [Stephen Spender] are so infinitely capable of being humiliated. Art
is born of humiliation.
In Stephen Spender World Within World (1951) ch. 2
1.68 W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
W. H. Auden 1907-1973
Christopher Isherwood 1904-1986
Happy the hare at morning, for she cannot read
The Hunter's waking thoughts.
Dog beneath the Skin (1935) chorus following act 2, sc. 2
1.69 Tex Avery (Fred Avery)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1907-1980
What's up, Doc?
Catch-phrase in Bugs Bunny cartoons, from circa 1940
1.70 Earl of Avon
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See Sir Anthony Eden (5.4)
1.71 Revd W. Awdry
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1911-
You've a lot to learn about trucks, little Thomas. They are silly things
and must be kept in their place. After pushing them about here for a few
weeks you'll know almost as much about them as Edward. Then you'll be a
Really Useful Engine.
Thomas the Tank Engine (1946) p. 46
1.72 Alan Ayckbourn
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1939-
My mother used to say, Delia, if S-E-X ever rears its ugly head, close
your eyes before you see the rest of it.
Bedroom Farce (1978) act 2
This place, you tell them you're interested in the arts, you get messages
of sympathy.
Chorus of Disapproval (1986) act 2
Do you realize, Mrs Foster, the hours I've put into that woman? When I
met her, you know, she was nothing. Nothing at all. With my own hands I
have built her up. Encouraging her to join the public library and make
use of her non-fiction tickets.
How the Other Half Loves (1972) act 2, sc. 1
I only wanted to make you happy.
Round and Round the Garden (1975) act 2, sc. 2
If you gave Ruth a rose, she'd peel all the petals off to make sure there
weren't any greenfly. And when she'd done that, she'd turn round and say,
do you call that a rose? Look at it, it's all in bits.
Table Manners (1975) act 1, sc. 2
I always feel with Norman that I have him on loan from somewhere. Like one
of his library books.
Table Manners (1975) act 2, sc. 1
1.73 A. J. Ayer
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1910-1989
No moral system can rest solely on authority.
Humanist Outlook (1968) introduction
It seems that I have spent my entire time trying to make life more
rational and that it was all wasted effort.
In Observer 17 Aug. 1986
1.74 Pam Ayres
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1947-
I am a bunny rabbit,
Sitting in me hutch,
I like to sit up this end,
I don't care for that end, much,
I'm glad tomorrow's Thursday,
'Cause with a bit of luck,
As far as I remember,
That's the day they pass the buck.
Some of Me Poetry (1976) "The Bunny Poem"
Oh, I wish I'd looked after me teeth,
And spotted the perils beneath,
All the toffees I chewed,
And the sweet sticky food,
Oh, I wish I'd looked after me teeth.
Some of Me Poetry (1976) "Oh, I wish I'd looked after me teeth"
I might have been a farmyard hen,
Scratchin' in the sun,
There might have been a crowd of chicks,
After me to run,
There might have been a cockerel fine,
To pay us his respects,
Instead of sittin' here,
Till someone comes and wrings our necks.
I see the Time and Motion clock,
Is sayin' nearly noon,
I 'spec me squirt of water,
Will come flyin' at me soon,
And then me spray of pellets,
Will nearly break me leg,
And I'll bite the wire nettin'
And lay one more bloody egg.
Some of Me Poetry (1976) "The Battery Hen"
Medicinal discovery,
It moves in mighty leaps,
It leapt straight past the common cold
And gave it us for keeps.
Now I'm not a fussy woman,
There's no malice in me eye
But I wish that they could cure
the common cold. That's all. Goodbye.
Some of Me Poetry (1976) "Oh no, I got a cold"
2.0 B
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2.1 Robert Baden-Powell (Baron Baden-Powell)
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1857-1941
The scouts' motto is founded on my initials, it is: be prepared, which
means, you are always to be in a state of readiness in mind and body to do
your duty.
Scouting for Boys (1908) pt. 1
2.2 Joan Baez
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1941-
The only thing that's been a worse flop than the organization of
non-violence has been the organization of violence.
Daybreak (1970) "What Would You Do If?"
2.3 Sydney D. Bailey
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1916-
It has been said that this Minister [the Lord Privy Seal] is neither a
Lord, nor a privy, nor a seal.
British Parliamentary Democracy (ed. 3, 1971) ch. 8
2.4 Bruce Bairnsfather
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1888-1959
Well, if you knows of a better 'ole, go to it.
Fragments from France (1915) p. 1
2.5 Hylda Baker
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1908-1986
She knows, you know!
Catch-phrase used in comedy act, about her friend Cynthia
2.6 James Baldwin
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1924-1987
Money, it turned out, was exactly like sex, you thought of nothing else if
you didn't have it and thought of other things if you did.
Esquire May 1961 "Black Boy looks at the White Boy"
The fire next time.
Title of book (1963). Cf. Anonymous 6:12
At the root of the American Negro problem is the necessity of the American
white man to find a way of living with the Negro in order to be able to
live with himself.
Harper's Magazine Oct. 1953 "Stranger in a Village"
If the concept of God has any validity or any use, it can only be to make
us larger, freer, and more loving. If God cannot do this, then it is time
we got rid of Him.
New Yorker 17 Nov. 1962 "Down at the Cross"
If they take you in the morning, they will be coming for us that night.
New York Review of Books 7 Jan. 1971 "Open Letter to my Sister, Angela
Davis"
It comes as a great shock around the age of 5, 6 or 7 to discover that the
flag to which you have pledged allegiance, along with everybody else, has
not pledged allegiance to you. It comes as a great shock to see Gary
Cooper killing off the Indians and, although you are rooting for Gary
Cooper, that the Indians are you.
Speech at Cambridge University, 17 Feb. 1965, in New York Times Magazine 7
March 1965, p. 32
The situation of our youth is not mysterious. Children have never been
very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to
imitate them. They must, they have no other models.
Nobody Knows My Name (1961) "Fifth Avenue, Uptown: a letter from Harlem"
Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive
it is to be poor.
Nobody Knows My Name (1961) "Fifth Avenue, Uptown: a letter from Harlem"
Freedom is not something that anybody can be given; freedom is something
people take and people are as free as they want to be.
Nobody Knows My Name (1961) "Notes for a Hypothetical Novel"
2.7 Stanley Baldwin (Earl Baldwin of Bewdley)
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1867-1947
Do not run up your nose dead against the Pope or the NUM!
In Lord Butler Art of Memory (1982) p. 110
You will find in politics that you are much exposed to the attribution of
false motive. Never complain and never explain.
In Harold Nicolson Diary (1967) 21 July 1943
They [parliament] are a lot of hard-faced men who look as if they had done
very well out of the war.
In J. M. Keynes Economic Consequences of the Peace (1919) ch. 5
A platitude is simply a truth repeated until people get tired of hearing
it.
Hansard 29 May 1924, col. 727
I think it is well also for the man in the street to realize that there is
no power on earth that can protect him from being bombed. Whatever people
may tell him, the bomber will always get through. The only defence is in
offence, which means that you have to kill more women and children more
quickly than the enemy if you want to save yourselves.
Hansard 10 Nov. 1932, col. 632
Let us never forget this; since the day of the air, the old frontiers are
gone. When you think of the defence of England you no longer think of the
chalk cliffs of Dover; you think of the Rhine. That is where our frontier
lies.
Hansard 30 July 1934, col. 2339
I shall be but a short time tonight. I have seldom spoken with greater
regret, for my lips are not yet unsealed. Were these troubles over I would
make case, and I guarantee that not a man would go into the lobby against
us.
Hansard 10 Dec. 1935, col. 856
I put before the whole House my own views with an appalling frankness.
...Supposing I had gone to the country and said that Germany was rearming
and that we must rearm, does anybody think that this pacific democracy
would have rallied to that cry at that moment? I cannot think of anything
that would have made the loss of the election from my point of view more
certain.
Hansard 12 Nov. 1936, col. 1144
There are three classes which need sanctuary more than others--birds, wild
flowers, and Prime Ministers.
In Observer 24 May 1925
Then comes Winston with his hundred-horse-power mind and what can I do?
In G. M. Young Stanley Baldwin (1952) ch. 11
The intelligent are to the intelligentsia what a gentleman is to a gent.
In G. M. Young Stanley Baldwin (1952) ch. 13
"Safety first" does not mean a smug self-satisfaction with everything as
it is. It is a warning to all persons who are going to cross a road in
dangerous circumstances.
The Times 21 May 1929
Had the employers of past generations all of them dealt fairly with their
men there would have been no unions.
Speech in Birmingham, 14 Jan. 1931, in The Times 15 Jan. 1931
2.8 Arthur James Balfour (Earl of Balfour)
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1848-1930
His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine
of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best
endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly
understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and
religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the
rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.
Letter to Lord Rothschild 2 Nov. 1917, in K. Young A. J. Balfour (1963) p.
478
Frank Harris...said..."The fact is, Mr Balfour, all the faults of the age
come from Christianity and journalism." To which Arthur
replied..."Christianity, of course...but why journalism?"
Margot Asquith Autobiography (1920) vol. 1, ch. 10
I never forgive but I always forget.
In R. Blake Conservative Party (1970) ch. 7
I thought he [Churchill] was a young man of promise, but it appears he is
a young man of promises.
In Winston Churchill My Early Life (1930) ch. 17
Biography should be written by an acute enemy.
In Observer 30 Jan. 1927
It is unfortunate, considering that enthusiasm moves the world, that so
few enthusiasts can be trusted to speak the truth.
Letter to Mrs Drew, 19 May 1891, in Some Hawarden Letters (1917) ch. 7
2.9 Whitney Balliett
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1926-
Critics are biased, and so are readers. (Indeed, a critic is a bundle of
biases held loosely together by a sense of taste.) But intelligent readers
soon discover how to allow for the windage of their own and a critic's
prejudices.
Dinosaurs in the Morning (1962) introductory note
The sound of surprise.
Title of book on jazz (1959)
2.10 Pierre Balmain
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1914-1982
The trick of wearing mink is to look as though you were wearing a cloth
coat. The trick of wearing a cloth coat is to look as though you are
wearing mink.
In Observer 25 Dec. 1955
2.11 Tallulah Bankhead
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1903-1968
I'm as pure as the driven slush.
Quoted by Maurice Zolotow in Saturday Evening Post 12 Apr. 1947
There is less in this than meets the eye.
In Alexander Woollcott Shouts and Murmurs (1922) ch. 4 (describing a
revival of Maeterlinck's play "Aglavaine and Selysette")
Cocaine habit-forming? Of course not. I ought to know. I've been using it
for years.
Tallulah (1952) ch. 4
2.12 Nancy Banks-Smith
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In my experience, if you have to keep the lavatory door shut by extending
your left leg, it's modern architecture.
Guardian 20 Feb. 1979
I'm still suffering from the big dnouement in [Jeffrey Archer's book] Not
A Penny More when "the three stood motionless like sheep in the stare of a
python." The whole thing keeps me awake at night. Here are these sheep,
gambolling about in the Welsh jungle, when up pops a python. A python,
what's more, who thinks he's a cobra.
Guardian 26 Mar. 1990
2.13 Imamu Amiri Baraka (Everett LeRoi Jones)
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1934-
A rich man told me recently that a liberal is a man who tells other people
what to do with their money.
Kulchur Spring 1962 "Tokenism"
A man is either free or he is not. There cannot be any apprenticeship for
freedom.
Kulchur Spring 1962 "Tokenism"
God has been replaced, as he has all over the West, with respectability
and airconditioning.
Midstream (1963) p. 39
2.14 W. N. P. Barbellion (Bruce Frederick Cummings)
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1889-1919
Give me the man who will surrender the whole world for a moss or a
caterpillar, and impracticable visions for a simple human delight. Yes,
that shall be my practice. I prefer Richard Jefferies to Swedenborg and
Oscar Wilde to Thomas Kempis.
Enjoying Life and Other Literary Remains (1919) "Crying for the Moon"
Am writing an essay on the life-history of insects and have abandoned the
idea of writing on "How Cats Spend their Time."
Journal of a Disappointed Man (1919) 3 Jan. 1903
I can remember wondering as a child if I were a young Macaulay or Ruskin
and secretly deciding that I was. My infant mind even was bitter with
those who insisted on regarding me as a normal child and not as a prodigy.
Journal of a Disappointed Man (1919) 23 Oct. 1910
2.15 Maurice Baring
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1874-1945
In Mozart and Salieri we see the contrast between the genius which does
what it must and the talent which does what it can.
Outline of Russian Literature (1914) ch. 3
2.16 Ronnie Barker
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1929-
The marvellous thing about a joke with a double meaning is that it can
only mean one thing.
Sauce (1977) "Daddie's Sauce"
2.17 Frederick R. Barnard
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One picture is worth ten thousand words.
Printers' Ink 10 Mar. 1927
2.18 Clive Barnes
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1927-
This [Oh, Calcutta!] is the kind of show to give pornography a dirty name.
New York Times 18 June 1969, p. 33
2.19 Julian Barnes
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1946-
What does this journey seem like to those who aren't British--as they head
towards the land of embarrassment and breakfast?
Flaubert's Parrot (1984) ch. 7
The writer must be universal in sympathy and an outcast by nature: only
then can he see clearly.
Flaubert's Parrot (1984) ch. 10
Do not imagine that Art is something which is designed to give gentle
uplift and self-confidence. Art is not a brassire. At least, not in the
English sense. But do not forget that brassire is the French for
life-jacket.
Flaubert's Parrot (1984) ch. 10
Books say: she did this because. Life says: she did this. Books are where
things are explained to you; life is where things aren't. I'm not
surprised some people prefer books. Books make sense of life. The only
problem is that the lives they make sense of are other people's lives,
never your own.
Flaubert's Parrot (1984) ch. 13
2.20 Peter Barnes
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1931-
Claire: How do you know you're...God?
Earl of gurney: Simple. When I pray to Him I find I'm talking to
myself.
The Ruling Class (1969) act 1, sc. 4
2.21 Sir J. M. Barrie
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1860-1937
I'm not young enough to know everything.
The Admirable Crichton (performed 1902, pubd. 1914) act 1
His lordship may compel us to be equal upstairs, but there will never be
equality in the servants' hall.
The Admirable Crichton (performed 1902, pubd. 1914) act 1
It's my deserts; I'm a second eleven sort of chap.
The Admirable Crichton (performed 1902, pubd. 1914) act 3
Times have changed since a certain author was executed for murdering his
publisher. They say that when the author was on the scaffold he said
goodbye to the minister and to the reporters, and then he saw some
publishers sitting in the front row below, and to them he did not say
goodbye. He said instead, "I'll see you later."
Speech at Aldine Club, New York, 5 Nov. 1896, in Critic 14 Nov. 1896
The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and
writes another; and his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it
is with what he vowed to make it.
The Little Minister (1891) vol. 1, ch. 1
It's grand, and you canna expect to be baith grand and comfortable.
The Little Minister (1891) vol. 1, ch. 10
I loathe entering upon explanations to anybody about anything.
My Lady Nicotine (1890) ch. 14
When the first baby laughed for the first time, the laugh broke into a
thousand pieces and they all went skipping about, and that was the
beginning of fairies.
Peter Pan (1928) act 1
Every time a child says "I don't believe in fairies" there is a little
fairy somewhere that falls down dead.
Peter Pan (1928) act 1
To die will be an awfully big adventure.
Peter Pan (1928) act 3. Cf. Charles Frohman
Do you believe in fairies? Say quick that you believe! If you believe,
clap your hands!
Peter Pan (1928) act 4
That is ever the way. 'Tis all jealousy to the bride and good wishes to
the corpse.
Quality Street (performed 1901, pubd. 1913) act 1
The printing press is either the greatest blessing or the greatest curse
of modern times, one sometimes forgets which.
Sentimental Tommy (1896) ch. 5
Someone said that God gave us memory so that we might have roses in
December.
Rectorial Address at St Andrew's, 3 May 1922, in The Times 4 May 1922
Never ascribe to an opponent motives meaner than your own.
Rectorial Address at St Andrew's, 3 May 1922, in The Times 4 May 1922
Courage is the thing. All goes if courage goes!
Rectorial Address at St Andrews, 3 May 1922, in The Times 4 May 1922
For several days after my first book was published I carried it about in
my pocket, and took surreptitious peeps at it to make sure that the ink
had not faded.
Speech at the Critics' Circle in London, 26 May 1922, in The Times 27 May
1922
Have you ever noticed, Harry, that many jewels make women either
incredibly fat or incredibly thin?
The Twelve-Pound Look and Other Plays (1921) p. 27
One's religion is whatever he is most interested in, and yours is Success.
The Twelve-Pound Look and Other Plays (1921) p. 28
Oh the gladness of her gladness when she's glad,
And the sadness of her sadness when she's sad,
But the gladness of her gladness
And the sadness of her sadness
Are as nothing, Charles,
To the badness of her badness when she's bad.
Rosalind in The Twelve-Pound Look and Other Plays (1921) p. 113
Charm...it's a sort of bloom on a woman. If you have it, you don't need
to have anything else; and if you don't have it, it doesn't much matter
what else you have. Some women, the few, have charm for all; and most have
charm for one. But some have charm for none.
What Every Woman Knows (1918) act 1
A young Scotsman of your ability let loose upon the world with 300, what
could he not do? It's almost appalling to think of; especially if he went
among the English.
What Every Woman Knows (1918) act 1
My lady, there are few more impressive sights in the world than a Scotsman
on the make.
What Every Woman Knows (1918) act 2
You've forgotten the grandest moral attribute of a Scotsman, Maggie, that
he'll do nothing which might damage his career.
What Every Woman Knows (1918) act 2
The tragedy of a man who has found himself out.
What Every Woman Knows (1918) act 4
Every man who is high up loves to think that he has done it all himself;
and the wife smiles, and lets it go at that. It's our only joke. Every
woman knows that.
What Every Woman Knows (1918) act 4
2.22 Ethel Barrymore
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1879-1959
For an actress to be a success, she must have the face of a Venus, the
brains of a Minerva, the grace of Terpsichore, the memory of a Macaulay,
the figure of Juno, and the hide of a rhinoceros.
In George Jean Nathan The Theatre in the Fifties (1953) p. 30
2.23 John Barrymore
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1882-1942
He [Barrymore] would quote from Genesis the text which says, "It is not
good for man to be alone," and then add, "But O my God, what a relief."
Alma Power-Waters John Barrymore (1941) ch. 13
My only regret in the theatre is that I could never sit out front and
watch me.
In Eddie Cantor The Way I See It (1959) ch. 2
Die? I should say not, old fellow. No Barrymore would allow such a
conventional thing to happen to him.
In Lionel Barrymore We Barrymores (1951) ch. 26
2.24 Lionel Bart
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1930-
See Frank Norman (14.23)
2.25 Karl Barth
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1886-1968
Die Menschen aber waren nie gut, sind es nicht und werden es auch nie
sein.
Men have never been good, they are not good and they never will be good.
Christliche Gemeinde (Christian Community, 1948) p. 36
Whether the angels play only Bach in praising God I am not quite sure; I
am sure, however, that en famille they play Mozart.
In New York Times 11 Dec. 1968, p. 42
2.26 Roland Barthes
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1915-1980
Ce que le public rclame, c'est l'image de la passion, non la passion
elle-mme.
What the public wants is the image of passion, not passion itself.
Esprit (1952) vol. 20, pt. 10, p. 412 "Le monde o l'on catche" (The
world of wrestling)
Je crois que l'automobile est aujourd'hui l'quivalent assez exact des
grandes cathdrales gothiques: je veux dire une grande cration d'poque,
conue passionnment par des artistes inconnus, consomme dans son image,
sinon dans son usage, par un peuple entier qui s'approprie en elle un
objet parfaitement magique.
I think that cars today are almost the exact equivalent of the great
Gothic cathedrals: I mean the supreme creation of an era, conceived with
passion by unknown artists, and consumed in image if not in usage by a
whole population which appropriates them as a purely magical object.
Mythologies (1957) "La nouvelle Citron" (The new Citron)
2.27 Bernard Baruch
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1870-1965
To me old age is always fifteen years older than I am.
In Newsweek 29 Aug. 1955
Vote for the man who promises least; he'll be the least disappointing.
In Meyer Berger New York (1960)
Let us not be deceived--we are today in the midst of a cold war.
Speech to South Carolina Legislature 16 Apr. 1947, in New York Times 17
Apr. 1947, p. 21
A political leader must keep looking over his shoulder all the time to see
if the boys are still there. If they aren't still there, he's no longer a
political leader.
In New York Times 21 June 1965, p. 16
You can talk about capitalism and communism and all that sort of thing,
but the important thing is the struggle everybody is engaged in to get
better living conditions, and they are not interested too much in forms of
government.
In The Times 20 Aug. 1964
2.28 Jacques Barzun
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1907-
If it were possible to talk to the unborn, one could never explain to them
how it feels to be alive, for life is washed in the speechless real.
The House of Intellect (1959) ch. 6
Art distils sensation and embodies it with enhanced meaning in memorable
form--or else it is not art.
The House of Intellect (1959) ch. 6
2.29 L. Frank Baum
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1856-1919
The road to the City of Emeralds is paved with yellow brick.
Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) ch. 2
2.30 Vicki Baum
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1888-1960
Verheiratet sein verlangt immer und berall die feinsten Kunst der
Unaufrichtigkeit zwischen Mensch und Mensch.
Marriage always demands the finest arts of insincerity possible between
two human beings.
Zwischenfall in Lohwinckel (1930) p. 140, translated by Margaret
Goldsmith as Results of an Accident (1931) p. 140
2.31 Sir Arnold Bax
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1883-1953
A sympathetic Scot summed it all up very neatly in the remark, "You should
make a point of trying every experience once, excepting incest and
folk-dancing."
Farewell, My Youth (1943) p. 17
2.32 Sir Beverley Baxter
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1891-1964
Beaverbrook is so pleased to be in the Government that he is like the town
tart who has finally married the Mayor!
In Sir Henry Channon Chips: the Diaries (1967) 12 June 1940
2.33 Beachcomber
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See J. B. Morton (13.129)
2.34 David, First Earl Beatty
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1871-1936
There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today [at the
Battle of Jutland].
In S. Roskill Beatty (1980) ch. 8
The German flag will be hauled down at sunset to-day (Thursday) and will
not be hoisted again without permission.
Signal to the Fleet, 21 Nov. 1918, in The Times 22 Nov. 1918
2.35 Lord Beaverbrook (William Maxwell Aitken, first Baron Beaverbrook)
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1879-1964
I ran the paper [Daily Express] purely for propaganda, and with no other
purpose.
Evidence to Royal Commission on the Press, 18 Mar. 1948, in A. J. P.
Taylor Beaverbrook (1972) ch. 23
This is my final word. It is time for me to become an apprentice once
more. I have not settled in which direction. But somewhere, sometime soon.
Speech at Dorchester Hotel, 25 May 1964, in A. J. P. Taylor Beaverbrook
(1972) ch. 25
The Flying Scotsman is no less splendid a sight when it travels north to
Edinburgh than when it travels south to London. Mr Baldwin denouncing
sanctions was as dignified as Mr Baldwin imposing them. At times it seemed
that there were two Mr Baldwins on the stage, a prudent Mr Baldwin, who
scented the danger in foolish projects, and a reckless Mr Baldwin, who
plunged into them head down, eyes shut. But there was, in fact, only one
Mr Baldwin, a well-meaning man of indifferent judgement, who, whether he
did right or wrong, was always sustained by a belief that he was acting
for the best.
Daily Express 29 May 1937
The Daily Express declares that Great Britain will not be involved in a
European war this year or next year either.
Daily Express 19 Sept. 1938
He [Lloyd George] did not seem to care which way he travelled providing he
was in the driver's seat.
Decline and Fall of Lloyd George (1963) ch. 7
Now who is responsible for this work of development on which so much
depends? To whom must the praise be given? To the boys in the back rooms.
They do not sit in the limelight. But they are the men who do the work.
Listener 27 Mar. 1941. Cf. Frank Loesser
With the publication of his [Earl Haig's] Private Papers in 1952, he
committed suicide 25 years after his death.
Men and Power (1956) p. xviii
Churchill on top of the wave has in him the stuff of which tyrants are
made.
Politicians and the War (1932) vol. 2, ch. 6
2.36 Carl Becker
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1873-1945
The significance of man is that he is that part of the universe that asks
the question, What is the significance of Man? He alone can stand apart
imaginatively and, regarding himself and the universe in their eternal
aspects, pronounce a judgment: The significance of man is that he is
insignificant and is aware of it.
Progress and Power (1936) ch. 3
2.37 Samuel Beckett
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1906-1989
It is suicide to be abroad. But what is it to be at home, Mr Tyler, what
is it to be at home? A lingering dissolution.
All That Fall (1957) p. 10
We could have saved sixpence. We have saved fivepence. (Pause) But at what
cost?
All That Fall (1957) p. 25
Clov: Do you believe in the life to come?
Hamm: Mine was always that.
Endgame (1958) p. 35
Personally I have no bone to pick with graveyards, I take the air there
willingly, perhaps more willingly than elsewhere, when take the air I
must.
First Love (1973) p. 8
If I had the use of my body I would throw it out of the window.
Malone Dies (1958) p. 44
Where I am, I don't know, I'll never know, in the silence you don't know,
you must go on, I can't go on, I'll go on.
The Unnamable (1959) p. 418
Nothing to be done.
Waiting for Godot (1955) act 1
One of the thieves was saved. (Pause) It's a reasonable percentage.
Waiting for Godot (1955) act 1
Estragon: Charming spot. Inspiring prospects. Let's go.
Vladimir: We can't.
Estragon: Why not?
Vladimir: We're waiting for Godot.
Waiting for Godot (1955) act 1
Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes, it's awful!
Waiting for Godot (1955) act 1
He can't think without his hat.
Waiting for Godot (1955) act 1
Vladimir: That passed the time.
Estragon: It would have passed in any case.
Vladimir: Yes, but not so rapidly.
Waiting for Godot (1955) act 1
We always find something, eh, Didi, to give us the impression that we
exist?
Waiting for Godot (1955) act 2
We are not saints, but we have kept our appointment. How many people can
boast as much?
Waiting for Godot (1955) act 2
We all are born mad. Some remain so.
Waiting for Godot (1955) act 2
They give birth astride of a grave, the light gleams an instant, then it's
night once more.
Waiting for Godot (1955) act 2
The air is full of our cries. (He listens.) But habit is a great deadener.
Waiting for Godot (1955) act 2
2.38 Harry Bedford and Terry Sullivan
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I'm a bit of a ruin that Cromwell knock'd about a bit.
It's a Bit of a Ruin that Cromwell Knocked about a Bit (1920 song; written
for Marie Lloyd)
2.39 Sir Thomas Beecham
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1879-1961
A musicologist is a man who can read music but can't hear it.
In H. Proctor-Gregg Beecham Remembered (1976) pt. 2, p. 154
There are two golden rules for an orchestra: start together and finish
together. The public doesn't give a damn what goes on in between.
In Harold Atkins and Archie Newman Beecham Stories (1978) p. 27
[The harpsichord] sounds like two skeletons copulating on a corrugated tin
roof.
In Harold Atkins and Archie Newman Beecham Stories (1978) p. 34
In the first movement alone, of the Seventh Symphony [by Bruckner], I took
note of six pregnancies and at least four miscarriages.
In Harold Atkins and Archie Newman Beecham Stories (1978) p. 50
[Herbert von Karajan is] a kind of musical Malcolm Sargent.
In Harold Atkins and Archie Newman Beecham Stories (1978) p. 61
I am not the greatest conductor in this country. On the other hand I'm
better than any damned foreigner.
In Daily Express 9 Mar. 1961
Musicians did not like the piece [Strauss's Elektra] at all. One eminent
British composer on leaving the theatre was asked what he thought of it.
"Words fail me," he replied, "and I'm going home at once to play the chord
of C major twenty times over to satisfy myself that it still exists."
Mingled Chime (1944) ch. 18
The plain fact is that music per se means nothing; it is sheer sound, and
the interpreter can do no more with it than his own capacities, mental and
spiritual, will allow, and the same applies to the listener.
Mingled Chime (1944) ch. 33
The English may not like music, but they absolutely love the noise it
makes.
In New York Herald Tribune 9 Mar. 1961
Good music is that which penetrates the ear with facility and quits the
memory with difficulty.
Speech, circa 1950, in New York Times 9 Mar. 1961
All the arts in America are a gigantic racket run by unscrupulous men for
unhealthy women.
In Observer 5 May 1946
Hark! the herald angels sing!
Beecham's Pills are just the thing,
Two for a woman, one for a child...
Peace on earth and mercy mild!
In Neville Cardus Sir Thomas Beecham (1961) p. 23
At a rehearsal I let the orchestra play as they like. At the concert I
make them play as I like.
In Neville Cardus Sir Thomas Beecham (1961) p. 111
Dear old Elgar --he is furious with me for drastically cutting his A flat
symphony --it's a very long work, the musical equivalent of the Towers of
St Pancras Station--neo-Gothic, you know.
In Neville Cardus Sir Thomas Beecham (1961) p. 113
I am entirely with you in your obvious reluctance to rehearse on a morning
as chilly and dismal as this--but please do try to keep in touch with us
from time to time.
In Neville Cardus Sir Thomas Beecham (1961) p. 113
Why do we have to have all these third-rate foreign conductors
around--when we have so many second-rate ones of our own?
In L. Ayre Wit of Music (1966) p. 70
2.40 Sir Max Beerbohm
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1872-1956
I have known no man of genius who had not to pay, in some affliction or
defect either physical or spiritual, for what the gods had given him.
And Even Now (1920) "No. 2, The Pines"
One might well say that mankind is divisible into two great classes: hosts
and guests.
And Even Now (1920) "Hosts and Guests"
I maintain that though you would often in the fifteenth century have heard
the snobbish Roman say, in a would-be off-hand tone, "I am dining with the
Borgias tonight," no Roman ever was able to say, "I dined last night with
the Borgias."
And Even Now (1920) "Hosts and Guests"
They so very indubitably are, you know!
Christmas Garland (1912) "Mote in the Middle Distance"
Of course he [William Morris] was a wonderful all-round man, but the act
of walking round him has always tired me.
Letter to S. N. Behrman circa1953, in Conversations with Max (1960) ch. 2
A swear-word in a rustic slum
A simple swear-word is to some,
To Masefield something more.
Fifty Caricatures (1912) no. 12
Not that I had any special reason for hating school! Strange as it may
seem to my readers, I was not unpopular there. I was a modest,
good-humoured boy. It is Oxford that has made me insufferable.
More (1899) "Going Back to School"
Undergraduates owe their happiness chiefly to the consciousness that they
are no longer at school. The nonsense which was knocked out of them at
school is all put gently back at Oxford or Cambridge.
More (1899) "Going Back to School"
I have the satiric temperament: when I am laughing at anyone I am
generally rather amusing, but when I am praising anyone, I am always
deadly dull.
Saturday Review 28 May 1898
The only tribute a French translator can pay Shakespeare is not to
translate him--even to please Sarah [Bernhardt].
Saturday Review 17 June 1899
"I'm afraid I found [the British Museum] rather a depressing place. It--it
seemed to sap one's vitality." "It does. That's why I go there. The lower
one's vitality, the more sensitive one is to great art."
Seven Men (1919) "Enoch Soames"
Enter Michael Angelo. Andrea del Sarto appears for a moment at a window.
Pippa passes.
Seven Men (1919) "Savonarola Brown" act 3
Most women are not so young as they are painted.
Yellow Book (1894) vol. 1, p. 67
"After all," as a pretty girl once said to me, "women are a sex by
themselves, so to speak."
Yellow Book (1894) vol. 1, p. 70
Fate wrote her [Queen Caroline of Brunswick] a most tremendous tragedy,
and she played it in tights.
Yellow Book (1894) vol. 3, p. 260
There is always something rather absurd about the past.
Yellow Book (1895) vol. 4, p. 282
To give an accurate and exhaustive account of the period would need a far
less brilliant pen than mine.
Yellow Book (1895) vol. 4, p. 283
None, it is said, of all who revelled with the Regent, was half so wicked
as Lord George Hell.
Yellow Book (1896) vol. 11, p. 11 "Happy Hypocrite" ch. 1
The fading signals and grey eternal walls of that antique station, which,
familiar to them and insignificant, does yet whisper to the tourist the
last enchantments of the Middle Age.
Zuleika Dobson (1911) ch. 1
Zuleika, on a desert island, would have spent most of her time in looking
for a man's footprint.
Zuleika Dobson (1911) ch. 2
The dullard's envy of brilliant men is always assuaged by the suspicion
that they will come to bad end.
Zuleika Dobson (1911) ch. 4
Women who love the same man have a kind of bitter freemasonry.
Zuleika Dobson (1911) ch. 4
You will find that the woman who is really kind to dogs is always one who
has failed to inspire sympathy in men.
Zuleika Dobson (1911) ch. 6
Beauty and the lust for learning have yet to be allied.
Zuleika Dobson (1911) ch. 7
You will think me lamentably crude: my experience of life has been drawn
from life itself.
Zuleika Dobson (1911) ch. 7
He held, too, in his enlightened way, that Americans have a perfect right
to exist. But he did often find himself wishing Mr Rhodes had not enabled
them to exercise that right in Oxford.
Zuleika Dobson (1911) ch. 8
She was one of the people who say "I don't know anything about music
really, but I know what I like."
Zuleika Dobson (1911) ch. 9. Cf. Henry James 112:3
You cannot make a man by standing a sheep on its hind-legs. But by
standing a flock of sheep in that position you can make a crowd of men.
Zuleika Dobson (1911) ch. 9
Deeply regret inform your grace last night two black owls came and perched
on battlements remained there through night hooting at dawn flew away none
knows whither awaiting instructions Jellings.
Zuleika Dobson (1911) ch. 14
Prepare vault for funeral Monday Dorset.
Zuleika Dobson (1911) ch. 14
The Socratic manner is not a game at which two can play. Please answer my
question, to the best of your ability.
Zuleika Dobson (1911) ch. 15
Byron!--he would be all forgotten today if he had lived to be a florid old
gentleman with iron-grey whiskers, writing very long, very able letters to
The Times about the Repeal of the Corn Laws.
Zuleika Dobson (1911) ch. 18
2.41 Brendan Behan
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1923-1964
He was born an Englishman and remained one for years.
Hostage (1958) act 1
Pat: He was an Anglo-Irishman.
Meg: In the blessed name of God what's that?
Pat: A Protestant with a horse.
Hostage (1958) act 1
Meanwhile I'll sing that famous old song, "The Hound that Caught the Pubic
Hare."
Hostage (1958) act 1
When I came back to Dublin, I was courtmartialled in my absence and
sentenced to death in my absence, so I said they could shoot me in my
absence.
Hostage (1958) act 1
Soldier: What's a mixed infant?
Teresa: A little boy or girl under five years old. They were called
mixed infants because until that time the boys and girls were mixed
together.
Soldier: I wish I'd been a mixed infant.
Hostage (1958) act 2
I am a sociable worker. Have you your testament?
Hostage (1958) act 2
Go on, abuse me--your own husband that took you off the streets on a
Sunday morning, when there wasn't a pub open in the city.
Hostage (1958) act 2
We're here because we're queer
Because we're queer because we're here.
Hostage (1958) act 3
There's no such thing as bad publicity except your own obituary.
In Dominic Behan My Brother Brendan (1965) p. 158
2.42 John Hay Beith
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See Ian Hay (8.33)
2.43 Clive Bell
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1881-1964
One account...given me by a very good artist, is that what he tries to
express in a picture is "a passionate apprehension of form."
Art (1914) pt. 1, ch. 3
It would follow that "significant form" was form behind which we catch a
sense of ultimate reality.
Art (1914) pt. 1, ch. 3
Art and Religion are, then, two roads by which men escape from
circumstance to ecstasy. Between aesthetic and religious rapture there is
a family alliance. Art and Religion are means to similar states of mind.
Art (1914) pt. 2, ch. 1
I will try to account for the degree of my aesthetic emotion. That, I
conceive, is the function of the critic.
Art (1914) pt. 3 ch. 3
Only reason can convince us of those three fundamental truths without a
recogniton of which there can be no effective liberty: that what we
believe is not necessarily true; that what we like is not necessarily
good; and that all questions are open.
Civilization (1928) ch. 5
2.44 Henry Bellamann
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"Randy--where--where's the rest of me?" His voice rose to a sharp wail.
King's Row (1940) pt. 5, ch. 1 (also used in the 1941 film of the book,
where the line was spoken by Ronald Reagan)
2.45 Hilaire Belloc
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1870-1953
Child! do not throw this book about;
Refrain from the unholy pleasure
Of cutting all the pictures out!
Preserve it as your chiefest treasure.
Bad Child's Book of Beasts (1896) dedication
I call you bad, my little child,
Upon the title page,
Because a manner rude and wild
Is common at your age.
Bad Child's Book of Beasts (1896) introduction
Who take their manners from the Ape,
Their habits from the Bear,
Indulge in loud unseemly jape,
And never brush their hair.
Bad Child's Book of Beasts (1896) introduction
Mothers of large families (who claim to common sense)
Will find a Tiger well repay the trouble and expense.
Bad Child's Book of Beasts (1896) "The Tiger"
I shoot the Hippopotamus
With bullets made of platinum,
Because if I use leaden ones
His hide is sure to flatten 'em.
Bad Child's Book of Beasts (1896) "The Hippopotamus"
When people call this beast to mind,
They marvel more and more
At such a little tail behind,
So large a trunk before.
Bad Child's Book of Beasts (1896) "The Elephant"
And always keep a-hold of Nurse
For fear of finding something worse.
Cautionary Tales (1907) "Jim"
The Chief Defect of Henry King
Was chewing little bits of String.
Cautionary Tales (1907) "Henry King"
Physicians of the Utmost Fame
Were called at once; but when they came
They answered, as they took their Fees,
"There is no Cure for this Disease."
Cautionary Tales (1907) "Henry King"
"Oh, my Friends, be warned by me,
That Breakfast, Dinner, Lunch, and Tea
Are all the Human Frame requires..."
With that, the Wretched Child expires.
Cautionary Tales (1907) "Henry King"
Matilda told such Dreadful Lies,
It made one Gasp and Stretch one's Eyes;
Her Aunt, who, from her Earliest Youth,
Had kept a Strict Regard for Truth,
Attempted to Believe Matilda:
The effort very nearly killed her.
Cautionary Tales (1907) "Matilda"
It happened that a few Weeks later
Her Aunt was off to the Theatre
To see that Interesting Play
The Second Mrs Tanqueray.
Cautionary Tales (1907) "Matilda"
For every time She shouted "Fire!"
They only answered "Little Liar!"
And therefore when her Aunt returned,
Matilda, and the House, were Burned.
Cautionary Tales (1907) "Matilda"
In my opinion, Butlers ought
To know their place, and not to play
The Old Retainer night and day.
Cautionary Tales (1907) "Lord Lundy"
Sir! you have disappointed us!
We had intended you to be
The next Prime Minister but three:
The stocks were sold; the Press was squared;
The Middle Class was quite prepared.
But as it is!...My language fails!
Go out and govern New South Wales!
Cautionary Tales (1907) "Lord Lundy"
A Trick that everyone abhors
In Little Girls is slamming Doors.
Cautionary Tales (1907) "Rebecca"
She was not really bad at heart,
But only rather rude and wild:
She was an aggravating child.
Cautionary Tales (1907) "Rebecca"
The nicest child I ever knew
Was Charles Augustus Fortescue.
He never lost his cap, or tore
His stockings or his pinafore :
In eating Bread he made no Crumbs,
He was extremely fond of sums.
Cautionary Tales (1907) "Charles Augustus Fortescue"
The pleasure politicians take in their limelight pleases me with a sort of
pleasure I get when I see a child's eyes gleam over a new toy.
Conversation with a Cat (1931) ch. 17
Gentlemen, I am a Catholic. As far as possible, I go to Mass every day.
This is a rosary. As far as possible, I kneel down and tell these beads
every day. If you reject me on account of my religion, I shall thank God
that He has spared me the indignity of being your representative.
Speech to voters of South Salford, 1906, in R. Speaight Life of Hilaire
Belloc (1957) ch. 10
I always like to associate with a lot of priests because it makes me
understand anti-clerical things so well.
Letter to E. S. P. Haynes, 9 Nov. 1909, in R. Speaight Life of Hilaire
Belloc (1957) ch. 17
Whatever happens we have got
The Maxim Gun, and they have not.
Modern Traveller (1898) pt. 6
I had an Aunt in Yucatan
Who bought a Python from a man
And kept it for a pet.
She died, because she never knew
These simple little rules and few;--
The Snake is living yet.
More Beasts for Worse Children (1897) "The Python"
The Llama is a woolly sort of fleecy hairy goat,
With an indolent expression and an undulating throat
Like an unsuccessful literary man.
More Beasts for Worse Children (1897) "The Llama"
The Microbe is so very small
You cannot make him out at all.
More Beasts for Worse Children (1897) "The Microbe"
Oh! let us never, never doubt
What nobody is sure about!
More Beasts for Worse Children (1897) "The Microbe"
Lord Finchley tried to mend the Electric Light
Himself. It struck him dead: And serve him right!
It is the business of the wealthy man
To give employment to the artisan.
More Peers (1911) "Lord Finchley"
Lord Hippo suffered fearful loss
By putting money on a horse
Which he believed, if it were pressed,
Would run far faster than the rest.
More Peers (1911) "Lord Hippo"
Like many of the Upper Class
He liked the Sound of Broken Glass.
New Cautionary Tales (1930) "About John." Cf. Evelyn Waugh 222:19
Birds in their little nests agree
With Chinamen, but not with me.
New Cautionary Tales (1930) "On Food"
It is the best of all trades, to make songs, and the second best to sing
them.
On Everything (1909) "On Song"
Is there no Latin word for Tea? Upon my soul, if I had known that I would
have let the vulgar stuff alone.
On Nothing (1908) "On Tea"
Strong brother in God and last companion, Wine.
Short Talks with the Dead (1926) "Heroic Poem upon Wine"
Sally is gone that was so kindly
Sally is gone from Ha'nacker Hill.
Sonnets and Verse (1923) "Ha'nacker Mill"
Do you remember an Inn,
Miranda?
Do you remember an Inn?
And the tedding and the spreading
Of the straw for a bedding,
And the fleas that tease in the High Pyrenees
And the wine that tasted of the tar?
Sonnets and Verse (1923) "Tarantella"
When I am dead, I hope it may be said:
"His sins were scarlet, but his books were read."
Sonnets and Verse (1923) "On His Books"
The Devil, having nothing else to do,
Went off to tempt My Lady Poltagrue.
My Lady, tempted by a private whim,
To his extreme annoyance, tempted him.
Sonnets and Verse (1923) "On Lady Poltagrue"
Of this bad world the loveliest and the best
Has smiled and said "Good Night," and gone to rest.
Sonnets and Verse (1923) "On a Dead Hostess"
The accursed power which stands on Privilege
(And goes with Women, and Champagne, and Bridge)
Broke--and Democracy resumed her reign:
(Which goes with Bridge, and Women and Champagne).
Sonnets and Verse (1923) "On a Great Election"
Lady, when your lovely head
Droops to sink among the Dead,
And the quiet places keep
You that so divinely sleep;
Then the dead shall blessd be
With a new solemnity,
For such Beauty, so descending,
Pledges them that Death is ending,
Sleep your fill--but when you wake
Dawn shall over Lethe break.
Sonnets and Verse (1923) "On a Sleeping Friend"
I'm tired of Love: I'm still more tired of Rhyme.
But Money gives me pleasure all the time.
Sonnets and Verse (1923) "Fatigued"
Pale Ebenezer thought it wrong to fight,
But Roaring Bill (who killed him) thought it right.
Sonnets and Verse (ed. 2, 1938) "The Pacifist"
I am a sundial, and I make a botch
Of what is done much better by a watch.
Sonnets and Verse (ed. 2, 1938) "On a Sundial"
From the towns all Inns have been driven: from the villages most....Change
your hearts or you will lose your Inns and you will deserve to have lost
them. But when you have lost your Inns drown your empty selves, for you
will have lost the last of England.
This and That (1912) "On Inns"
When I am living in the Midlands
That are sodden and unkind,
I light my lamp in the evening:
My work is left behind;
And the great hills of the South Country
Come back into my mind.
Verses (1910) "The South Country"
If I ever become a rich man,
Or if ever I grow to be old,
I will build a house with deep thatch
To shelter me from the cold,
And there shall the Sussex songs be sung
And the story of Sussex told.
I will hold my house in the high wood
Within a walk of the sea,
And the men that were boys when I was a boy
Shall sit and drink with me.
Verses (1910) "The South Country"
Of Courtesy, it is much less
Than Courage of Heart or Holiness,
Yet in my Walks it seems to me
That the Grace of God is in Courtesy.
Verses (1910) "Courtesy"
Balliol made me, Balliol fed me,
Whatever I had she gave me again:
And the best of Balliol loved and led me.
God be with you, Balliol men.
Verses (1910) "To the Balliol Men Still in Africa"
From quiet homes and first beginning,
Out to the undiscovered ends,
There's nothing worth the wear of winning,
But laughter and the love of friends.
Verses (1910) "Dedicatory Ode"
Remote and ineffectual Don
That dared attack my Chesterton.
Verses (1910) "Lines to a Don"
Don different from those regal Dons!
With hearts of gold and lungs of bronze,
Who shout and bang and roar and bawl
The Absolute across the hall,
Or sail in amply billowing gown
Enormous through the Sacred Town,
Bearing from College to their homes
Deep cargoes of gigantic tomes;
Dons admirable! Dons of Might!
Uprising on my inward sight
Compact of ancient tales, and port
And sleep--and learning of a sort.
Verses (1910) "Lines to a Don"
A smell of burning fills the startled Air--
The Electrician is no longer there!
Verses (1910) "Newdigate Poem"
I said to Heart, "How goes it?" Heart replied:
"Right as a Ribstone Pippin!" But it lied.
Verses (1910) "The False Heart"
The Moon on the one hand, the Dawn on the other;
The Moon is my sister, the Dawn is my brother.
The Moon on my Left and the Dawn on my right.
My Brother, good morning: my Sister good night.
Verses and Sonnets (1896) "The Early Morning"
2.46 Saul Bellow
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1915-
If I am out of my mind, it's all right with me, thought Moses Herzog.
Herzog (1961) p. 1 (opening sentence)
The idea, anyway, was to ward off trouble. But now the moronic inferno had
caught up with me. My elegant car...was mutilated.
Humboldt's Gift (1975) p. 35
The only real distinction at this dangerous moment in human history and
cosmic development has nothing to do with medals and ribbons. Not to fall
asleep is distinguished. Everything else is mere popcorn.
Humboldt's Gift (1975) p. 283
I feel that art has something to do with the achievement of stillness in
the midst of chaos. A stillness which characterizes prayer, too, and the
eye of the storm. I think that art has something to do with an arrest of
attention in the midst of distraction.
In George Plimpton Writers at Work (1967) 3rd series, p. 190
2.47 Robert Benchley
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1889-1945
I haven't been abroad in so long that I almost speak English without an
accent now.
After 1903--What? (1938) p. 241
On a summer vacation trip Benchley arrived in Venice and immediately wired
a friend: "streets flooded. please advise."
In R. E. Drennan Algonquin Wits (1968) p. 45
I do most of my work sitting down; that's where I shine.
In R. E. Drennan Algonquin Wits (1968) p. 55
My only solution for the problem of habitual accidents and, so far, nobody
has asked me for my solution, is to stay in bed all day. Even then, there
is always the chance that you will fall out.
Chips off the old Benchley (1949) "Safety Second"
I had just dozed off into a stupor when I heard what I thought was myself
talking to myself. I didn't pay much attention to it, as I knew
practically everything I would have to say to myself, and wasn't
particularly interested.
Chips off the old Benchley (1949) "First Pigeon of Spring"
A great many people have come up to me and asked how I manage to get so
much work done and still keep looking so dissipated.
Chips off the old Benchley (1949) "How to get things Done"
The biggest obstacle to professional writing is the necessity for changing
a typewriter ribbon.
Chips off the old Benchley (1949) "Learn to Write"
Bob Benchley was one of the few writers I knew who always laughed at other
writers' lines. I always laughed at one of his. When he returned for his
twenty-fifth homecoming at Harvard [in 1937], he stated to underclassmen,
"I feel as I always have, except for an occasional heart attack."
Groucho Marx Grouchophile (1976) p. 204
The surest way to make a monkey of a man is to quote him.
My Ten Years in a Quandary (1936) p. 204
Tell us your phobias and we will tell you what you are afraid of.
My Ten Years in a Quandary (1936) p. 295
He [Benchley] came out of a night club one evening and, tapping a
uniformed figure on the shoulder, said, "Get me a cab." The uniformed
figure turned around furiously and informed him that he was not a doorman
but a rear admiral. "O.K.," said Benchley, "Get me a battleship."
New Yorker 5 Jan. 1946
The famous office that Benchley and Dorothy Parker shared in the
Metropolitan Opera House...was a cramped triangle stolen from a hallway.
"One square foot less and it would be adulterous," said Benchley.
New Yorker 5 Jan. 1946
In America there are two classes of travel--first class, and with
children.
Pluck and Luck (1925) p. 6
Often Daddy sat up very late working on a case of Scotch.
Pluck and Luck (1925) p. 198
A friend told him that the particular drink he was drinking was slow
poison, and he replied, "So who's in a hurry?"
Nathaniel Benchley Robert Benchley (1955) ch. 1
It took me fifteen years to discover that I had no talent for writing, but
I couldn't give it up because by that time I was too famous.
In Nathaniel Benchley Robert Benchley (1955) ch. 1
See also Mae West (23.29)
2.48 Julien Benda
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1867-1956
La trahison des clercs.
The treachery of the intellectuals.
Title of book (1927)
2.49 Stephen Vincent Bent
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1898-1943
We thought we were done with these things but we were wrong.
We thought, because we had power, we had wisdom.
Atlantic Monthly Sept. 1935 "Litany for Dictatorships"
I have fallen in love with American names,
The sharp, gaunt names that never get fat,
The snakeskin-titles of mining-claims,
The plumed war-bonnet of Medicine Hat,
Tucson and Deadwood and Lost Mule Flat.
Yale Review (1927) vol. 17, p. 63 "American Names"
I shall not rest quiet in Montparnasse.
I shall not lie easy at Winchelsea.
You may bury my body in Sussex grass,
You may bury my tongue at Champmdy.
I shall not be there, I shall rise and pass.
Bury my heart at Wounded Knee.
Yale Review (1927) vol. 17, p. 64 "American Names"
2.50 William Rose Bent
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1886-1950
Blake saw a treefull of angels at Peckham Rye,
And his hands could lay hold on the tiger's terrible heart.
Blake knew how deep is Hell, and Heaven how high,
And could build the universe from one tiny part.
Burglar of Zodiac (1918) "Mad Blake"
2.51 Tony Benn
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1925-
A holy war with atom bombs could end the human family for ever. I say this
as a socialist whose political commitment owes much more to the teachings
of Jesus--without the mysteries within which they are presented--than to
the writings of Marx whose analysis seems to lack an understanding of the
deeper needs of humanity.
Arguments for Democracy (1981) ch. 7
The distortion of the Marxist idea that developed in Russia was as great,
and of the same character, as the distortion of the Christian teaching at
the time of the Inquisition. But it is as wholly wrong to blame Marx for
what was done in his name, as it is to blame Jesus for what was done in
his.
In Alan Freeman The Benn Heresy (1982) p. 172
In developing our industrial strategy for the period ahead, we have the
benefit of much experience. Almost everything has been tried at least
once.
Hansard 13 Mar. 1974, col. 197
Broadcasting is really too important to be left to the broadcasters.
In Anthony Sampson The New Anatomy of Britain (1971) ch. 24
It is arguable that what has really happened has amounted to such a
breakdown in the social contract, upon which parliamentary democracy by
universal suffrage was based, that that contract now needs to be
re-negotiated on a basis that shares power much more widely, before it can
win general assent again.
The New Politics (1970) ch. 4
The British House of Lords is the British Outer Mongolia for retired
politicians.
In Observer 4 Feb. 1962
We thought we could put the economy right in five years. We were wrong.
It will probably take ten.
Speech at Bristol, 18 Apr. 1968, in The Times 19 Apr. 1968
2.52 George Bennard
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1873-1958
I will cling to the old rugged cross,
And exchange it some day for a crown.
The Old Rugged Cross (1913 hymn)
2.53 Alan Bennett
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1934-
Life, you know, is rather like opening a tin of sardines. We are all of
us looking for the key. And, I wonder, how many of you here tonight have
wasted years of your lives looking behind the kitchen dressers of this
life for that key. I know I have. Others think they've found the key,
don't they? They roll back the lid of the sardine tin of life, they reveal
the sardines, the riches of life, therein, and they get them out, they
enjoy them. But, you know, there's always a little bit in the corner you
can't get out. I wonder--I wonder, is there a little bit in the corner of
your life? I know there is in mine.
Beyond the Fringe (1961 revue) "Take a Pew," in Roger Wilmut Complete
Beyond the Fringe (1987) p. 104
I have never understood this liking for war. It panders to instincts
already catered for within the scope of any respectable domestic
establishment.
Forty Years On (1969) act 1
We started off trying to set up a small anarchist community, but people
wouldn't obey the rules.
Getting On (1972) act 1
One of the few lessons I have learned in life is that there is invariably
something odd about women who wear ankle socks.
Old Country (1978) act 1
We were put to Dickens as children but it never quite took. That
unremitting humanity soon had me cheesed off.
Old Country (1978) act 2
2.54 Arnold Bennett
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1867-1931
I place it upon record frankly--the Clayhanger trilogy is good....The
scene, for instance, where Darius Clayhanger dies that lingering death
could scarcely be bettered....And why?...Because I took infinite pains
over it. All the time my father was dying, I was at the bedside making
copious notes. You can't just slap these things down. You have to take
trouble.
Overheard conversation with Hugh Walpole circa 1926, in P. G. Wodehouse
and Guy Bolton Bring on the Girls (1954) ch. 15
His opinion of himself, having once risen, remained at "set fair."
The Card (1911) ch. 1
"Ye can call it influenza if ye like," said Mrs Machin. "There was no
influenza in my young days. We called a cold a cold."
The Card (1911) ch. 8
"And yet," demanded Councillor Barlow, "what's he done? Has he ever done
a day's work in his life? What great cause is he identified with?" "He's
identified," said the first speaker, "with the great cause of cheering us
all up."
The Card (1911) ch. 12
My general impression is that Englishmen act better than Frenchmen, and
Frenchwomen better than Englishwomen.
Cupid and Commonsense (1909) preface
Good taste is better than bad taste, but bad taste is better than no
taste, and men without individuality have no taste--at any rate no taste
that they can impose on their publics.
Evening Standard 21 Aug. 1930
"Bah!" she said. "With people like you, love only means one thing." "No,"
he replied. "It means twenty things, but it doesn't mean nineteen."
Journal (1932) 20 Nov. 1904
A test of a first-rate work, and a test of your sincerity in calling it a
first-rate work, is that you finish it.
Things that have Interested Me (1921) "Finishing Books"
In the meantime alcohol produces a delightful social atmosphere that
nothing else can produce.
Things that have Interested Me (1921) "For and Against Prohibition"
Seventy minutes had passed before Mr Lloyd George arrived at his proper
theme. He spoke for a hundred and seventeen minutes, in which period he
was detected only once in the use of an argument.
Things that have Interested Me (1921) "After the March Offensive."
Pessimism, when you get used to it, is just as agreeable as optimism.
Indeed, I think it must be more agreeable, must have a more real savour,
than optimism--from the way in which pessimists abandon themselves to it.
Things that have Interested Me (1921) "Slump in Pessimism"
The price of justice is eternal publicity.
Things that have Interested Me (2nd series, 1923) "Secret Trials"
A cause may be inconvenient, but it's magnificent. It's like champagne or
high heels, and one must be prepared to suffer for it.
The Title (1918) act 1
Examine the Honours List and you can instantly tell how the Government
feels in its inside. When the Honours List is full of rascals,
millionaires, and--er--chumps, you may be quite sure that the Government
is dangerously ill.
The Title (1918) act 1
Being a husband is a whole-time job. That is why so many husbands fail.
They cannot give their entire attention to it.
The Title (1918) act 1
Journalists say a thing that they know isn't true, in the hope that if
they keep on saying it long enough it will be true.
The Title (1918) act 2
Literature's always a good card to play for Honours. It makes people
think that Cabinet ministers are educated.
The Title (1918) act 3
2.55 Ada Benson and Fred Fisher
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1875-1942
Your feet's too big,
Don't want you 'cause your feet's too big,
Mad at you 'cause your feet's too big,
Hates you 'cause your feet's too big.
Your Feet's Too Big (1936 song)
2.56 A. C. Benson
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1862-1925
I don't like authority, at least I don't like other people's authority.
Excerpts from Letters to M. E. A. (1926) p. 41
Land of Hope and Glory, Mother of the Free,
How shall we extol thee who are born of thee?
Wider still and wider shall thy bounds be set;
God who made thee mighty, make thee mightier yet.
Land of Hope and Glory (1902 song; music by Sir Edward Elgar)
2.57 Stella Benson
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1892-1933
Call no man foe, but never love a stranger.
This is the End (1917) p. 63
2.58 Edmund Clerihew Bentley
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1875-1956
When their lordships asked Bacon
How many bribes he had taken
He had at least the grace
To get very red in the face.
Baseless Biography (1939) "Bacon"
The Art of Biography
Is different from Geography.
Geography is about Maps,
But Biography is about Chaps.
Biography for Beginners (1905) introd.
Sir Christopher Wren
Said, "I am going to dine with some men.
If anybody calls
Say I am designing St Paul's."
Biography for Beginners (1905) "Sir Christopher Wren"
Sir Humphrey Davy
Abominated gravy.
He lived in the odium
Of having discovered Sodium.
Biography for Beginners (1905) "Sir Humphrey Davy"
John Stuart Mill,
By a mighty effort of will,
Overcame his natural bonhomie
And wrote "Principles of Political Economy."
Biography for Beginners (1905) "John Stuart Mill"
What I like about Clive
Is that he is no longer alive.
There is a great deal to be said
For being dead.
Biography for Beginners (1905) "Clive"
Edward the Confessor
Slept under the dresser.
When that began to pall,
He slept in the hall.
Biography for Beginners (1905) "Edward the Confessor"
Chapman & Hall
Swore not at all.
Mr Chapman's yea was yea,
And Mr Hall's nay was nay.
Biography for Beginners (1905) "Chapman & Hall"
George the Third
Ought never to have occurred.
One can only wonder
At so grotesque a blunder.
More Biography (1929) "George the Third"
2.59 Eric Bentley
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1916-
The theatre of farce is the theatre of the human body but of that body in
a state as far from the natural as the voice of Chaliapin is from my voice
or yours. It is a theatre in which, though the marionettes are men, the
men are supermarionettes. It is the theatre of the surrealist body.
Life of Drama (1964) ch. 7
Ours is the age of substitutes: instead of language, we have jargon;
instead of principles, slogans; and, instead of genuine ideas, Bright
Ideas.
New Republic 29 Dec. 1952
2.60 Nikolai Berdyaev
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1874-1948
Utopias are realizable, they are more realizable than what has been
presented as "realist politics" and what has simply been the calculated
rationalism of armchair politicians. Life is moving towards utopias. But
perhaps a new age is opening up before us, in which the intelligentsia and
the cultured classes will dream of ways to avoid utopias and to return to
a non-utopian society, to a less "perfect" a freer society.
Novoe srednevekov'e (New Middle Ages, 1924) p. 122
2.61 Lord Charles Beresford
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1846-1919
On one occasion, when at the eleventh hour he [Beresford] had been
summoned to dine with the then Prince of Wales, he is said to have
telegraphed back: "Very sorry can't come. Lie follows by post." This story
has been told of several other people, but Lord Charles was the real
originator.
Ralph Nevill World of Fashion 1837-1922 (1923) ch. 5. Cf. Marcel Proust
176:5
2.62 Henri Bergson
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1859-1941
La fonction essentielle de l'univers, qui est une machine faire des
dieux.
The essential function of the universe, which is a machine for making
gods.
Les Deux sources de la morale et de la religion (The Two Sources of
Morality and Religion, 1932) ch. 4
2.63 Irving Berlin (Israel Baline)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1888-1989
Come on and hear,
Come on and hear,
Alexander's ragtime band,
Come on and hear,
Come on and hear,
It's the best band in the land.
Alexander's Ragtime Band (1911 song)
Anything you can do, I can do better,
I can do anything better than you.
Anything You Can Do (1946 song)
God bless America,
Land that I love,
Stand beside her and guide her
Thru the night with a light from above.
From the mountains to the prairies,
To the oceans white with foam,
God bless America,
My home sweet home.
God Bless America (1939 song)
Oh! how I hate to get up in the morning,
Oh! how I'd love to remain in bed;
For the hardest blow of all,
Is to hear the bugler call,
You've got to get up, you've got to get up,
You've got to get up this morning!
Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning (1918 song)
A pretty girl is like a melody
That haunts you night and day.
A Pretty Girl is like a Melody (1919 song)
The song is ended (but the melody lingers on).
Title of song (1927)
There's no business like show business.
Title of song (1946)
I'm puttin' on my top hat,
Tyin' up my white tie,
Brushin' off my tails.
Top Hat, White Tie and Tails (1935 song)
I'm dreaming of a white Christmas,
Just like the ones I used to know,
Where the tree-tops glisten
And children listen
To hear sleigh bells in the snow.
White Christmas (1942 song)
2.64 Sir Isaiah Berlin
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1909-
There exists a great chasm between those, on one side, who relate
everything to a single central vision...and, on the other side, those who
pursue many ends, often unrelated and even contradictory....The first kind
of intellectual and artistic personality belongs to the hedgehogs, the
second to the foxes.
Hedgehog and Fox (1953) ch. 1
Rousseau was the first militant lowbrow.
Observer 9 Nov. 1952
Liberty is liberty, not equality or fairness or justice or human happiness
or a quiet conscience.
Two Concepts of Liberty (1958) p. 10
2.65 Georges Bernanos
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1888-1948
Le dsir de la prire est dj une prire.
The wish for prayer is a prayer in itself.
Journal d'un cur de campagne (Diary of a Country Priest, 1936) ch. 2
L'enfer, madame, c'est de ne plus aimer.
Hell, madam, is to love no more.
Journal d'un cur de campagne (Diary of a Country Priest, 1936) ch. 2
2.66 Jeffrey Bernard
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
When people say, "You're breaking my heart," they do in fact usually mean
that you're breaking their genitals.
Spectator 31 May 1986
2.67 Eric Berne
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1910-1970
The sombre picture presented in Parts I and II of this book, in which
human life is mainly a process of filling in time until the arrival of
death, or Santa Claus, with very little choice, if any, of what kind of
business one is going to transact during the long wait, is a commonplace
but not the final answer.
Games People Play (1964) ch. 18
Games people play: the psychology of human relationships.
Title of book (1964)
2.68 Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Carl Bernstein 1944-
Bob Woodward 1943-
All the President's men.
Title of book (1974)
2.69 Chuck Berry
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1931-
Roll over, Beethoven, and tell Tchaikovsky the news.
Roll Over, Beethoven (1956 song)
2.70 John Berryman
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1914-1972
Blossomed Sarah, and I
blossom. Is that thing alive? I hear a famisht howl.
Partisan Review (1953) vol. 20, p. 494 "Homage to Mistress Bradstreet"
We must travel in the direction of our fear.
Poems (1942) "A Point of Age"
Life, friends, is boring. We must not say so.
77 Dream Songs (1964) no. 14
And moreover my mother taught me as a boy
(repeatingly) "Ever to confess you're bored
means you have no
Inner Resources." I conclude now I have no
inner resources, because I am heavy bored.
77 Dream Songs (1964) no. 14
I seldom go to films. They are too exciting, said the Honourable Possum.
77 Dream Songs (1964) no. 53
2.71 Pierre Berton
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1920-
[Definition of a Canadian:] Somebody who knows how to make love in a
canoe.
Toronto Star, Canadian Mag. 22 Dec. 1973
2.72 Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1856-1921
He [Bethmann Hollweg] said that the step taken by His Majesty's Government
was terrible to a degree, just for a word "neutrality"--a word which in
wartime had so often been disregarded--just for a scrap of paper, Great
Britain was going to make war on a kindred nation who desired nothing
better than to be friends with her.
Report by Sir E. Goschen to Sir Edward Grey, in British Documents on
Origins of the War 1898-1914 (1926) vol. 11, p. 351
2.73 Sir John Betjeman
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1906-1984
He sipped at a weak hock and seltzer
As he gazed at the London skies
Through the Nottingham lace of the curtains
Or was it his bees-winged eyes?
He rose, and he put down The Yellow Book.
He staggered--and, terrible-eyed,
He brushed past the palms on the staircase
And was helped to a hansom outside.
Continual Dew (1937) "Arrest of Oscar Wilde at the Cadogan Hotel"
Come, friendly bombs, and fall on Slough!
It isn't fit for humans now,
There isn't grass to graze a cow.
Swarm over, Death!
Continual Dew (1937) "Slough"
Rime Intrinsica, Fontmell Magna, Sturminster Newton and Melbury Bubb,
Whist upon whist upon whist upon whist drive, in Institute, Legion and
Social Club.
Horny hands that hold the aces which this morning held the plough--
While Tranter Reuben, T. S. Eliot, H. G. Wells and Edith Sitwell lie in
Mellstock churchyard now.
Continual Dew (1937) "Dorset"
Spirits of well-shot woodcock, partridge, snipe
Flutter and bear him up the Norfolk sky:
In that red house in a red mahogany book-case
The stamp collection waits with mounts long dry.
Continual Dew (1937) "Death of King George V"
And girls in slacks remember Dad,
And oafish louts remember Mum,
And sleepless children's hearts are glad,
And Christmas -morning bells say "Come!"
Even to shining ones who dwell
Safe in the Dorchester Hotel.
And is it true? And is it true,
This most tremendous tale of all,
Seen in a stained-glass window's hue,
A Baby in an ox's stall?
The Maker of the stars and sea
Become a Child on earth for me?
Few Late Chrysanthemums (1954) "Christmas"
In the licorice fields at Pontefract
My love and I did meet
And many a burdened licorice bush
Was blooming round our feet;
Red hair she had and golden skin,
Her sulky lips were shaped for sin,
Her sturdy legs were flannel-slack'd,
The strongest legs in Pontefract.
Few Late Chrysanthemums (1954) "The Licorice Fields at Pontefract"
In the Garden City Caf with its murals on the wall
Before a talk on "Sex and Civics" I meditated on the Fall.
Few Late Chrysanthemums (1954) "Huxley Hall"
Gaily into Ruislip Gardens
Runs the red electric train,
With a thousand Ta's and Pardon's
Daintily alights Elaine;
Hurries down the concrete station
With a frown of concentration,
Out into the outskirt's edges
Where a few surviving hedges
Keep alive our lost Elysium--rural Middlesex again.
Few Late Chrysanthemums (1954) "Middlesex"
There was sun enough for lazing upon beaches,
There was fun enough for far into the night.
But I'm dying now and done for,
What on earth was all the fun for?
For God's sake keep that sunlight out of sight.
Few Late Chrysanthemums (1954) "Sun and Fun"
It's awf'lly bad luck on Diana,
Her ponies have swallowed their bits;
She fished down their throats with a spanner
And frightened them all into fits.
Few Late Chrysanthemums (1954) "Hunter Trials"
Oh wasn't it naughty of Smudges?
Oh, Mummy, I'm sick with disgust.
She threw me in front of the Judges
And my silly old collarbone's bust.
Few Late Chrysanthemums (1954) "Hunter Trials"
Phone for the fish-knives, Norman
As Cook is a little unnerved;
You kiddies have crumpled the serviettes
And I must have things daintily served.
Few Late Chrysanthemums (1954) "How to get on in Society"
Milk and then just as it comes dear?
I'm afraid the preserve's full of stones;
Beg pardon, I'm soiling the doileys
With afternoon tea-cakes and scones.
Few Late Chrysanthemums (1954) "How to get on in Society"
Ghastly good taste, or a depressing story of the rise and fall of English
architecture.
Title of book (1933)
Oh! Chintzy, Chintzy cheeriness,
Half dead and half alive!
Mount Zion (1931) "Death in Leamington"
The Church's Restoration
In eighteen-eighty-three
Has left for contemplation
Not what there used to be.
Mount Zion (1931) "Hymn"
Sing on, with hymns uproarious,
Ye humble and aloof,
Look up! and oh how glorious
He has restored the roof!
Mount Zion (1931) "Hymn"
Broad of Church and "broad of Mind,"
Broad before and broad behind,
A keen ecclesiologist,
A rather dirty Wykehamist.
Mount Zion (1931) "The Wykehamist"
Oh shall I see the Thames again?
The prow-promoted gems again,
As beefy ATS
Without their hats
Come shooting through the bridge?
And "cheerioh" or "cheeri-bye"
Across the waste of waters die
And low the mists of evening lie
And lightly skims the midge.
New Bats in Old Belfries (1945) "Henley-on-Thames"
Rumbling under blackened girders, Midland, bound for Cricklewood,
Puffed its sulphur to the sunset where that Land of Laundries stood.
Rumble under, thunder over, train and tram alternate go.
Shake the floor and smudge the ledger, Charrington, Sells, Dale and Co.,
Nuts and nuggets in the window, trucks along the lines below.
New Bats in Old Belfries (1945) "Parliament Hill Fields"
Miss J. Hunter Dunn, Miss J. Hunter Dunn,
Furnish'd and burnish'd by Aldershot sun,
What strenuous singles we played after tea,
We in the tournament--you against me.
Love-thirty, love-forty, oh! weakness of joy,
The speed of a swallow, the grace of a boy,
With carefullest carelessness, gaily you won,
I am weak from your loveliness, Joan Hunter Dunn.
Miss Joan Hunter Dunn, Miss Joan Hunter Dunn,
How mad I am, sad I am, glad that you won.
The warm-handled racket is back in its press,
But my shock-headed victor, she loves me no less.
New Bats in Old Belfries (1945) "Subaltern's Love-Song"
The scent of the conifers, sound of the bath,
The view from my bedroom of moss-dappled path,
As I struggle with double-end evening tie,
For we dance at the Golf Club, my victor and I.
New Bats in Old Belfries (1945) "Subaltern's Love-Song"
By roads "not adopted," by woodlanded ways,
She drove to the club in the late summer haze,
Into nine-o'clock Camberley, heavy with bells
And mushroomy, pine-woody, evergreen smells.
Miss Joan Hunter Dunn, Miss Joan Hunter Dunn,
I can hear from the car-park the dance has begun.
Oh! full Surrey twilight! importunate band!
Oh! strongly adorable tennis-girl's hand!
New Bats in Old Belfries (1945) "Subaltern's Love-Song"
We sat in the car park till twenty to one
And now I'm engaged to Miss Joan Hunter Dunn.
New Bats in Old Belfries (1945) "Subaltern's Love-Song"
Belbroughton Road is bonny, and pinkly bursts the spray
Of prunus and forsythia across the public way,
For a full spring-tide of blossom seethed and departed hence,
Leaving land-locked pools of jonquils by sunny garden fence.
And a constant sound of flushing runneth from windows where
The toothbrush too is airing in this new North Oxford air.
New Bats in Old Belfries (1945) "May-Day Song for North Oxford"
Bells are booming down the bohreens,
White the mist along the grass.
Now the Julias, Maeves and Maureens
Move between the fields to Mass.
New Bats in Old Belfries (1945) "Ireland with Emily"
The gas was on in the Institute,
The flare was up in the gymn,
A man was running a mineral line,
A lass was singing a hymn,
When Captain Webb the Dawley man,
Captain Webb from Dawley,
Came swimming along in the old canal
That carries the bricks to Lewley.
Old Lights for New Chancels (1940) "A Shropshire Lad"
Pam, I adore you, Pam, you great big mountainous sports girl,
Whizzing them over the net, full of the strength of five:
That old Malvernian brother, you zephyr and khaki shorts girl,
Although he's playing for Woking,
Can't stand up to your wonderful backhand drive.
Old Lights for New Chancels (1940) "Pot Pourri from a Surrey Garden"
Think of what our Nation stands for,
Books from Boots' and country lanes,
Free speech, free passes, class distinction,
Democracy and proper drains.
Lord, put beneath Thy special care
One-eighty-nine Cadogan Square.
Old Lights for New Chancels (1940) "In Westminster Abbey"
The dread of beatings! Dread of being late!
And, greatest dread of all, the dread of games!
Summoned by Bells (1960) ch. 7
Balkan Sobranies in a wooden box,
The college arms upon the lid; Tokay
And sherry in the cupboard; on the shelves
The University Statutes bound in blue,
Crome Yellow, Prancing Nigger, Blunden, Keats.
Summoned by Bells (1960) ch. 9
As one more solemn of our number said:
"Spiritually I was at Eton, John."
Summoned by Bells (1960) ch. 9
2.74 Aneurin Bevan
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1897-1960
He [Winston Churchill] is a man suffering from petrified adolescence.
In Vincent Brome Aneurin Bevan (1953) ch. 11
Listening to a speech by Chamberlain is like paying a visit to
Woolworth's: everything in its place and nothing above sixpence.
In Michael Foot Aneurin Bevan (1962) vol. 1, ch. 8
I know that the right kind of leader for the Labour Party is a desiccated
calculating machine who must not in any way permit himself to be swayed by
indignation. If he sees suffering, privation or injustice he must not
allow it to move him, for that would be evidence of the lack of proper
education or of absence of self-control. He must speak in calm and
objective accents and talk about a dying child in the same way as he would
about the pieces inside an internal combustion engine.
In Michael Foot Aneurin Bevan (1973) vol. 2, ch. 11
Damn it all, you can't have the crown of thorns and the thirty pieces of
silver.
In Michael Foot Aneurin Bevan (1973) vol. 2, ch. 13
This island is made mainly of coal and surrounded by fish. Only an
organizing genius could produce a shortage of coal and fish at the same
time.
Speech at Blackpool 24 May 1945, in Daily Herald 25 May 1945
I do not think Winston Churchill wants war, but the trouble with him is
that he doesn't even know how to avoid it. He does not talk the language
of the 20th century but that of the 18th. He is still fighting Blenheim
all over again. His only answer to a difficult situation is send a
gun-boat.
Speech at Scarborough 2 Oct. 1951, in Daily Herald 3 Oct. 1951
If you carry this resolution you will send Britain's Foreign Secretary
naked into the conference chamber.
Speech at Brighton, in Daily Herald 4 Oct. 1957
The worst thing I can say about democracy is that it has tolerated the
Right Honourable Gentleman [Neville Chamberlain] for four and a half
years.
Hansard 23 July 1929, col. 1191
Why read the crystal when he can read the book?
Hansard 29 Sept. 1949, col. 319
I am not going to spend any time whatsoever in attacking the Foreign
Secretary. Quite honestly, I am beginning to feel extremely sorry for
him. If we complain about the tune, there is no reason to attack the
monkey when the organ grinder is present.
Hansard 16 May 1957, col. 680
We know what happens to people who stay in the middle of the road. They
get run down.
In Observer 6 Dec. 1953
The language of priorities is the religion of Socialism.
Speech at Labour Party Conference in Blackpool, 8 June 1949, in Report of
48th Annual Conference (1949) p. 172
No amount of cajolery, and no attempts at ethical or social seduction, can
eradicate from my heart a deep burning hatred for the Tory Party that
inflicted those bitter experiences on me. So far as I am concerned they
are lower than vermin. They condemned millions of first-class people to
semi-starvation.
Speech at Manchester, 4 July 1948, in The Times 5 July 1948
I read the newspapers avidly. It is my one form of continuous fiction.
The Times 29 Mar. 1960
2.75 William Henry Beveridge (First Baron Beveridge)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1879-1963
Ignorance is an evil weed, which dictators may cultivate among their
dupes, but which no democracy can afford among its citizens.
Full Employment in a Free Society (1944) pt. 7
The object of government in peace and in war is not the glory of rulers or
of races, but the happiness of the common man.
Social Insurance and Allied Services (1942) pt. 7
The state is or can be master of money, but in a free society it is master
of very little else.
Voluntary Action (1948) ch. 12
2.76 Ernest Bevin
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1881-1951
If you open that Pandora's Box [the Council of Europe], you never know
what Trojan 'orses will jump out.
Sir Roderick Barclay Ernest Bevin and Foreign Office (1975) ch. 3
A Ministerial colleague with whom Ernie [Bevin] was almost always on bad
terms was Nye Bevan. There was a well-known occasion when the latter had
incurred Ernie's displeasure, and one of those present, seeking to excuse
Nye, observed that he was sometimes his own worst enemy. "Not while I'm
alive 'e aint!" retorted Ernie.
In Sir Roderick Barclay Ernest Bevin and Foreign Office (1975) ch. 4
There never has been a war yet which, if the facts had been put calmly
before the ordinary folk, could not have been prevented....The common man,
I think, is the great protection against war.
Hansard 23 Nov. 1945, col. 786
The most conservative man in this world is the British Trade Unionist when
you want to change him.
Speech, 8 Sept. 1927, in Report of Proceedings of the Trades Union
Congress (1927) p. 298
I didn't ought never to have done it. It was you, Willie, what put me up
to it.
To Lord Strang, after officially recognizing Communist China, in C.
Parrott Serpent and Nightingale (1977) ch. 3
My policy is to be able to take a ticket at Victoria Station and go
anywhere I damn well please.
In Spectator 20 Apr. 1951, p. 514
2.77 Georges Bidault
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1899-1983
The weak have one weapon: the errors of those who think they are strong.
In Observer 15 July 1962
2.78 Ambrose Bierce
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1842-?1914
Acquaintance, n. A person whom we know well enough to borrow from, but
not well enough to lend to. A degree of friendship called slight when its
object is poor or obscure, and intimate when he is rich or famous.
Cynic's Word Book (1906) p. 12
Admiration, n. Our polite recognition of another's resemblance to
ourselves.
Cynic's Word Book (1906) p. 13
Advice, n. The smallest current coin.
Cynic's Word Book (1906) p. 14
Alliance, n. In international politics, the union of two thieves who have
their hands so deeply inserted in each other's pocket that they cannot
separately plunder a third.
Cynic's Word Book (1906) p. 16
Ambition, n. An overmastering desire to be vilified by enemies while
living and made ridiculous by friends when dead.
Cynic's Word Book (1906) p. 17
Applause, n. The echo of a platitude.
Cynic's Word Book (1906) p. 19
Auctioneer, n. The man who proclaims with a hammer that he has picked a
pocket with his tongue.
Cynic's Word Book (1906) p. 24
Battle, n. A method of untying with the teeth a political knot that would
not yield to the tongue.
Cynic's Word Book (1906) p. 30
Bore, n. A person who talks when you wish him to listen.
Cynic's Word Book (1906) p. 37
Brain, n. An apparatus with which we think that we think.
Cynic's Word Book (1906) p. 39
Calamity, n....Calamities are of two kinds: misfortune to ourselves, and
good fortune to others.
Cynic's Word Book (1906) p. 41
Conservative, n. A statesman who is enamoured of existing evils, as
distinguished from the Liberal, who wishes to replace them with others.
Cynic's Word Book (1906) p. 56
Cynic, n. A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as
they ought to be.
Cynic's Word Book (1906) p. 63
Education, n. That which discloses to the wise and disguises from the
foolish their lack of understanding.
Cynic's Word Book (1906) p. 86
Egotist, n. A person of low taste, more interested in himself than in me.
Cynic's Word Book (1906) p. 86
Future, n. That period of time in which our affairs prosper, our friends
are true, and our happiness is assured.
Cynic's Word Book (1906) p. 129
History, n. An account, mostly false, of events, mostly unimportant, which
are brought about by rulers, mostly knaves, and soldiers, mostly fools.
Cynic's Word Book (1906) p. 161
Marriage, n. The state or condition of a community consisting of a
master, a mistress and two slaves, making in all, two.
Devil's Dictionary (1911) p. 213
Noise, n. A stench in the ear....The chief product and authenticating sign
of civilization.
Devil's Dictionary (1911) p. 228
Patience, n. A minor form of despair, disguised as a virtue.
Devil's Dictionary (1911) p. 248
Peace, n. In international affairs, a period of cheating between two
periods of fighting.
Devil's Dictionary (1911) p. 248
Prejudice, n. A vagrant opinion without visible means of support.
Devil's Dictionary (1911) p. 264
Saint, n. A dead sinner revised and edited.
Devil's Dictionary (1911) p. 306
Destiny, n. A tyrant's authority for crime and a fool 's excuse for
failure.
Enlarged Devil's Dictionary (1967) p. 64
2.79 Laurence Binyon
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1869-1943
Now is the time for the burning of the leaves.
Horizon Oct. 1942, "The Ruins"
With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.
The Times 21 Sept. 1914, "For the Fallen"
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old.
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
The Times 21 Sept. 1914, "For the Fallen"
2.80 Nigel Birch (Baron Rhyl)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1906-1981
My God! They've shot our fox! [said 13 Nov. 1947, when hearing of the
resignation of Hugh Dalton, Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour
Government].
In Harold Macmillan Tides of Fortune (1969) ch. 3
2.81 John Bird
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
That was the week that was.
Title of BBC television series, 1962-3: see Ned Sherrin A Small
Thing--Like an Earthquake (1983) p. 62
2.82 Earl of Birkenhead
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
See F. E. Smith (19.82)
2.83 Lord Birkett (William Norman Birkett, Baron Birkett)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1883-1962
I do not object to people looking at their watches when I am speaking. But
I strongly object when they start shaking them to make certain they are
still going.
In Observer 30 Oct. 1960
2.84 Eric Blair
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
See George Orwell ("George Orwell (Eric Blair)" in topic 15.24
form=pageonly.)
2.85 Eubie Blake (James Hubert Blake)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1883-1983
If I'd known I was gonna live this long [100 years], I'd have taken better
care of myself.
In Observer 13 Feb. 1983
2.86 Lesley Blanch
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1907-
She was an Amazon. Her whole life was spent riding at breakneck speed
towards the wilder shores of love.
The Wilder Shores of Love (1954) pt. 2, ch. 1
2.87 Alan Bleasdale
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1946-
Yosser hughes: Gizza job.... I can do that.
Boys from the Blackstuff (1985) p. 7 (often quoted as "Gissa job")
2.88 Karen Blixen
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
See Isak Dinesen (4.31)
2.89 Edmund Blunden
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1896-1974
Dance on this ball-floor thin and wan,
Use him as though you love him;
Court him, elude him, reel and pass,
And let him hate you through the glass.
Masks of Time (1925) "Midnight Skaters"
I have been young, and now am not too old;
And I have seen the righteous forsaken,
His health, his honour and his quality taken.
This is not what we were formerly told.
Near and Far (1929) "Report on Experience"
This was my country and it may be yet,
But something flew between me and the sun.
Retreat (1928) "The Resignation"
I am for the woods against the world,
But are the woods for me?
To Themis (1931) "The Kiss"
2.90 Alfred Blunt (Bishop of Bradford)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1879-1957
The benefit of the King's Coronation depends, under God, upon two
elements: First, on the faith, prayer, and self-dedication of the King
himself, and on that it would be improper for me to say anything except to
commend him, and ask you to commend him, to God's grace, which he will so
abundantly need...if he is to do his duty faithfully. We hope that he is
aware of his need. Some of us wish that he gave more positive signs of his
awareness.
Speech to Bradford Diocesan Conference, 1 Dec. 1936, in The Times 2 Dec.
1936
2.91 Wilfrid Scawen Blunt
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1840-1922
To the Grafton Gallery to look at...the Post-Impressionist pictures sent
over from Paris....The drawing is on the level of that of an untaught
child of seven or eight years old, the sense of colour that of a tea-tray
painter, the method that of a schoolboy who wipes his fingers on a slate
after spitting on them....These are not works of art at all, unless
throwing a handful of mud against a wall may be called one. They are the
works of idleness and impotent stupidity, a pornographic show.
My Diaries (1920) 15 Nov. 1910
I like the hunting of the hare
Better than that of the fox.
New Pilgrimage (1889) "The Old Squire"
2.92 Ronald Blythe
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1922-
As for the British churchman, he goes to church as he goes to the
bathroom, with the minimum of fuss and with no explanation if he can help
it.
Age of Illusion (1963) ch. 12
An industrial worker would sooner have a 5 note but a countryman must
have praise.
Akenfield (1969) ch. 5
2.93 Enid Blyton
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1897-1968
Five go off in a caravan.
Title of children's story (1946)
The naughtiest girl in the school.
Title of children's story (1940)
2.94 Louise Bogan
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1897-1970
Women have no wilderness in them,
They are provident instead,
Content in the tight hot cell of their hearts
To eat dusty bread.
Body of this Death (1923) "Women"
2.95 Humphrey Bogart
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1899-1957
Contrary to legend, as a juvenile I never said "Tennis, anyone?" just as
I never said "Drop the gun, Louie" as a heavy.
In Ezra Goodman Bogey: the Good-Bad Guy (1965) ch. 4. Cf. George Bernard
Shaw 199:4 See also Julius J. Epstein et al (5.22)
2.96 John B. Bogart
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1848-1921
When a dog bites a man, that is not news, because it happens so often. But
if a man bites a dog, that is news.
In F. M. O'Brien Story of the Sun (1918) ch. 10 (the quotation is often
attributed to Charles A. Dana)
2.97 Niels Bohr
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1885-1962
One of the favourite maxims of my father was the distinction between the
two sorts of truths, profound truths recognized by the fact that the
opposite is also a profound truth, in contrast to trivialities where
opposites are obviously absurd.
In S. Rozental Niels Bohr (1967) p. 328
2.98 Alan Bold
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1943-
They mattered more than they should have. It is so
In Scotland, land of the omnipotent No.
Perpetual Motion Machine (1969) "A Memory of Death"
2.99 Robert Bolt
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1924-
Morality's not practical. Morality's a gesture. A complicated gesture
learned from books.
A Man for All Seasons (1960) act 2
2.100 Andrew Bonar Law
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1858-1923
If, therefore, war should ever come between these two countries [Great
Britain and Germany], which Heaven forbid! it will not, I think, be due to
irresistible natural laws; it will be due to the want of human wisdom.
Hansard 27 Nov. 1911, col. 167
If I am a great man, then all great men are frauds.
In Lord Beaverbrook Politicians and the War (1932) vol. 2, ch. 4
2.101 Carrie Jacobs Bond
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1862-1946
When you come to the end of a perfect day,
And you sit alone with your thought,
While the chimes ring out with a carol gay
For the joy that the day has brought,
Do you think what the end of a perfect day
Can mean to a tired heart,
When the sun goes down with a flaming ray,
And the dear friends have to part?
Well, this is the end of a perfect day,
Near the end of a journey, too;
But it leaves a thought that is big and strong,
With a wish that is kind and true.
For mem'ry has painted this perfect day
With colours that never fade,
And we find, at the end of a perfect day,
The soul of a friend we've made.
A Perfect Day (1910 song)
2.102 Sir David Bone
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1874-1959
It's "Damn you, Jack--I'm all right!" with you chaps.
Brassbounder (1910) ch. 3
2.103 Dietrich Bonhoeffer
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1906-1945
Es ist der Vorzug und das Wesen der Starken, dass sie die grossen
Entscheidungsfragen stellen und zu ihnen klar Stellung nehmen knnen. Die
Schwachen mssen sich immer zwischen Alternativen entscheiden, die nicht
die ihren sind.
It is the nature, and the advantage, of strong people that they can bring
out the crucial questions and form a clear opinion about them. The weak
always have to decide between alternatives that are not their own.
Widerstand und Ergebung (Resistance and Submission, 1951) "Ein paat
Gedanken ber Verschiedenes"
Jesus nur "fr andere da ist."...Gott in Menschengestalt!...nicht die
griechische Gott-Menschgestalt des "Menschen an sich," sondern "der Mensch
fr andere," darum der Gekreuzigte.
Jesus is there only for others....God in human form! not...in the Greek
divine-human form of "man in himself," but "the man for others," and
therefore the crucified.
Widerstand und Ergebung (Resistance and Submission, 1951) "Entwurf einer
Arbeit"
2.104 Sonny Bono (Salvatore Bono)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1953-
The beat goes on.
Title of song (1966)
2.105 Daniel J. Boorstin
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1914-
The celebrity is a person who is known for his well-knownness.
The Image (1961) ch. 2
A bestseller was a book which somehow sold well simply because it was
selling well.
The Image (1961) ch. 4
2.106 James H. Boren
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1925-
Guidelines for bureaucrats: (1) When in charge, ponder. (2) When in
trouble, delegate. (3) When in doubt, mumble.
In New York Times 8 Nov. 1970, p. 45
2.107 Jorge Luis Borges
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1899-1986
El original es infiel a la traduccin.
The original is unfaithful to the translation [Henley's translation of
Beckford's Vathek].
Sobre el "Vathek"de William Beckford (1943) in Obras Completas (1974)
p. 730
Para uno de esos gnsticos, el visible universo era una ilusin (mas
precisamente) un sofisma. Los espejos y la paternidad son abominables
porque lo multiplican y lo divulgan.
For one of those gnostics, the visible universe was an illusion or, more
precisely, a sophism. Mirrors and fatherhood are abominable because they
multiply it and extend it.
Tln, Uqbar, Orbis, Tertius (1941) in Obras Completas (1974) p. 431
The Falklands thing [the Falklands War of 1982] was a fight between two
bald men over a comb.
In Time 14 Feb. 1983
2.108 Max Born
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1882-1970
The human race has today the means for annihilating itself--either in
a fit of complete lunacy, i.e., in a big war, by a brief fit of
destruction, or by careless handling of atomic technology, through a slow
process of poisoning and of deterioration in its genetic structure.
Bulletin of Atomic Scientists (1957) vol. 13, p. 186
2.109 John Collins Bossidy
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1860-1928
And this is good old Boston,
The home of the bean and the cod,
Where the Lowells talk to the Cabots
And the Cabots talk only to God.
Verse spoken at Holy Cross College alumni dinner in Boston, Mass., 1910,
in Springfield Sunday Republican 14 Dec. 1924
2.110 Gordon Bottomley
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1874-1948
When you destroy a blade of grass
You poison England at her roots:
Remember no man's foot can pass
Where evermore no green life shoots.
Chambers of Imagery (1912) "To Ironfounders and Others"
Your worship is your furnaces,
Which, like old idols, lost obscenes,
Have molten bowels; your vision is
Machines for making more machines.
Chambers of Imagery (1912) "To Ironfounders and Others"
2.111 Horatio Bottomley
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1860-1933
During his incarceration at the Scrubbs [1922-3], Bottomley was largely
employed in the making of mail-bags. It was while he was so engaged one
afternoon that a prison visitor...saw him busily stitching away. "Ah,
Bottomley," he remarked brightly, "sewing? " "No," grunted the old man
without looking up, "reaping."
In S.T. Felstead Horatio Bottomley (1936) ch. 16
Gentlemen: I have not had your advantages. What poor education I have
received has been gained in the University of Life.
Speech at Oxford Union, 2 Dec. 1920, in Beverley Nichols 25 (1926) ch. 7
2.112 Sir Harold Edwin Boulton
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1859-1935
When Adam and Eve were dispossessed
Of the garden hard by Heaven,
They planted another one down in the west,
'Twas Devon, glorious Devon!
Lyrics and other Poems (1902) "Glorious Devon"
Speed, bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing,
"Onward," the sailors cry;
Carry the lad that's born to be king,
Over the sea to Skye.
National Songs and Some Ballads (1908) "Skye Boat Song"
2.113 Elizabeth Bowen
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1899-1973
Experience isn't interesting till it begins to repeat itself--in fact,
till it does that, it hardly is experience.
Death of the Heart (1938) pt. 1, ch. 1
In fact, it is about five o'clock in an evening that the first hour of
spring strikes--autumn arrives in the early morning, but spring at the
close of a winter day.
Death of the Heart (1938) pt. 2, ch. 1
Some people are moulded by their admirations, others by their hostilities.
Death of the Heart (1938) pt. 2, ch. 2
The heart may think it knows better: the senses know that absence blots
people out. We have really no absent friends.
Death of the Heart (1938) pt. 2, ch. 2
Elizabeth Bowen said that she [Edith Sitwell] looked like "a high altar on
the move."
V. Glendinning Edith Sitwell (1981) ch. 25
I suppose art is the only thing that can go on mattering once it has
stopped hurting.
Heat of the Day (1949) ch. 16
There is no end to the violations committed by children on children,
quietly talking alone.
House in Paris (1935) pt. 1, ch. 2
Nobody speaks the truth when there's something they must have.
House in Paris (1935) pt. 1, ch. 5
Meetings that do not come off keep a character of their own. They stay as
they were projected.
House in Paris (1935) pt. 2, ch. 1
Fate is not an eagle, it creeps like a rat.
House in Paris (1935) pt. 2, ch. 2
Jealousy is no more than feeling alone against smiling enemies.
House in Paris (1935) pt. 2, ch. 8
My failing to have a nice ear for vowel sounds, and the Anglo-Irish
slurred, hurried way of speaking made me take the words "Ireland" and
"island" to be synonymous. Thus, all other countries quite surrounded by
water took (it appeared) their generic name from ours.
Seven Winters (1942) p. 12
2.114 David Bowie (David Jones)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1947-
Ground control to Major Tom.
Space Oddity (1969 song)
2.115 Sir Maurice Bowra
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1898-1971
There is also that story, perhaps apocryphal, of Maurice [Bowra]'s
decision to get married. When he announced that he had at last chosen
a girl, a friend remonstrated: "But you can't marry anyone as plain as
that." Maurice answered: "My dear fellow, buggers can't be choosers."
Francis King in Hugh Lloyd-Jones Maurice Bowra: a Celebration (1974)
p. 150
I'm a man more dined against than dining.
In John Betjeman Summoned by Bells (1960) ch. 9
2.116 Charles Boyer
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1898-1978
Come with me to the Casbah.
Catch-phrase often attributed to Boyer, but L. Swindell Charles Boyer
(1983) ch. 7 says: Algiers...is the picture in which Charles Boyer did not
say "Come wiz me to zee Casbah" to Hedy Lamarr....Boyer and Lamarr were in
the Casbah in most of their Algiers scenes, and they did have an important
scene in which they were not in the Casbah, but the dialogue was nowhere
close.
2.117 Lord Brabazon (Baron Brabazon of Tara)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1884-1964
I take the view, and always have, that if you cannot say what you are
going to say in twenty minutes you ought to go away and write a book about
it.
Hansard (Lords) 21 June 1955, col. 207
2.118 Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder, and D. M. Marshman Jr.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Charles Brackett 1892-1969
Billy Wilder 1906-
JOE GILLIS: You used to be in pictures. You used to be big.
NORMA DESMOND: I am big. It's the pictures that got small.
Sunset Boulevard (1950 film)
All right, Mr de Mille, I'm ready for my close-up now.
Sunset Boulevard (1950 film)
2.119 Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder, and Walter Reisch
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Charles Brackett 1892-1969
Billy Wilder 1906-
Walter Reisch 1903-1983
Iranoff: What a charming idea for Moscow to surprise us with a lady
Comrade.
Kopalski: If we had known we would have greeted you with flowers.
Iranoff: Ahh--yes.
Ninotchka: Don't make an issue of my womanhood.
Ninotchka (1939 film)
Ninotchka: Why should you carry other people's bags?
Porter: Well, that's my business, Madame.
Ninotchka: That's no business. That's social injustice.
Porter: That depends on the tip.
Ninotchka (1939 film)
2.120 F. H. Bradley
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1846-1924
The propriety of some persons seems to consist in having improper thoughts
about their neighbours.
Aphorisms (1930) no. 9
True penitence condemns to silence. What a man is ready to recall he would
be willing to repeat.
Aphorisms (1930) no. 10
The secret of happiness is to admire without desiring. And that is not
happiness.
Aphorisms (1930) no. 33
Metaphysics is the finding of bad reasons for what we believe upon
instinct; but to find these reasons is no less an instinct.
Appearance and Reality (1893) preface
Of Optimism I have said that "The world is the best of all possible
worlds, and everything in it is a necessary evil."
Appearance and Reality (1893) preface
That the glory of this world...is appearance leaves the world more
glorious, if we feel it is a show of some fuller splendour; but the
sensuous curtain is a deception...if it hides some colourless movement of
atoms, some...unearthly ballet of bloodless categories.
Principles of Logic (1883) bk. 3, pt. 2, ch. 4
2.121 Omar Bradley
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1893-1981
The way to win an atomic war is to make certain it never starts.
Speech to Boston Chamber of Commerce, 10 Nov. 1948, in Collected Writings
(1967) vol. 1, p. 588
We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the
Mount.
Speech to Boston Chamber of Commerce, 10 Nov. 1948, in Collected Writings
(1967) vol. 1, p. 588
Red China is not the powerful nation seeking to dominate the world.
Frankly, in the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, this strategy would
involve us in the wrong war, at the wrong place, at the wrong time, and
with the wrong enemy.
US Cong. Senate Comm. on Armed Services (1951) vol. 2, p. 732
2.122 Caryl Brahms (Doris Caroline Abrahams) and S. J. Simon (Simon Jasha Skidelsky)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Caryl Brahms 1901-1982
The suffragettes were triumphant. Woman's place was in the gaol.
No Nightingales (1944) pt. 6, ch. 37
2.123 John Braine
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1922-
Room at the top.
Title of novel (1957). Cf. Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (1979) 566:9
2.124 Ernest Bramah (Ernest Bramah Smith)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1868-1942
It is a mark of insincerity of purpose to spend one's time in looking for
the sacred Emperor in the low-class tea-shops.
Wallet of Kai Lung (1900) p. 6
In his countenance this person read an expression of no-encouragement
towards his venture.
Wallet of Kai Lung (1900) p. 224
The whole narrative is permeated with the odour of joss-sticks and
honourable high-mindedness.
Wallet of Kai Lung (1900) p. 330
2.125 Georges Braque
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1882-1963
L'Art est fait pour troubler, la Science rassure.
Art is meant to disturb, science reassures.
Le Jour et la nuit: Cahiers 1917-52 (Day and Night, Notebooks, 1952)
p. 11
La vrit existe; on n'invente que le mensonge.
Truth exists; only lies are invented.
Le Jour et la nuit: Cahiers 1917-52 (Day and Night, Notebooks, 1952)
p. 20
2.126 John Bratby
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1928-
A real art student wears coloured socks, has a fringe and a beard, wears
dirty jeans and an equally dirty seaman's pullover, carries a sketch-book,
is despised by the rest of society, and loafs in a coffee bar.
Breakdown (1960) ch. 8
2.127 Irving Brecher
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1914-
I'll bet your father spent the first year of your life throwing rocks at
the stork.
(Marx Brothers) At the Circus (1939 film)
Time wounds all heals.
Marx Brothers Go West (1940 film)
2.128 Bertolt Brecht
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1898-1956
Und der Haifisch, der hat Zhne
Und die trgt er im Gesicht
Und Macheath, der hat ein Messer
Doch das Messer sieht man nicht.
Oh, the shark has pretty teeth, dear,
And he shows them pearly white.
Just a jack-knife has Macheath, dear
And he keeps it out of sight.
Dreigroschenoper (Threepenny Opera, 1928) prologue
Erst kommt das Fressen, dann kommt die Moral.
Food comes first, then morals.
Dreigroschenoper (Threepenny Opera, 1928) act 2, sc. 3
Was ist ein Einbruch in eine Bank gegen die Grndung einer Bank?
What is robbing a bank compared with founding a bank?
Dreigroschenoper (Threepenny Opera, 1928) act 3, sc. 3
Andrea: Unglcklich das Land, das keine Helden hat!...
Galilei: Nein. Unglcklich das Land, das Helden ntig hat.
Andrea: Unhappy the land that has no heroes!...
Galileo: No. Unhappy the land that needs heroes.
Leben des Galilei (Life of Galileo, 1939) sc. 13
Man merkts, hier ist zu lang kein Krieg gewesen. Wo soll da Moral
herkommen, frag ich? Frieden, das ist nur Schlamperei, erst der Krieg
schafft Ordnung.
One observes, they have gone too long without a war here. What is the
moral, I ask? Peace is nothing but slovenliness, only war creates order.
Mutter Courage (Mother Courage, 1939) sc. 1
Weil ich ihm nicht trau, wir sind befreundet.
Because I don't trust him, we are friends.
Mutter Courage (Mother Courage, 1939) sc. 3
Die schnsten Pln sind schon zuschanden geworden durch die Kleinlichheit
von denen, wo sie ausfhren sollten, denn die Kaiser selber knnen ja nix
machen.
The finest plans are always ruined by the littleness of those who ought to
carry them out, for the Emperor himself can actually do nothing.
Mutter Courage (Mother Courage, 1939) sc. 6
Der Krieg findet immer einen Ausweg.
War always finds a way.
Mutter Courage (Mother Courage, 1939) sc. 6
Sagen Sie mir nicht, dass Friede ausgebrochen ist, wo ich eben neue
Vorrte eingekauft hab.
Don't tell me peace has broken out, when I've just bought some new
supplies.
Mutter Courage (Mother Courage, 1939) sc. 8
2.129 Gerald Brenan
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1894-
Those who have some means think that the most important thing in the world
is love. The poor know that it is money.
Thoughts in a Dry Season (1978) p. 22
Religions are kept alive by heresies, which are really sudden explosions
of faith. Dead religions do not produce them.
Thoughts in a Dry Season (1978) p. 45
2.130 Aristide Briand
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1862-1932
Les hautes parties contractantes dclarent solennellement...qu'elles
condamnent le recours la guerre...et y renoncent en tant qu'instrument
de politique nationale dans leurs relations mutuelles...le rglement ou la
solution de tous les diffrends ou conflits--de quelque nature ou de
quelque origine qu'ils puissent tre--qui pourront surgir entre elles ne
devra jamais tre cherch que par des moyens pacifiques.
The high contracting powers solemnly declare. that they condemn recourse
to war and renounce it...as an instrument of their national policy towards
each other....The settlement or the solution of all disputes or conflicts
of whatever nature or of whatever origin they may be which may
arise...shall never be sought by either side except by pacific means.
Draft, 20 June 1927, which became part of the Kellogg Pact, 1928 , in Le
Temps 13 Apr. 1928
2.131 Vera Brittain
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1893-1970
Politics are usually the executive expression of human immaturity.
Rebel Passion (1964) ch. 1
2.132 David Broder
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1929-
Anybody that wants the presidency so much that he'll spend two years
organizing and campaigning for it is not to be trusted with the office.
Washington Post 18 July 1973, p. A 25
2.133 Jacob Bronowski
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1908-1974
We have to understand that the world can only be grasped by action, not by
contemplation. The hand is more important than the eye....The hand is the
cutting edge of the mind.
Ascent of Man (1973) ch. 3
That is the essence of science: ask an impertinent question, and you are
on the way to a pertinent answer.
Ascent of Man (1973) ch. 4
The wish to hurt, the momentary intoxication with pain, is the loophole
through which the pervert climbs into the minds of ordinary men.
Face of Violence (1954) ch. 5
The world is made of people who never quite get into the first team and
who just miss the prizes at the flower show.
Face of Violence (1954) ch. 6
Man masters nature not by force but by understanding. This is why science
has succeeded where magic failed: because it has looked for no spell to
cast on nature.
Universities Quarterly (1956) vol. 10, no. 3, p. 252
2.134 Rupert Brooke
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1887-1915
Breathless, we flung us on the windy hill,
Laughed in the sun, and kissed the lovely grass.
Cambridge Review 8 Dec. 1910, "Sonnet"
Then, the cool kindliness of sheets, that soon
Smooth away trouble; and the rough male kiss
Of blankets; grainy wood; live hair that is
Shining and free; blue-massing clouds; the keen
Unpassioned beauty of a great machine;
The benison of hot water; furs to touch;
The good smell of old clothes.
New Numbers no. 3 (1914) "The Great Lover"
Now, God be thanked Who has matched us with His hour,
And caught our youth, and wakened us from sleeping,
With hand made sure, clear eye, and sharpened power,
To turn, as swimmers into cleanness leaping,
Glad from a world grown old and cold and weary,
Leave the sick hearts that honour could not move,
And half-men, and their dirty songs and dreary,
And all the little emptiness of love!
Oh! we, who have known shame, we have found release there,
Where there's no ill, no grief, but sleep has mending,
Naught broken save this body, lost but breath;
Nothing to shake the laughing heart's long peace there
But only agony, and that has ending;
And the worst friend and enemy is but Death.
New Numbers no. 4 (1914) "Peace"
War knows no power. Safe shall be my going,
Secretly armed against all death's endeavour;
Safe though all safety's lost; safe where men fall;
And if these poor limbs die, safest of all.
New Numbers no. 4 (1914) "Safety"
Blow out, you bugles, over the rich Dead!
There's none of these so lonely and poor of old,
But, dying, has made us rarer gifts than gold.
These laid the world away; poured out the red
Sweet wine of youth; gave up the years to be
Of work and joy, and that unhoped serene,
That men call age; and those that would have been,
Their sons, they gave, their immortality.
New Numbers no. 4 (1914) "The Dead"
Honour has come back, as a king, to earth,
And paid his subjects with a royal wage;
And Nobleness walks in our ways again;
And we have come into our heritage.
New Numbers no. 4 (1914) "The Dead"
If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England's, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.
And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.
New Numbers no. 4 (1914) "The Soldier"
Fish say, they have their Stream and Pond;
But is there anything Beyond?
1914 and Other Poems (1915) "Heaven"
But somewhere, beyond Space and Time
Is wetter water, slimier slime!
1914 and Other Poems (1915) "Heaven"
Oh! never fly conceals a hook,
Fish say, in the Eternal Brook,
But more than mundane weeds are there,
And mud, celestially fair;
Fat caterpillars drift around,
And Paradisal grubs are found;
Unfading moths, immortal flies,
And the worm that never dies.
And in that Heaven of all their wish,
There shall be no more land, say fish.
1914 and Other Poems (1915) "Heaven"
But there's wisdom in women, of more than they have known,
And thoughts go blowing through them, are wiser than their own.
1914 and Other Poems (1915) "There's Wisdom in Women"
Just now the lilac is in bloom,
All before my little room.
1914 and Other Poems (1915) "The Old Vicarage, Grantchester"
Here tulips bloom as they are told;
Unkempt about those hedges blows
An English unofficial rose;
And there the unregulated sun
Slopes down to rest when day is done,
And wakes a vague unpunctual star,
A slippered Hesper; and there are
Meads towards Haslingfield and Coton
Where das Betreten's not verboten.
...would I were
In Grantchester, in Grantchester!
1914 and Other Poems (1915) "The Old Vicarage, Grantchester"
And in that garden, black and white,
Creep whispers through the grass all night;
And spectral dance, before the dawn,
A hundred Vicars down the lawn;
Curates, long dust, will come and go
On lissom, clerical, printless toe;
And oft between the boughs is seen
The sly shade of a Rural Dean.
1914 and Other Poems (1915) "The Old Vicarage, Grantchester"
God! I will pack, and take a train,
And get me to England once again!
For England's the one land, I know,
Where men with Splendid Hearts may go;
And Cambridgeshire, of all England,
The shire for Men who Understand;
And of that district I prefer
The lovely hamlet Grantchester.
For Cambridge people rarely smile,
Being urban, squat, and packed with guile.
1914 and Other Poems (1915) "The Old Vicarage, Grantchester"
They love the Good; they worship Truth;
They laugh uproariously in youth;
(And when they get to feeling old,
They up and shoot themselves, I'm told).
1914 and Other Poems (1915) "The Old Vicarage, Grantchester"
Oh, is the water sweet and cool,
Gentle and brown, above the pool?
And laughs the immortal river still
Under the mill, under the mill?
Say, is there Beauty yet to find?
And Certainty? and Quiet kind?
Deep meadows yet, for to forget
The lies, and truths, and pain?...oh! yet
Stands the Church clock at ten to three?
And is there honey still for tea?
1914 and Other Poems (1915) "The Old Vicarage, Grantchester"
2.135 Anita Brookner
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1938-
Good women always think it is their fault when someone else is being
offensive. Bad women never take the blame for anything.
Hotel du Lac (1984) ch. 7
Blanche Vernon occupied her time most usefully in keeping feelings at bay.
Misalliance (1986) ch. 1
2.136 Mel Brooks
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1926-
That's it baby, when you got it, flaunt it.
The Producers (1968 film)
2.137 Heywood Broun
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1888-1939
Free speech is about as good a cause as the world has ever known. But,
like the poor, it is always with us and gets shoved aside in favour of
things which seem at some given moment more vital....Everybody favours
free speech in the slack moments when no axes are being ground.
New York World 23 Oct. 1926, p. 13
Just as every conviction begins as a whim so does every emancipator serve
his apprenticeship as a crank. A fanatic is a great leader who is just
entering the room.
New York World 6 Feb. 1928, p. 11
Men build bridges and throw railroads across deserts, and yet they contend
successfully that the job of sewing on a button is beyond them.
Accordingly, they don't have to sew buttons.
Seeing Things at Night (1921) "Holding a Baby"
Posterity is as likely to be wrong as anybody else.
Sitting on the World (1924) "The Last Review"
2.138 H. Rap Brown
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1943-
I say violence is necessary. It is as American as cherry pie.
Speech at Washington, 27 July 1967, in Washington Post 28 July 1967, p. A7
2.139 Helen Gurley Brown
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1922-
Sex and the single girl.
Title of book (1962)
2.140 Ivor Brown
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1891-1974
For nearly a century after his death, Shakespeare remained more a theme
for criticism by the few than a subject of adulation by the many.
Shakespeare (1949) ch. 1
2.141 John Mason Brown
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1900-1969
Tallulah Bankhead barged down the Nile last night as Cleopatra--and sank.
New York Post 11 Nov. 1937, p. 18
2.142 Lew Brown (Louis Brownstein)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1893-1958
Life is just a bowl of cherries.
Title of song (1931; music by Ray Henderson)
2.143 Nacio Herb Brown
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1896-1964
See Arthur Freed (6.44)
2.144 Cecil Browne
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
But not so odd
As those who choose
A Jewish God,
But spurn the Jews.
Reply to verse by William Norman Ewer: see 78:4
2.145 Sir Frederick Browning
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1896-1965
I think we might be going a bridge too far.
Expressing reservations about the Arnhem "Market Garden" operation to
Field Marshal Montgomery on 10 Sept. 1944, in R. E. Urquhart Arnhem
(1958) p. 4
2.146 Lenny Bruce (Leonard Alfred Schneider)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1925-1966
The liberals can understand everything but people who don't understand
them.
In John Cohen Essential Lenny Bruce (1970) p. 59
2.147 Anita Bryant
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1940-
If homosexuality were the normal way, God would have made Adam and Bruce.
In New York Times 5 June 1977, p. 22
2.148 Martin Buber
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1878-1965
Der Mensch wird am Du zum Ich.
Through the Thou a person becomes I.
Ich und Du (I and Thou, 1923) in Werke (1962) vol. 1, p. 97
2.149 John Buchan (Baron Tweedsmuir)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1875-1940
To live for a time close to great minds is the best kind of education.
Memory Hold-the-Door (1940) ch. 2
"Back to Glasgow to do some work for the cause," I said lightly. "Just
so," he said, with a grin. "It's a great life if you don't weaken."
Mr Standfast (1919) ch. 5
An atheist is man who has no invisible means of support.
In H. E. Fosdick On Being a Real Person (1943) ch. 10
2.150 Frank Buchman
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1878-1961
I thank heaven for a man like Adolf Hitler, who built a front line of
defence against the anti-Christ of Communism.
New York World-Telegram 26 Aug. 1936
Suppose everybody cared enough, everybody shared enough, wouldn't
everybody have enough? There is enough in the world for everyone's need,
but not enough for everyone's greed.
Remaking the World (1947) p. 56
2.151 Gene Buck (Edward Eugene Buck) and Herman Ruby
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Gene Buck 1885-1957
Herman Ruby 1891-1959
That Shakespearian rag,--
Most intelligent, very elegant.
That Shakespearian Rag (1912 song; music by David Stamper). Cf. T. S.
Eliot 76:21
2.152 Richard Buckle
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1916-
John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison are the greatest composers
since Beethoven, with Paul McCartney way out in front.
Sunday Times 29 Dec. 1963
2.153 Arthur Buller
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1874-1944
There was a young lady named Bright,
Whose speed was far faster than light;
She set out one day
In a relative way
And returned on the previous night.
Punch 19 Dec. 1923, "Relativity"
2.154 Ivor Bulmer-Thomas
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1905-
If he [Harold Wilson] ever went to school without any boots it was because
he was too big for them.
Speech at Conservative Party Conference, in Manchester Guardian 13 Oct.
1949
2.155 Luis Buuel
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1900-1983
Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie.
The discreet charm of the bourgeoisie.
Title of film (1972)
Grce Dieu, je suis toujours athe.
Thanks to God, I am still an atheist.
In Le Monde 16 Dec. 1959
2.156 Anthony Burgess
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1917-
Who ever heard of a clockwork orange? Then I read a malenky bit out loud
in a sort of very high type preaching goloss: "The attempt to impose upon
man, a creature of growth and capable of sweetness, to ooze juicily at the
last round the bearded lips of God, to attempt to impose, I say, laws and
conditions appropriate to a mechanical creation, against this I raise my
sword-pen."
A Clockwork Orange (1962) p. 21
It was the afternoon of my eighty-first birthday, and I was in bed with my
catamite when Ali announced that the archbishop had come to see me.
Earthly Powers (1980) p. 7
He said it was artificial respiration, but now I find I am to have his
child.
Inside Mr Enderby (1963) pt. 1, ch. 4
The possession of a book becomes a substitute for reading it.
New York Times Book Review 4 Dec. 1966, p. 74
2.157 Johnny Burke
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1908-1964
Every time it rains, it rains
Pennies from heaven.
Don't you know each cloud contains
Pennies from heaven?
You'll find your fortune falling
All over town
Be sure that your umbrella
Is upside down.
Pennies from Heaven (1936 song; music by Arthur Johnston)
Like Webster's Dictionary, we're Morocco bound.
The Road to Morocco (1942 song from film The Road to Morocco; music by
James van Heusen)
2.158 John Burns
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1858-1943
"What have you in the Mississippi?" he [John Burns] asked an American who
had spoken disparagingly of the Thames. The American replied that there
was water--miles and miles of it. "Ah, but you see, the Thames is liquid
history," said Burns.
Daily Mail 25 Jan. 1943
2.159 William S. Burroughs
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1914-
I think there are innumerable gods. What we on earth call God is a little
tribal God who has made an awful mess. Certainly forces operating through
human consciousness control events.
Paris Review Fall 1965
2.160 Benjamin Hapgood Burt
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1880-1950
One evening in October, when I was one-third sober,
An' taking home a "load" with manly pride;
My poor feet began to stutter, so I lay down in the gutter,
And a pig came up an' lay down by my side;
Then we sang "It's all fair weather when good fellows get together,"
Till a lady passing by was heard to say:
"You can tell a man who 'boozes' by the company he chooses"
And the pig got up and slowly walked away.
The Pig Got Up and Slowly Walked Away (1933 song)
2.161 Nat Burton
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
There'll be bluebirds over the white cliffs of Dover,
Tomorrow, just you wait and see.
White Cliffs of Dover (1941 song; music by Walter Kent)
2.162 R. A. Butler (Baron Butler of Saffron Walden)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1902-1982
Politics is the Art of the Possible. That is what these pages show I have
tried to achieve--not more--and that is what I have called my book.
The Art of the Possible (1971) p. xi. Cf. Bismarck's "Die Politik ist die
Lehre vom Mglichen," Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (1979) 84:20
Reporter: Mr Butler, would you say that this [Anthony Eden] is the best
Prime Minister we have?
R. A. Butler: Yes.
Interview at London Airport, 8 Jan. 1956, in R. A. Butler The Art of the
Possible (1971) ch. 9
2.163 Ralph Butler and Noel Gay (Richard Moxon Armitage)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1898-1954
The sun has got his hat on
Hip hip hip hooray!
The sun has got his hat on
And he's coming out today.
The Sun Has Got His Hat On (1932 song)
2.164 Samuel Butler
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1835-1902
Yet meet we shall, and part, and meet again
Where dead men meet, on lips of living men.
Athenaeum 4 Jan. 1902,
It has been said that the love of money is the root of all evil. The want
of money is so quite as truly.
Erewhon (1872) ch. 20
It has been said that though God cannot alter the past, historians can; it
is perhaps because they can be useful to Him in this respect that He
tolerates their existence.
Erewhon Revisited (1901) ch. 14
Life is like playing a violin solo in public and learning the instrument
as one goes on.
Speech at the Somerville Club, 27 Feb. 1895, in R. A. Streatfield Essays
on Life, Art and Science (1904) p. 69
An honest God's the noblest work of man.
Further Extracts from Notebooks (1934) p. 26. Cf. Oxford Dictionary of
Quotations (1979) 270:17 and 379:24
A lawyer's dream of heaven: every man reclaimed his own property at the
resurrection, and each tried to recover it from all his forefathers.
Further Extracts from Notebooks (1934) p. 27
The three most important things a man has are, briefly, his private parts,
his money, and his religious opinions.
Further Extracts from Notebooks (1934) p. 93
The course of true anything never does run smooth.
Further Extracts from Notebooks (1934) p. 260
Conscience is thoroughly well-bred and soon leaves off talking to those
who do not wish to hear it.
Further Extracts from Notebooks (1934) p. 279
I heard a man say that brigands demand your money or your life, whereas
women require both.
Further Extracts from Notebooks (1934) p. 315
It was very good of God to let Carlyle and Mrs Carlyle marry one another
and so make only two people miserable instead of four, besides being very
amusing.
Letters between Samuel Butler and Miss E. M. A. Savage 1871-1885 (1935)
21 Nov. 1884
The most perfect humour and irony is generally quite unconscious.
Life and Habit (1877) ch. 2
It has, I believe, been often remarked that a hen is only an egg's way of
making another egg.
Life and Habit (1877) ch. 8
Life is one long process of getting tired.
Notebooks (1912) ch. 1
Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient
premises.
Notebooks (1912) ch. 1
All progress is based upon a universal innate desire on the part of every
organism to live beyond its income.
Notebooks (1912) ch. 1
The healthy stomach is nothing if not conservative. Few radicals have good
digestions.
Notebooks (1912) ch. 6
Always eat grapes downwards--that is, always eat the best grape first; in
this way there will be none better left on the bunch, and each grape will
seem good down to the last. If you eat the other way, you will not have
a good grape in the lot. Besides you will be tempting providence to kill
you before you come to the best.
Notebooks (1912) ch. 7
How thankful we ought to be that Wordsworth was only a poet and not a
musician. Fancy a symphony by Wordsworth! Fancy having to sit it out! And
fancy what it would have been if he had written fugues!
Notebooks (1912) ch. 8
The history of art is the history of revivals.
Notebooks (1912) ch. 8
Genius...has been defined as a supreme capacity for taking trouble....It
might be more fitly described as a supreme capacity for getting its
possessors into trouble of all kinds and keeping them therein so long as
the genius remains.
Notebooks (1912) ch. 11
An apology for the Devil: It must be remembered that we have only heard
one side of the case. God has written all the books.
Notebooks (1912) ch. 14
The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with
him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself
too.
Notebooks (1912) ch. 14
A definition is the enclosing a wilderness of idea within a wall of words.
Notebooks (1912) ch. 14
To live is like to love--all reason is against it, and all healthy
instinct for it.
Notebooks (1912) ch. 14
The public buys its opinions as it buys its meat, or takes in its milk, on
the principle that it is cheaper to do this than to keep a cow. So it is,
but the milk is more likely to be watered.
Notebooks (1912) ch. 17
I do not mind lying, but I hate inaccuracy.
Notebooks (1912) ch. 19
Stowed away in a Montreal lumber room
The Discobolus standeth and turneth his face to the wall;
Dusty, cobweb-covered, maimed, and set at naught,
Beauty crieth in an attic, and no man regardeth.
O God! O Montreal!
Spectator 18 May 1878, "Psalm of Montreal"
I do not like books. I believe I have the smallest library of any literary
man in London, and I have no wish to increase it. I keep my books at the
British Museum and at Mudie's, and it makes me very angry if any one gives
me one for my private library.
Universal Review Dec. 1890, "Ramblings in Cheapside"
Adversity, if a man is set down to it by degrees, is more supportable with
equanimity by most people than any great prosperity arrived at in a single
lifetime.
Way of All Flesh (1903) ch. 5
They would have been equally horrified at hearing the Christian religion
doubted, and at seeing it practised.
Way of All Flesh (1903) ch. 15
All animals, except man, know that the principal business of life is to
enjoy it--and they do enjoy it as much as man and other circumstances will
allow.
Way of All Flesh (1903) ch. 19
The advantage of doing one's praising for oneself is that one can lay it
on so thick and exactly in the right places.
Way of All Flesh (1903) ch. 34
Young as he was, his instinct told him that the best liar is he who makes
the smallest amount of lying go the longest way.
Way of All Flesh (1903) ch. 39
Beyond a haricot vein in one of my legs, I'm as young as ever I was. Old
indeed! There's many a good tune played on an old fiddle!
Way of All Flesh (1903) ch. 61
'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have lost at all.
Way of All Flesh (1903) ch. 67. Cf. Tennyson in Oxford Dictionary of
Quotations (1979) 536:16
2.165 Max Bygraves
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1922-
See Eric Sykes and Max Bygraves (19.137)
2.166 James Branch Cabell
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1879-1958
The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds;
and the pessimist fears this is true.
Silver Stallion (1926) bk. 4, ch. 26
3.0 C
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
3.1 Irving Caesar
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1895-
Picture you upon my knee,
Just tea for two and two for tea.
Tea for Two (1925 song; music by Vincent Youmans)
3.2 John Cage
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1912-
I have nothing to say
and I am saying it and that is
poetry.
Silence (1961) "Lecture on nothing"
3.3 James Cagney
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1899-1986
Frank Gorshin--oh, Frankie, just in passing: I never said [in any film]
"Mmm, you dirty rat!" What I actually did say was "Judy! Judy! Judy!"
Speech at American Film Institute banquet, 13 Mar. 1974, in Cagney by
Cagney (1976) ch. 14
3.4 Sammy Cahn (Samuel Cohen)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1913-
Love and marriage, love and marriage,
Go together like a horse and carriage,
This I tell ya, brother,
Ya can't have one without the other.
Love and Marriage (1955 song; music by James Van Heusen)
It's that second time you hear your love song sung,
Makes you think perhaps, that
Love like youth is wasted on the young.
The Second Time Around (1960 song; music by James Van Heusen)
3.5 James M. Cain
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1892-1977
The postman always rings twice.
Title of novel (1934) and play (1936)
3.6 Michael Caine (Maurice Joseph Micklewhite)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1933-
Not many people know that.
Title of book (1984)
3.7 Sir Joseph Cairns
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1920-
The betrayal of Ulster, the cynical and entirely undemocratic banishment
of its properly elected Parliament and a relegation to the status of
a fuzzy wuzzy colony is, I hope, a last betrayal contemplated by Downing
Street because it is the last that Ulster will countenance.
Speech on retiring as Lord Mayor of Belfast, 31 May 1972, in Daily
Telegraph 1 June 1972
3.8 Charles Calhoun
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1897-1972
Shake, rattle and roll.
Title of song (1954)
3.9 James Callaghan (Leonard James Callaghan, Baron Callaghan of Cardiff)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1912-
We say that what Britain needs is a new social contract. That is what
this document [Labour's Programme for Britain] is about.
Speech at Labour Party Annual Conference, 2 Oct. 1972, in Conference
Report (1972) p. 115
A lie can be half-way around the world before truth has got his boots on.
Hansard 1 Nov. 1976, col. 976
I don't think other people in the world would share the view there is
mounting chaos.
In interview at London Airport, 10 Jan. 1979, in The Sun 11 Jan. 1979; the
Sun headlined its report:"Crisis? What Crisis?"
3.10 Joseph Campbell (Seosamh MacCathmhaoil)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1879-1944
As a white candle
In a holy place,
So is the beauty
Of an agd face.
Irishry (1913) "Old Woman"
3.11 Mrs Patrick Campbell (Beatrice Stella Campbell)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1865-1940
Oh dear me--its too late to do anything but accept you and love you--but
when you were quite a little boy somebody ought to have said "hush" just
once!
Letter to G. B. Shaw, 1 Nov. 1912, cited in Alan Dent Bernard Shaw and Mrs
Patrick Campbell (1952) p. 52
A popular anecdote describes a well known actor-manager [Sir Herbert
Beerbohm Tree] as saying one day at rehearsal to an actress of
distinguished beauty [Mrs Patrick Campbell], "Let us give Shaw a beefsteak
and put some red blood into him." "For heaven's sake, don't," she
exclaimed: "he is bad enough as it is; but if you give him meat no woman
in London will be safe."
G. B. Shaw in Frank Harris Contemporary Portraits (1919) p. 331
It doesn't matter what you do in the bedroom as long as you don't do it in
the street and frighten the horses.
In Daphne Fielding Duchess of Jermyn Street (1964) ch. 2
Tallulah [Bankhead] is always skating on thin ice. Everyone wants to be
there when it breaks.
In The Times 13 Dec. 1968
It was Mrs Campbell, for instance, who, on a celebrated occasion, threw
her companion into a flurry by describing her recent marriage as "the
deep, deep peace of the double-bed after the hurly-burly of the
chaise-longue."
Alexander Woollcott While Rome Burns (1934) "The First Mrs Tanqueray"
3.12 Roy Campbell
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1901-1957
Of all the clever people round me here
I most delight in Me--
Mine is the only voice I care to hear,
And mine the only face I like to see.
Adamastor (1930) "Home Thoughts in Bloomsbury"
You praise the firm restraint with which they write--
I'm with you there, of course:
They use the snaffle and the curb all right,
But where's the bloody horse?
Adamastor (1930) "On Some South African Novelists"
I hate "Humanity" and all such abstracts: but I love people. Lovers of
"Humanity" generally hate people and children, and keep parrots or puppy
dogs.
Light on a Dark Horse (1951) ch. 13
Translations (like wives) are seldom strictly faithful if they are in the
least attractive.
Poetry Review June-July 1949
Giraffes!--a People
Who live between the earth and skies,
Each in his lone religious steeple,
Keeping a light-house with his eyes.
Talking Bronco (1946) "Dreaming Spires"
South Africa, renowned both far and wide
For politics and little else beside.
The Wayzgoose (1928) p. 7
3.13 Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1836-1908
There is a phrase which seems in itself somewhat self-evident, which is
often used to account for a good deal--that "war is war." But when you
come to ask about it, then you are told that the war now going on is not
war. [Laughter] When is a war not a war? When it is carried on by methods
of barbarism in South Africa.
Speech to National Reform Union, 14 June 1901, in Daily News 15 June 1901
Good government could never be a substitute for government by the people
themselves.
Speech at Stirling, 23 Nov. 1905, in Daily News 24 Nov. 1905
3.14 Albert Camus
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1913-1960
Intellectuel = celui qui se ddouble.
An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself.
Carnets, 1935-42 (Notebooks, 1962) p. 41
La politique et le sort des hommes sont forms par des hommes sans idalet
sans grandeur. Ceux qui ont une grandeur en eux ne font pas de politique.
Politics and the fate of mankind are formed by men without ideals and
without greatness. Those who have greatness within them do not go in for
politics.
Carnets, 1935-42 (Notebooks, 1962) p. 99
Vous savez ce qu'est le charme: une manire de s'entendre rpondre oui
sans avoir pos aucune question claire.
You know what charm is: a way of getting the answer yes without having
asked any clear question.
La Chute (The Fall, 1956) p. 62
Nous sommes tous des cas exceptionnels. Nous voulons tous faire appel de
quelque chose! Chacun exige d'tre innocent, tout prix, mme si, pour
cela, il faut accuser le genre humain et le ciel.
We are all special cases. We all want to appeal to something! Everyone
insists on his innocence, at all costs, even if it means accusing the rest
of the human race and heaven.
La Chute (The Fall, 1956) p. 95
C'est si vrai que nous nous confions rarement ceux qui sont meilleurs
que nous.
It is very true that we seldom confide in those who are better than
ourselves.
La Chute (The Fall, 1956) p. 97
Je vais vous dire un grand secret, mon cher. N'attendez pas le jugement
dernier. Il a lieu tous les jours.
I'll tell you a great secret, my friend. Don't wait for the last
judgement. It happens every day.
La Chute (The Fall, 1956) p. 129
Aujourd'hui, maman est morte. Ou peut-tre hier, je ne sais pas.
Mother died today. Or perhaps it was yesterday, I don't know.
L'tranger (The Outsider, 1944) p. 9
Qu'est-ce qu'un homme rvolt? Un homme qui dit non.
What is a rebel? A man who says no.
L'Homme rvolt (The Rebel, 1951) p. 25
Toutes les rvolutions modernes ont abouti un renforcement de l' tat.
All modern revolutions have ended in a reinforcement of the State.
L'Homme rvolt (The Rebel, 1951) p. 221
Tout rvolutionnaire finit en oppresseur ou en hrtique.
Every revolutionary ends as an oppressor or a heretic.
L'Homme rvolt (The Rebel, 1951) p. 306
La lutte elle-mme vers les sommets suffit remplir un curd'homme. Il
faut imaginer Sisyphe heureux.
The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a human heart.
One must imagine that Sisyphus is happy.
Le Mythe de Sisyphe (The Myth of Sisyphus, 1942) p. 168
3.15 Elias Canetti
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1905-
Alles was man vergessen hat, schreit im Traum um Hilfe.
All the things one has forgotten scream for help in dreams.
Die Provinz der Menschen (The Human Province, 1973) p. 269
3.16 Hughie Cannon
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1877-1912
Won't you come home Bill Bailey, won't you come home?
Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home (1902 song)
3.17 John R. Caples
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1900-
They laughed when I sat down at the piano. But when I started to play!
Advertisement for US School of Music, in Physical Culture Dec. 1925, p. 95
3.18 Al Capone
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1899-1947
Don't you get the idea I'm one of these goddam radicals. Don't get the
idea I'm knocking the American system.
Interview, circa 1929, in Claud Cockburn In Time of Trouble (1956) ch. 16
Once in the racket you're always in it.
Philadelphia Public Ledger 18 May 1929
3.19 Truman Capote
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1924-1984
Mr Capote...commented on the difficulty he had reading the Beat novels.
He had tried but he had been unable to finish any one of them...."None of
these people have anything interesting to say," he observed, "and none of
them can write, not even Mr Kerouac." What they do, he added, "isn't
writing at all--it's typing."
Report of television discussion, in New Republic 9 Feb. 1959
Venice is like eating an entire box of chocolate liqueurs in one go.
In Observer 26 Nov. 1961
Other voices, other rooms.
Title of novel (1948)
3.20 Al Capp
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1909-1979
[Abstract art is] a product of the untalented, sold by the unprincipled to
the utterly bewildered.
In National Observer 1 July 1963
3.21 Ethna Carbery (Anna MacManus)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1866-1902
Oh, Kathaleen N Houlihan, your road's a thorny way,
And 'tis a faithful soul would walk the flints with you for aye,
Would walk the sharp and cruel flints until his locks grew grey.
Four Winds Of Eirinn (1902) "Passing of the Gael"
3.22 Hoagy Carmichael (Hoagland Howard Carmichael)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1899-1981
See Stuart Gorrell (7.46)
3.23 Stokely Carmichael and Charles Vernon Hamilton
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Stokely Carmichael 1941-
Charles Vernon Hamilton 1929-
The adoption of the concept of Black Power is one of the most legitimate
and healthy developments in American politics and race relations in our
time....It is a call for black people in this country to unite, to
recognize their heritage, to build a sense of community. It is a call for
black people to begin to define their own goals, to lead their own
organizations and to support those organizations. It is a call to reject
the racist institutions and values of this society.
Black Power (1967) ch. 2
3.24 Dale Carnegie
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1888-1955
How to win friends and influence people.
Title of book (1936)
3.25 J. L. Carr
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
"I've never been spoken to like this before in all my thirty years'
experience," she wails. "You have not had thirty years' experience, Mrs
Grindle-Jones," he says witheringly. "You have had one year's experience
30 times."
Harpole Report (1972) p. 128
3.26 Edward Carson (Baron Carson)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1854-1935
My only great qualification for being put at the head of the Navy is that
I am very much at sea.
In Ian Colvin Life of Lord Carson (1936) vol. 3, ch. 23
3.27 Jimmy Carter
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1924-
We should live our lives as though Christ were coming this afternoon.
Speech to Bible class at Plains, Georgia, March 1976, in Boston Sunday
Herald Advertiser 11 Apr. 1976
I'm Jimmy Carter, and I'm going to be your next president.
Said to the son of a campaign supporter, Nov. 1975, in I'll Never Lie to
You (1976) ch. 1
I've looked on a lot of women with lust. I've committed adultery in my
heart many times. This is something that God recognizes I will do--and
I have done it--and God forgives me for it.
Playboy Nov. 1976
3.28 Sydney Carter
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1915-
I danced in the morning
When the world was begun
And I danced in the moon
And the stars and the sun
And I came down from heaven
And I danced on the earth--
At Bethlehem I had my birth.
Dance then wherever you may be,
I am the Lord of the Dance, said he,
And I'll lead you all, wherever you may be
And I'll lead you all in the dance, said he.
Nine Carols or Ballads (1967) "Lord of the Dance"
It's God they ought to crucify
Instead of you and me,
I said to the carpenter
A-hanging on the tree.
Nine Carols or Ballads (1967) "Friday Morning"
3.29 Pablo Casals
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1876-1973
It [the cello] is like a beautiful woman who has not grown older, but
younger with time, more slender, more supple, more graceful.
In Time 29 Apr. 1957
3.30 Ted Castle (Baron Castle of Islington)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1907-1979
In place of strife.
Title of Labour Government's White Paper, 17 Jan. 1969, suggested by
Castle to his wife, Barbara Castle (Secretary of State for
Employment)--see Barbara Castle Diaries (1984) 15 Jan. 1969
3.31 Harry Castling and C. W. Murphy
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Let's all go down the Strand!
Let's all go down the Strand!
I'll be leader, you can march behind
Come with me, and see what we can find
Let's all go down the Strand!
Let's All Go Down the Strand! (1909 song)
3.32 Fidel Castro
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1926-
La historia me absolvra.
History will absolve me.
Title of pamphlet (1953)
3.33 Willa Cather
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1873-1947
Religion and art spring from the same root and are close kin. Economics
and art are strangers.
Commonweal 17 Apr. 1936
The history of every country begins in the heart of a man or a woman.
O Pioneers! (1913) pt. 1, ch. 5
I like trees because they seem more resigned to the way they have to live
than other things do.
O Pioneers! (1913) pt. 2, ch. 8
3.34 Mr Justice Caulfield (Sir Bernard Caulfield)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1914-
Remember Mary Archer in the witness box. Your vision of her will probably
never disappear. Has she elegance? Has she fragrance? Would she
have--without the strain of this trial--a radiance?
Summing up of court case between Jeffrey Archer and the News of the World,
July 1987, in The Times 24 July 1987
3.35 Charles Causley
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1917-
O are you the boy
Who would wait on the quay
With the silver penny
And the apricot tree?
Farewell, Aggie Weston (1951) "Nursery Rhyme of Innocence and Experience"
Timothy Winters comes to school
With eyes as wide as a football-pool,
Ears like bombs and teeth like splinters:
A blitz of a boy is Timothy Winters.
Union Street (1957) "Timothy Winters"
3.36 Constantine Cavafy
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1863-1933
What are we all waiting for, gathered together like this on the public
square?
The Barbarians are coming today.
(Waiting for the Barbarians, 1904) in Poems (1963)
You will find no new places, no other seas,
The town will follow you.
(Poems, 1911) ("The Town")
3.37 Edith Cavell
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1865-1915
They have all been very kind to me here. But this I would say, standing,
as I do, in view of God and eternity, I realize that patriotism is not
enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone.
Words spoken in prison the night before her execution, in The Times
23 Oct. 1915
3.38 Lord David Cecil
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1902-1986
The primary object of a student of literature is to be delighted. His duty
is to enjoy himself: his efforts should be directed to developing his
faculty of appreciation.
Reading as one of the Fine Arts (1949) p. 4
3.39 Patrick Reginald Chalmers
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1872-1942
What's lost upon the roundabouts we pulls up on the swings!
Green Days and Blue Days (1912) "Roundabouts and Swings"
3.40 Joseph Chamberlain
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1836-1914
In politics, there is no use looking beyond the next fortnight.
In letter from A. J. Balfour to 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, 24 Mar. 1886,
in A. J. Balfour Chapters of Autobiography (1930) ch. 16
It is said that the City is the centre of the world's finance, that the
fate of our manufactures therefore is a secondary consideration; that,
provided that the City of London remains, as it is at present, the
clearing-house of the world, any other nation may be its workshop. Now
I ask you, gentlemen, whether...that is not a very short-sighted view.
Speech at the Guildhall, 19 Jan. 1904, in The Times 20 Jan. 1904
In the great revolution which separated the United States from Great
Britain the greatest man that that revolution produced...was Alexander
Hamilton...he left a precious legacy to his countrymen when he disclosed
to them the secrets of union and when he said to them, "Learn to think
continentally." And, my fellow-citizens, if I may venture to give you
a message, now I would say to you, "Learn to think Imperially."
Speech at the Guildhall, 19 Jan. 1904, in The Times 20 Jan. 1904
The day of small nations has long passed away. The day of Empires has
come.
Speech at Birmingham, 12 May 1904, in The Times 13 May 1904
We are not downhearted. The only trouble is we cannot understand what is
happening to our neighbours.
Speech at Smethwick, 18 Jan. 1906, in The Times 19 Jan. 1906
3.41 Neville Chamberlain
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1869-1940
In war, whichever side may call itself the victor, there are no winners,
but all are losers.
Speech at Kettering, 3 July 1938, in The Times 4 July 1938
How horrible, fantastic, incredible it is that we should be digging
trenches and trying on gas-masks here because of a quarrel in a far away
country [Czechoslovakia] between people of whom we know nothing.
Broadcast speech, 27 Sept. 1938, in The Times 28 Sept. 1938
This morning I had another talk with the German Chancellor, Herr Hitler,
and here is the paper which bears his name upon it as well as mine...."We
regard the agreement signed last night and the Anglo-German Naval
Agreement, as symbolic of the desire of our two peoples never to go to war
with one another again."
Speech at Heston Airport, 30 Sept. 1938, in The Times 1 Oct. 1938
My good friends, this is the second time in our history that there has
come back from Germany to Downing Street peace with honour. I believe it
is peace for our time. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. And
now I recommend you to go home and sleep quietly in your beds.
Speech from window of 10 Downing Street, 30 Sept. 1938, in The Times
1 Oct. 1938
This morning, the British Ambassador in Berlin handed the German
government a final Note stating that, unless we heard from them by eleven
o'clock that they were prepared at once to withdraw their troops from
Poland, a state of war would exist between us. I have to tell you now that
no such undertaking has been received, and that consequently this country
is at war with Germany.
Radio broadcast, 3 Sept. 1939, in The Times 4 Sept. 1939
Whatever may be the reason--whether it was that Hitler thought he might
get away with what he had got without fighting for it, or whether it was
that after all the preparations were not sufficiently complete--however,
one thing is certain--he missed the bus.
Speech at Central Hall, Westminster, 4 Apr. 1940, in The Times 5 Apr. 1940
3.42 Harry Champion
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1866-1942
See Charles Collins, E. A. Sheppard, and Fred Terry (3.79)
3.43 Raymond Chandler
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1888-1959
Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is
neither tarnished nor afraid.
Atlantic Monthly Dec. 1944 "The Simple Art of Murder"
It was about eleven o'clock in the morning, mid October, with the sun not
shining and a look of hard wet rain in the clearness of the foothills.
I was wearing my powder-blue suit, with dark blue shirt, tie and display
handkerchief, black brogues, black wool socks with dark blue clocks on
them. I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, and I didn't care who knew it.
The Big Sleep (1939) ch. 1
It was a blonde. A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained glass
window.
Farewell, My Lovely (1940) ch. 13
Would you convey my compliments to the purist who reads your proofs and
tell him or her that I write in a sort of broken-down patois which is
something like the way a Swiss waiter talks, and that when I split an
infinitive, God damn it, I split it so it will stay split.
Letter to Edward Weeks, 18 Jan. 1947, in F. MacShane Life of Raymond
Chandler (1976) ch. 7
A big hard-boiled city with no more personality than a paper cup.
The Little Sister (1949) ch. 26 (of Los Angeles)
If my books had been any worse, I should not have been invited to
Hollywood, and if they had been any better, I should not have come.
Letter to Charles W. Morton, 12 Dec. 1945, in Dorothy Gardiner and
Katherine S. Walker Raymond Chandler Speaking (1962) p. 126
3.44 Coco Chanel
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1883-1971
Youth is something very new: twenty years ago no one mentioned it.
In Marcel Haedrich Coco Chanel, Her Life, Her Secrets (1971) ch. 1
3.45 Charlie Chaplin (Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1889-1977
All I need to make a comedy is a park, a policeman and a pretty girl.
My Autobiography (1964) ch. 10
3.46 Arthur Chapman
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1873-1935
Out where the handclasp's a little stronger,
Out where the smile dwells a little longer,
That's where the West begins.
Out Where the West Begins (1916) p. 1
3.47 Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Graham Chapman 1941-1989
John Cleese 1939-
Terry Gilliam 1940-
Eric Idle 1943-
Terry Jones 1942-
Michael Palin 1943-
I'm a lumberjack
And I'm OK
I sleep all night
And I work all day.
Monty Python's Big Red Book (1971)
And now for something completely different.
Catch-phrase popularized in Monty Python's Flying Circus (BBC TV
programme, 1969-74)
Your wife interested in...photographs? Eh? Know what I mean--photographs?
He asked him knowingly...nudge nudge, snap snap, grin grin, wink wink, say
no more.
Monty Python's Flying Circus (BBC TV programme, 1969), in Roger Wilmut
From Fringe to Flying Circus (1980) ch. 11
customer: I wish to complain about this parrot what I purchased not
half an hour ago from this very boutique.
shopkeeper: Oh yes, the Norwegian Blue--what's wrong with it?
customer: I'll tell you what's wrong with it--it's dead that's what's
wrong with it.
shopkeeper: No, no--it's resting....It's probably pining for the
fiords....
customer: It's not pining--it's passed on! This parrot is no more! It
has ceased to be! It's expired and gone to meet its maker! This is a late
parrot! It's a stiff! Bereft of life it rests in peace--if you hadn't
nailed it to the perch it would be pushing up the daisies! It's rung down
the curtain and joined the choir invisible! This is an ex-parrot!
Monty Python's Flying Circus (BBC TV programme, 1969), in Roger Wilmut
From Fringe to Flying Circus (1980) ch. 11
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition! Our chief weapon is
surprisesemdash.surprise and fear...fear and surprise...our two weapons
are fear and surprise--and ruthless efficiency...our three weapons are
fear and surprise and ruthless efficiency and an almost fanatical devotion
to the Pope...our four...no....Amongst our weapons--amongst our
weaponry--are such elements as fear, surprise....I'll come in again.
Monty Python's Flying Circus (BBC TV programme, 1970), in Roger Wilmut
From Fringe to Flying Circus (1980) ch. 11
3.48 Prince Charles (Charles Philip Arthur George, Prince of Wales)
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1948-
I have not the slightest hesitation in making the observation that much of
British management doesn't seem to understand the importance of the human
factor.
Speech to Parliamentary and Scientific Committee, 21 Feb. 1979, in Daily
Telegraph 22 Feb. 1979
I just come and talk to the plants, really--very important to talk to
them, they respond I find.
Television interview, 21 Sept. 1986, in Daily Telegraph 22 Sept. 1986
We do need a sense of urgency in our outlook in the regeneration of
industry and enterprise, because otherwise what really worries me is that
we are going to end up as a fourth-rate country and I don't want to see
that.
Speech at Edinburgh, 26 Nov. 1985, in Scotsman 27 Nov. 1985
Instead of designing an extension to the elegant faade of the National
Gallery which complements it...it looks as if we may be presented with
a kind of vast municipal fire station....I would understand better this
type of high-tech approach if you demolished the whole of Trafalgar Square
and started again...but what is proposed is like a monstrous carbuncle on
the face of a much-loved and elegant friend.
Speech to Royal Institute of British Architects, 30 May 1984, in The Times
31 May 1984. Cf. Countess Spencer
3.49 Apsley Cherry-Garrard
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1882-1959
See E. L. Atkinson (1.65)
3.50 G. K. Chesterton
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1874-1936
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"
No animal ever invented anything so bad as drunkenness--or so good as
drink.
All Things Considered (1908) "Wine When it is Red"
Of those days the tale is told that I once sent a telegram to my wife in
London, which ran: "Am in Market Harborough. Where ought I to be?"
I cannot remember whether this story is true; but it is not unlikely, or,
I think, unreasonable.
Autobiography (1936) ch. 16
They died to save their country and they only saved the world.
Ballad of St Barbara and Other Verses (1922) "English Graves"
Before the gods that made the gods
Had seen their sunrise pass,
The White Horse of the White Horse Vale
Was cut out of the grass.
Ballad of the White Horse (1911) bk. 1, p. 1
I tell you naught for your comfort,
Yea, naught for your desire,
Save that the sky grows darker yet
And the sea rises higher.
Ballad of the White Horse (1911) bk. 1, p. 18
For the great Gaels of Ireland
Are the men that God made mad,
For all their wars are merry,
And all their songs are sad.
Ballad of the White Horse (1911) bk. 2, p. 35
The thing on the blind side of the heart,
On the wrong side of the door,
The green plant groweth, menacing
Almighty lovers in the Spring;
There is always a forgotten thing,
And love is not secure.
Ballad of the White Horse (1911) bk. 3, p. 52
Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity.
Defendant (1901) "Defence of Penny Dreadfuls"
All slang is metaphor, and all metaphor is poetry.
Defendant (1901) "Defence of Slang"
"My country, right or wrong," is a thing that no patriot would think of
saying except in a desperate case. It is like saying, "My mother, drunk or
sober."
Defendant (1901) "Defence of Patriotism"
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."
Flying Inn (1914) ch. 5 "Wine and Water"
God made the wicked Grocer
For a mystery and a sign,
That men might shun the awful shops
And go to inns to dine.
Flying Inn (1914) ch. 6 "Song against Grocers"
He keeps a lady in a cage
Most cruelly all day,
And makes her count and calls her "Miss"
Until she fades away.
Flying Inn (1914) ch. 6 "Song against Grocers"
The folk that live in Liverpool, their heart is in their boots;
They go to hell like lambs, they do, because the hooter hoots.
Flying Inn (1914) ch. 7 "Me Heart"
They haven't got no noses,
The fallen sons of Eve.
Flying Inn (1914) ch. 15 "Song of Quoodle"
And goodness only knowses
The Noselessness of Man.
Flying Inn (1914) ch. 15 "Song of Quoodle"
The rich are the scum of the earth in every country.
Flying Inn (1914) ch. 15
Tea, although an Oriental,
Is a gentleman at least;
Cocoa is a cad and coward,
Cocoa is a vulgar beast.
Flying Inn (1914) ch. 18 "Song of Right and Wrong"
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.
Flying Inn (1914) ch. 21 "Rolling English Road"
For there is good news yet to hear and fine things to be seen,
Before we go to Paradise by way of Kensal Green.
Flying Inn (1914) ch. 21 "Rolling English Road"
Ten thousand women marched through the streets of London [in support of
women's suffrage] saying: "We will not be dictated to," and then went off
to become stenographers.
In M. Ffinch G. K. Chesterton (1986) ch. 11
The word "orthodoxy" not only no longer means being right; it practically
means being wrong.
Heretics (1905) ch. 1
There is no such thing on earth as an uninteresting subject; the only
thing that can exist is an uninterested person.
Heretics (1905) ch. 3
The artistic temperament is a disease that afflicts amateurs. It is
a disease which arises from men not having sufficient power of expression
to utter and get rid of the element of art in their being.
Heretics (1905) ch. 17
Bigotry may be roughly defined as the anger of men who have no opinions.
Heretics (1905) ch. 20
After the first silence the small man said to the other: "Where does a
wise man hide a pebble?" And the tall man answered in a low voice: "On the
beach." The small man nodded, and after a short silence said: "Where does
a wise man hide a leaf?" And the other answered: "In the forest."
Innocence of Father Brown (1911) "The Sign of the Broken Sword"
Thieves respect property. They merely wish the property to become their
property that they may more perfectly respect it.
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.
Napoleon of Notting Hill (1904) bk. 1, ch. 1
Why do you rush through the fields in trains,
Guessing so much and so much.
Why do you flash through the flowery meads,
Fat-head poet that nobody reads;
And why do you know such a frightful lot
About people in gloves and such?
New Poems (1933) "The Fat White Woman Speaks" (an answer to Frances
Cornford, see 61:8)
Democracy means government by the uneducated, while aristocracy means
government by the badly educated.
New York Times 1 Feb. 1931, pt. 5, p. 1
The men who really believe in themselves are all in lunatic asylums.
Orthodoxy (1908) ch. 2
Poets do not go mad; but chess-players do. Mathematicians go mad, and
cashiers; but creative artists very seldom. I am not, as will be seen, in
any sense attacking logic: I only say that this danger does lie in logic,
not in imagination.
Orthodoxy (1908) ch. 2
Mr Shaw is (I suspect) the only man on earth who has never written any
poetry.
Orthodoxy (1908) ch. 3
Tradition may be defined as an extension of the franchise. Tradition
means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It
is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small
and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about. All
democrats object to men being disqualified by the accident of birth;
tradition objects to their being disqualified by the accident of death.
Democracy tells us not to neglect a good man's opinion, even if he is our
groom; tradition asks us not to neglect a good man's opinion, even if he
is our father.
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
Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly.
Orthodoxy (1908) ch. 7
White founts falling in the Courts of the sun,
And the Soldan of Byzantium is smiling as they run.
Poems (1915) "Lepanto"
Strong gongs groaning as the guns boom far,
Don John of Austria is going to the war,
Stiff flags straining in the night-blasts cold
In the gloom black-purple, in the glint old-gold,
Torchlight crimson on the copper kettle-drums,
Then the tuckets, then the trumpets, then the cannon, and he comes.
Poems (1915) "Lepanto"
From all that terror teaches,
From lies of tongue and pen,
From all the easy speeches
That comfort cruel men,
From sale and profanation
Of honour and the sword,
From sleep and from damnation,
Deliver us, good Lord!
Poems (1915) "A Hymn"
Are they clinging to their crosses, F. E. Smith?
Poems (1915) "Antichrist"
Talk about the pews and steeples
And the Cash that goes therewith!
But the souls of Christian peoples...
Chuck it, Smith!
Poems (1915) "Antichrist"
The souls most fed with Shakespeare's flame
Still sat unconquered in a ring,
Remembering him like anything.
Poems (1915) "Shakespeare Memorial"
John Grubby, who was short and stout
And troubled with religious doubt,
Refused about the age of three
To sit upon the curate's knee.
Poems (1915) "New Freethinker"
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.
Poems (1915) "Song of Defeat"
Smile at us, pay us, pass us; but do not quite forget.
For we are the people of England, that never have spoken yet.
Poems (1915) "The Secret People"
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.
Poems (1915) "The Secret People"
They spoke of Progress spiring round,
Of Light and Mrs Humphry Ward--
It is not true to say I frowned,
Or ran about the room and roared;
I might have simply sat and snored--
I rose politely in the club
And said,"I feel a little bored.
Will someone take me to a pub?"
Poems (1915) "Ballade of an Anti-Puritan"
The gallows in my garden, people say,
Is new and neat and adequately tall.
I tie the noose on in a knowing way
As one that knots his necktie for a ball;
But just as all the neighbours--on the wall--
Are drawing a long breath to shout "Hurray!"
The strangest whim has seized me....After all
I think I will not hang myself today.
Poems (1915) "Ballade of Suicide"
It isn't that they can't see the solution. It is that they can't see the
problem.
Scandal of Father Brown (1935) "Point of a Pin"
Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if only
one had a coloured pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling.
Tremendous Trifles (1909) "On Lying in Bed"
Hardy went down to botanize in the swamp, while Meredith climbed towards
the sun. Meredith became, at his best, a sort of daintily dressed Walt
Whitman: Hardy became a sort of village atheist brooding and blaspheming
over the village idiot.
Victorian Age in Literature (1912) ch. 2
He [Tennyson] could not think up to the height of his own towering style.
Victorian Age in Literature (1912) ch. 3
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, ch. 5
She was maintaining 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, ch. 14
When fishes flew and forests walked
And figs grew upon thorn,
Some moment when the moon was blood
Then surely I was born.
With monstrous head and sickening cry
And ears like errant wings,
The devil's walking parody
On all four-footed things.
Wild Knight and Other Poems (1900) "The Donkey"
Fools! For I also had my hour;
One far fierce hour and sweet:
There was a shout about my ears,
And palms before my feet.
Wild Knight and Other Poems (1900) "The Donkey"
But Higgins is a Heathen,
And to lecture rooms is forced,
Where his aunts, who are not married,
Demand to be divorced.
Wine, Water and Song (1915) "Song of the Strange Ascetic"
To be clever enough to get all that money, one must be stupid enough to
want it.
Wisdom of Father Brown (1914) "Paradise of Thieves"
Journalism largely consists in saying "Lord Jones Dead" to people who
never knew that Lord Jones was alive.
Wisdom of Father Brown (1914) "The Purple Wig"
3.51 Maurice Chevalier
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1888-1972
On his seventy-second birthday in 1960, he [Chevalier] was asked what he
felt about the advancing years. "Considering the alternative," he said,
"it's not too bad at all."
Michael Freedland Maurice Chevalier (1981) ch. 20
3.52 Erskine Childers
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1870-1922
The riddle of the sands.
Title of novel (1903)
The [firing] squad took up their positions across the prison yard. "Come
closer, boys," Childers called out to them. "It will be easier for you."
Burke Wilkinson Zeal of Convert (1976) ch. 26
3.53 Charles Chilton
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1914-
See Joan Littlewood (12.66)
3.54 Noam Chomsky
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1928-
As soon as questions of will or decision or reason or choice of action
arise, human science is at a loss.
Television interview, 30 Mar. 1978, in Listener 6 Apr. 1978
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
3.55 Dame Agatha Christie
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1890-1976
One is left with the horrible feeling now that war settles nothing that to
win a war is as disastrous as to lose one!
Autobiography (1977) pt. 10
"This affair must all be unravelled from within." He [Hercule Poirot]
tapped his forehead. "These little grey cells. It is 'up to them'--as you
say over here."
The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920) ch. 10
Trust the train, Mademoiselle, for it is le bon Dieu who drives it.
The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928) ch. 36
3.56 Frank E. Churchill
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1901-1942
Who's afraid of the big bad wolf?
Title of song (1933; probably written in collaboration with Ann Ronell)
3.57 Sir Winston Churchill
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1874-1965
In defeat unbeatable: in victory unbearable.
In Edward Marsh Ambrosia and Small Beer (1964) ch. 5 (describing Viscount
Montgomery)
After the war one quip which went the rounds of Westminster was attributed
to Churchill himself. "An empty taxi arrived at 10 Downing Street, and
when the door was opened [Clement] Attlee got out." When [John] Colville
repeated this, and its attribution, to Churchill he obviously did not like
it. His face set hard, and "after an awful pause" he said: "Mr Attlee is
an honourable and gallant gentleman, and a faithful colleague who served
his country well at the time of her greatest need. I should be obliged if
you would make it clear whenever an occasion arises that I would never
make such a remark about him, and that I strongly disapprove of anybody
who does."
Kenneth Harris Attlee (1982) ch. 16
Always remember, Clemmie, that I have taken more out of alcohol than
alcohol has taken out of me.
In Quentin Reynolds By Quentin Reynolds (1964) ch. 11
[Clement Attlee is] a modest man who has a good deal to be modest about.
In Chicago Sunday Tribune Magazine of Books 27 June 1954
Question: What are the desirable qualifications for any young man who
wishes to become a politician?
Mr Churchill: It is 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.
In B. Adler Churchill Wit (1965) p. 4
The British people have taken for themselves this motto--"Business carried
on as usual during alterations on the map of Europe." They expect the
navy, on which they have lavished so much care and expense, to make that
good, and that is what, upon the whole, we are actually achieving at the
present time.
Speech at the Guildhall, 9 Nov. 1914, in Complete Speeches (1974) vol. 3,
p. 2341
Here is the answer which I will give to President Roosevelt....We shall
not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire. Neither the sudden shock
of battle nor the long-drawn trials of vigilance and exertion will wear us
down. Give us the tools and we will finish the job.
Speech on radio, 9 Feb. 1941, in Complete Speeches (1974) vol. 6, p. 6350
The people of London with one voice would say to Hitler: "You have
committed every crime under the sun....We will have no truce or parley
with you, or the grisly gang who work your wicked will. You do your
worst--and we will do our best."
Speech at County Hall, London, 14 July 1941, in Complete Speeches (1974)
vol. 6, p. 6451
Do not let us speak of darker days; let us rather speak of sterner days.
These are not dark days: these are great days--the greatest days our
country has ever lived; and we must all thank God that we have been
allowed, each of us according to our stations, to play a part in making
these days memorable in the history of our race.
Speech at Harrow School, 29 Oct. 1941, in Complete Speeches (1974) vol. 6,
p. 6500
It becomes still more difficult to reconcile Japanese action with prudence
or even with sanity. What kind of a people do they think we are?
Speech to US Congress, 26 Dec. 1941, in Complete Speeches (1974) vol. 6,
p. 6540
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 Dec. 1941, in Complete Speeches (1974)
vol. 6, p. 6544
There is no finer investment for any community than putting milk into
babies. Healthy citizens are the greatest asset any country can have.
Speech on radio, 21 Mar. 1943, in Complete Speeches (1974) vol. 7, p. 6761
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 Mar. 1946, in Complete
Speeches (1974) vol. 7, p. 7290
Somebody said, "One never hears of Baldwin nowadays--he might as well be
dead." "No," said Winston, "not dead. But the candle in that great turnip
has gone out."
Harold Nicolson Diary 17 Aug. 1950, in Diaries and Letters (1968) p. 193
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 Nov. 1942, in End of the Beginning
(1943) p. 214
We mean to hold our own. I have not become the King's First Minister in
order to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire.
Speech in London, 10 Nov. 1942, in End of the Beginning (1943) p. 215
Once he [Churchill] said to me, "Alfred, if you met Picasso coming down
the street, would you join with me in kicking his something something
something?" I said, "Yes, sir, I would."
Sir Alfred Munnings in speech at Royal Academy, 28 Apr. 1949, in The
Finish (1952) ch. 22
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 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.
Hansard 22 Feb. 1906, col. 555
He [Lord Charles Beresford] 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."
Hansard 20 Dec. 1912, col. 1893
The whole map of Europe has been changed. The position of countries has
been violently altered. The modes of thought of men, the whole outlook on
affairs, the grouping of parties, all have encountered violent and
tremendous changes in the deluge of the world, but as the deluge subsides
and the waters fall short we see the dreary steeples of Fermanagh and
Tyrone emerging once again. The integrity of their quarrel is one of the
few institutions that has been unaltered in the cataclysm which has swept
the world.
Hansard 16 Feb. 1922, col. 1270
I decline utterly to be impartial as between the fire brigade and the
fire.
Hansard 7 July 1926, col. 2216 (replying to complaints of his bias in
editing the British Gazette during the General Strike)
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 [Ramsay Macdonald] sitting on the
Treasury Bench.
Hansard 28 Jan. 1931, col. 1021
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.
Hansard 12 Nov. 1936, col. 1107
The utmost he [Neville Chamberlain] 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.
Hansard 5 Oct. 1938, col. 361
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."
Hansard 13 May 1940, col. 1502
You ask, what is our policy? I will say: It is to wage war, by sea, land
and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give
us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark,
lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is
our aim? I can answer in one word: 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.
Hansard 13 May 1940, col. 1502
At this time I feel entitled to claim the aid of all, and I say, "Come
then, let us go forward together with our united strength."
Hansard 13 May 1940, col. 1502
Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have
fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious
apparatus of Nazi rule, 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, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this island
or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond
the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the
struggle, until, in God's good time, the new world, with all its power and
might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.
Hansard 4 June 1940, col. 796
What General Weygand called the "Battle of France" is over. I expect that
the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the
survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life
and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury
and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that
he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand
up to him all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move
forward into broad, sunlit uplands; but if we fail then the whole world,
including the United States, and all that we have known and cared for,
will sink into the abyss of a new dark age made more sinister, and perhaps
more prolonged, by the lights of a perverted science. 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."
Hansard 18 June 1940, col. 60
The gratitude of every home in our Island, in our Empire, and indeed
throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty, goes out to the
British airmen who, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their constant
challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of world war by their
prowess and by their devotion. Never in the field of human conflict was so
much owed by so many to so few.
Hansard 20 Aug. 1940, col. 1166
The British nation is unique in this respect. They are the only people who
like to be told how bad things are, who like to be told the worst.
Hansard 10 June 1941, col. 152
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.
Hansard 11 Nov. 1942, col. 28 (often misquoted as "the soft under-belly
of the Axis")
He [President Roosevelt] devised the extraordinary measure of assistance
called Lend-Lease, which will stand forth as the most unselfish and
unsordid financial act of any country in all history.
Hansard 17 Apr. 1945, col. 76
Unless the right hon. Gentleman [Mr Bevan] changes his policy and methods
and moves without the slightest delay, he will be as great a curse to this
country in time of peace, as he was a squalid nuisance in time of war.
Hansard 6 Dec. 1945, col. 2544
Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world
of sin and woe. 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.
Hansard 11 Nov. 1947, col. 206
I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a
mystery inside an enigma: but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian
national interest.
Radio talk, 1 Oct. 1939, in Into Battle (1941) p. 131
Nous attendons l'invasion promise de longue date. Les poissons aussi.
We are waiting for the long-promised invasion. So are the fishes.
Radio broadcast to the French people, 21 Oct. 1940, in Into Battle (1941)
p. 298
Shortly after returning from his tour of the Near East, Anthony Eden
submitted a long-winded report to the Prime Minister on his experiences
and impressions. Churchill, it is told, returned it to his War Minister
with a note saying: "As far as I can see you have used every clich except
'God is Love' and 'Please adjust your dress before leaving.'"
Life 9 Dec. 1940 (when this story was repeated in the Daily Mirror,
Churchill denied that it was true)
I wrote my name at the top of the page. I wrote down the number of the
question "1." After much reflection I put a bracket round it thus "(1)."
But thereafter I could not think of anything connected with it that was
either relevant or true....It was from these slender indications of
scholarship that Mr Welldon drew the conclusion that I was worthy to pass
into Harrow. It is very much to his credit.
My Early Life (1930) ch. 2
By being so long in the lowest form [at Harrow] I gained an immense
advantage over the cleverer boys. They all went on to learn Latin and
Greek....But I was taught English....Thus I got into my bones the
essential structure of the ordinary British sentence--which is a noble
thing....Naturally I am biased in favour of boys learning English. I would
make them all learn English: and then I would let the clever ones learn
Latin as an honour, and Greek as a treat.
My Early Life (1930) ch. 2
Headmasters have powers at their disposal with which Prime Ministers have
never yet been invested.
My Early Life (1930) ch. 2
So they told me how Mr Gladstone read Homer for fun, which I thought
served him right.
My Early Life (1930) ch. 2
It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations.
My Early Life (1930) ch. 9
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
I am prepared to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the
great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.
At news conference in Washington, 1954, in New York Times 25 Jan. 1965
(Suppl.) p. 7
The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.
Speech at Harvard, 6 Sept. 1943, in Onwards to Victory (1944) p. 238
It is said that Mr Winston Churchill once made this marginal comment
against a sentence that clumsily avoided a prepositional ending: "This is
the sort of English up with which I will not put."
Ernest Gowers Plain Words (1948) ch. 9
Moral of the Work. In war: resolution. In defeat: defiance. In victory:
magnanimity. In peace: goodwill.
Second World War (1948) vol. 1, epigraph (Sir Edward Marsh in A Number of
People (1939) p. 152, says that this motto occurred to Churchill shortly
after the First World War)
One day President Roosevelt told me that he was asking publicly for
suggestions about what the war should be called. I said at once "The
Unnecessary War."
Second World War (1948) vol. 1, p. viii
I felt as if I were walking with destiny, and that all my past life had
been but a preparation for this hour and this trial. Eleven years in the
political wilderness had freed me from ordinary Party antagonisms. My
warnings over the last six years had been so numerous, so detailed, and
were now so terribly vindicated, that no one could gainsay me. I could not
be reproached either for making the war or with want of preparation for
it. I thought I knew a good deal about it all, and I was sure I should not
fail. Therefore, although impatient for the morning, I slept soundly and
had no need for cheering dreams. Facts are better than dreams.
Second World War (1948) vol. 1, p. 526
No one can guarantee success in war, but only deserve it.
Letter to Lord Wavell, 26 Nov. 1940, in Second World War (1949) vol. 2,
ch. 27
It may almost be said, "Before Alamein we never had a victory. After
Alamein we never had a defeat."
Second World War (1951) vol. 4, ch. 33
Dictators ride to and fro upon tigers which they dare not dismount. And
the tigers are getting hungry.
Letter, 11 Nov. 1937, in Step by Step (1939) p. 186. Cf. the proverb "He
who rides a tiger is afraid to dismount" (see Concise Oxford Dictionary of
Proverbs under rides)
You must rank me and my colleagues as strong partisans of national
compulsory insurance for all classes for all purposes from the cradle to
the grave.
Radio broadcast, 21 Mar. 1943, in The Times 22 Mar. 1943
I have never accepted what many people have kindly said--namely, that I
inspired the nation....It was the nation and the race dwelling all round
the globe that had the lion's heart. I had the luck to be called upon to
give the roar. I also hope that I sometimes suggested to the lion the
right place to use his claws.
Speech at Westminster Hall, 30 Nov. 1954, in The Times 1 Dec. 1954
Mr Attlee, whom Churchill once playfully described as a "sheep in sheep's
clothing."
Lord Home Way the Wind Blows (1976) ch. 6. Cf. Sir Edmund Gosse
Take away that pudding--it has no theme.
In Lord Home Way the Wind Blows (1976) ch. 16
We are all worms. But I do believe that I am a glow-worm.
In Violet Bonham-Carter Winston Churchill as I Knew Him (1965) ch. 1
Jellicoe was the only man on either side who could lose the war in an
afternoon.
World Crisis (1927) pt. 1, ch. 5
3.58 Count Galeazzo Ciano
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1903-1944
La vittoria trova cento padri, e nessuno vuole riconoscere l'insuccesso.
Victory has a hundred fathers, but defeat is an orphan.
Diary 9 Sept. 1942 (1946) vol. 2, p. 196
3.59 Brian Clark
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1932-
Whose life is it anyway?
Title of play (1977)
3.60 Kenneth Clark (Baron Clark)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1903-1983
Perrault's faade [of the Louvre] reflects the triumph of an authoritarian
state, and of those logical solutions that Colbert, the great
administrator of the seventeenth century, was imposing on politics,
economics and every department of contemporary life, including, above all,
the arts. This gives French Classical architecture a certain inhumanity.
It was the work not of craftsmen, but of wonderfully gifted civil
servants.
Civilization (1969) ch. 9
3.61 Arthur C. Clarke
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1917-
If an elderly but distinguished scientist says that something is possible
he is almost certainly right, but if he says that it is impossible he is
very probably wrong.
In New Yorker 9 Aug. 1969
3.62 Grant Clarke and Edgar Leslie
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Grant Clarke 1891-1931
Edgar Leslie 1885-1976
He'd have to get under, get out and get under
And fix up his automobile.
He'd Have to Get Under--Get Out and Get Under (1913 song; music by
Maurice Abrahams)
3.63 Eldridge Cleaver
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1935-
What we're saying today is that you're either part of the solution or
you're part of the problem.
Speech in San Francisco, 1968, in R. Scheer Eldridge Cleaver, Post Prison
Writings and Speeches (1969) p. xxxii
3.64 John Cleese
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1939-
See Graham Chapman (3.47)
3.65 John Cleese and Connie Booth
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
John Cleese 1939-
They're Germans. Don't mention the war.
Fawlty Towers "The Germans" (BBC TV programme, 1975), in Complete Fawlty
Towers (1988) p. 153
So Harry says, "You don't like me any more. Why not?" And he says,
"Because you've got so terribly pretentious." And Harry says,
"Pretentious? Moi?"
Fawlty Towers "The Psychiatrist" (BBC TV programme, 1979), in Complete
Fawlty Towers (1988) p. 190
3.66 Sarah Norcliffe Cleghorn
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1876-1959
The golf-links lie so near the mill
That almost every day
The labouring children can look out
And watch the men at play.
New York Tribune 23 Jan. 1914 "For Some Must Watch, While--"
3.67 Georges Clemenceau
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1841-1929
La guerre, c'est une chose trop grave pour la confier des militaires.
War is too serious a matter to entrust to military men.
Attributed to Clemenceau e.g. in Hampden Jackson Clemenceau and the Third
Republic (1946) p. 228, but also attributed to Briand and Talleyrand
Politique intrieure, je fais la guerre; politique extrieure, je fais
toujours la guerre. Je fais toujours la guerre.
My home policy: I wage war; my foreign policy: I wage war. All the time
I wage war.
Speech to French Chamber of Deputies, 8 Mar. 1918, in Discours de Guerre
(War Speeches, 1968) p. 172
Il est plus facile de faire la guerre que la paix.
It is easier to make war than to make peace.
Speech at Verdun, 20 July 1919, in Discours de Paix (Peace Speeches, 1938)
p. 122
3.68 Harlan Cleveland
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1918-
In 1950 he [Harlan Cleveland] invented the phrase, so thrashed to death in
later years, "the revolution of rising expectations."
Arthur Schlesinger Thousand Days (1965) ch. 16
3.69 Richard Cobb
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1917-
In an operation of this kind one would not go for a Proust or a Joyce--not
that I would know about that, never having read either.
Speech at Booker Prize awards in London, 18 Oct. 1984, in The Times
19 Oct. 1984
3.70 Claud Cockburn
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1904-
Small earthquake in Chile. Not many dead.
In Time of Trouble (1956) ch. 10 (the words with which Cockburn claims to
have won a competition at The Times for the dullest headline)
3.71 Jean Cocteau
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1889-1963
Le tact dans l' audace c'est de savoir jusqu'o on peut aller trop loin.
Being tactful in audacity is knowing how far one can go too far.
Le Coq et l'Arlequin (1918) in Le Rappel l'ordre (Recall to Order,
1926) p. 2
Le pire drame pour un pote, c'est d'tre admir par malentendu.
The worst tragedy for a poet is to be admired through being misunderstood.
Le Coq et l'Arlequin (1918) in Le Rappel l'ordre (Recall to Order,
1926) p. 20
S'il faut choisir un crucifi, la foule sauve toujours Barabbas.
If it has to choose who is to be crucified, the crowd will always save
Barabbas.
Le Coq et l'Arlequin (1918) in Le Rappel l'ordre (Recall to Order,
1926) p. 39
L'Histoire est un alliage de rel et de mensonge. Le rel de l'Histoire
devient un mensonge. L'irrel de la fable devient vrit.
History is a combination of reality and lies. The reality of History
becomes a lie. The unreality of the fable becomes the truth.
Journal d'un inconnu (Diary of an Unknown Man, 1953) p. 143
Vivre est une chute horizontale.
Life is a horizontal fall.
Opium (1930) p. 37
Quand j'ai crit que Victor Hugo tait un fou qui se croyait Victor Hugo,
je ne plaisantais pas.
When I wrote that Victor Hugo was a madman who thought he was Victor Hugo,
I was not joking.
Opium (1930) p. 77
3.72 Lenore Coffee
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
?1897-1984
What a dump!
Beyond the Forest (1949 film; line spoken by Bette Davis, entering
a room)
3.73 George M. Cohan
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1878-1942
It was Cohan who first said to a newspaperman (who wanted some information
about Broadway Jones in 1912), "I don't care what you say about me, as
long as you say something about me, and as long as you spell my name
right."
John McCabe George M. Cohan (1973) ch. 13
Give my regards to Broadway,
Remember me to Herald Square,
Tell all the gang at Forty-Second Street
That I will soon be there.
Give My Regards to Broadway (1904 song)
Over there, over there,
Send the word, send the word over there
That the Yanks are coming, the Yanks are coming,
The drums rum-tumming everywhere.
So prepare, say a prayer,
Send the word, send the word to beware.
We'll be over, we're coming over
And we won't come back till it's over, over there.
Over There (1917 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)
3.74 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 others tired, he
seemed to grow more fresh, until at length, 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 misquoted as "All rowed fast, but
none so fast as stroke")
3.75 Colette (Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1873-1954
Il dcouvrait...le monde des motions qu'on nomme, la lgre, physiques.
He was discovering...the world of the emotions that are so lightly called
physical.
Le Bl en herbe (Ripening Seed, 1923) p. 161
Quand elle lve ses paupires, on dirait qu'elle se dshabille.
When she raises her eyelids, it is as if she is undressing.
Claudine s'en va (Claudine Goes Away, 1931) p. 59
Ne porte jamais de bijoux artistiques, a dconsidre compltement une
femme.
Don't ever wear artistic jewellery; it wrecks a woman's reputation.
Gigi (1944) p. 40
3.76 R. G. Collingwood
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1889-1943
Perfect freedom is reserved for the man who lives by his own work and in
that work does what he wants to do.
Speculum Mentis (1924) p. 25
3.77 Charles Collins and Fred W. Leigh
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
My old man said, "Follow the van,
Don't dilly-dally on the way!"
Off went the cart with the home packed in it,
I walked behind with my old cock linnet.
But I dillied and dallied, dallied and dillied,
Lost the van and don't know where to roam.
You can't trust the "specials" like the old time "coppers"
When you can't find your way home.
Don't Dilly-Dally on the Way (1919 song; made famous by Marie Lloyd)
3.78 Charles Collins and Fred Murray
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Boiled beef and carrots.
Title of song (1910; made famous by Harry Champion)
3.79 Charles Collins, E. A. Sheppard, and Fred Terry
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Any old iron, any old iron,
Any any old old iron?
You look neat
Talk about a treat,
You look dapper from your napper to your feet.
Dressed in style, brand new tile,
And your father's old green tie on,
But I wouldn't give you tuppence for your old watch chain;
Old iron, old iron?
Any Old Iron (1911 song; made famous by Harry Champion; the second line
is often sung as "Any any any old iron?")
3.80 John Churton Collins
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1848-1908
To ask advice is in nine cases out of ten to tout for flattery.
In L. C. Collins Life of John Churton Collins (1912) p. 316
3.81 Michael Collins
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1890-1922
Think--what I have got for Ireland? Something which she has wanted these
past seven hundred years. Will anyone be satisfied at the bargain? Will
anyone? I tell you this--early this morning I signed my death warrant.
I thought at the time how odd, how ridiculous--a bullet may just as well
have done the job five years ago.
Letter, 6 Dec. 1921, in T. R. Dwyer Michael Collins and the Treaty (1981)
ch. 4
3.82 Betty Comden and Adolph Green
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Betty Comden 1919-
Adolph Green 1915-
New York, New York,--a helluva town,
The Bronx is up but the Battery's down,
And people ride in a hole in the ground:
New York, New York,--It's a helluva town.
New York, New York (1945 song; music by Leonard Bernstein)
The party's over.
Title of song (1956; music by Jule Styne)
3.83 Dame Ivy Compton-Burnett
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1884-1969
"Well, of course, people are only human," said Dudley to his brother, as
they walked to the house behind the women. "But it really does not seem
much for them to be."
A Family and a Fortune (1939) ch. 2
There are different kinds of wrong. The people sinned against are not
always the best.
The Mighty and their Fall (1961) ch. 7
There is more difference within the sexes than between them.
Mother and Son (1955) ch. 10
As regards plots I find real life no help at all. Real life seems to have
no plots.
In R. Lehmann et al. Orion I (1945) p. 25
3.84 Billy Connolly
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1942-
Marriage is a wonderful invention; but, then again, so is a bicycle repair
kit.
In Duncan Campbell Billy Connolly (1976) p. 92
3.85 Cyril Connolly
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1903-1974
Literature is the art of writing something that will be read twice;
journalism what will be read once.
Enemies of Promise (1938) ch. 3
As repressed sadists are supposed to become policemen or butchers, so
those with an irrational fear of life become publishers.
Enemies of Promise (1938) ch. 10
Whom the gods wish to destroy they first call promising.
Enemies of Promise (1938) ch. 13
There is no more sombre enemy of good art than the pram in the hall.
Enemies of Promise (1938) ch. 14
All charming people have something to conceal, usually their total
dependence on the appreciation of others.
Enemies of Promise (1938) ch. 16
I have called this style the Mandarin style, since it is beloved by
literary pundits, by those who would make the written word as unlike as
possible to the spoken one. It is the style of those writers whose
tendency is to make their language convey more than they mean or more than
they feel, it is the style of most artists and all humbugs.
Enemies of Promise (1938) ch. 20
In the eighteenth century he [Alec Douglas-Home] would have become Prime
Minister before he was thirty; as it was he appeared honourably ineligible
for the struggle of life.
Enemies of Promise (1938) ch. 23
Were I to deduce any system from my feelings on leaving Eton, it might be
called The Theory of Permanent Adolescence.
Enemies of Promise (1938) ch. 24
It is closing time in the gardens of the West and from now on an artist
will be judged only by the resonance of his solitude or the quality of his
despair.
Horizon Dec. 1949--Jan. 1950, p. 362
Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the
public and have no self.
New Statesman 25 Feb. 1933
Destroy him as you will, the bourgeois always bounces up--execute him,
expropriate him, starve him out en masse, and he reappears in your
children.
In Observer 7 Mar. 1937
He [George Orwell] could not blow his nose without moralising on the state
of the handkerchief industry.
Sunday Times 29 Sept. 1968
The more books we read, the sooner we perceive that the only function of a
writer is to produce a masterpiece. No other task is of any consequence.
Unquiet Grave (1944) pt. 1
There is no fury like a woman looking for a new lover.
Unquiet Grave (1944) pt. 1. Cf. Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (1979)
160:15
In the sex-war thoughtlessness is the weapon of the male, vindictiveness
of the female.
Unquiet Grave (1944) pt. 1
Life is a maze in which we take the wrong turning before we have learnt to
walk.
Unquiet Grave (1944) pt. 1
The civilization of one epoch becomes the manure of the next. Everything
over-ripens in the same way. The disasters of the world are due to its
inhabitants not being able to grow old simultaneously.
Unquiet Grave (1944) pt. 2
Imprisoned in every fat man a thin one is wildly signalling to be let out.
Unquiet Grave (1944) pt. 2. See also George Orwell (15.24)
The true index of a man's character is the health of his wife.
Unquiet Grave (1944) pt. 2
We are all serving a life-sentence in the dungeon of self.
Unquiet Grave (1944) pt. 2
Peeling off the kilometres to the tune of "Blue Skies," sizzling down the
long black liquid reaches of Nationale Sept, the plane trees going
sha-sha-sha through the open window, the windscreen yellowing with crushed
midges, she with the Michelin beside me, a handkerchief binding her hair.
Unquiet Grave (1944) pt. 3
Our memories are card-indexes consulted, and then put back in disorder by
authorities whom we do not control.
Unquiet Grave (1944) pt. 3
3.86 James Connolly
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1868-1916
The worker is the slave of capitalist society, the female worker is the
slave of that slave.
Re-conquest of Ireland (1915) p. 38
3.87 Joseph Conrad (Teodor Josef Konrad Korzeniowski)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1857-1924
In plucking the fruit of memory one runs the risk of spoiling its bloom.
Arrow of Gold (author's note, 1920, to 1924 Uniform Edition) p. viii
The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from
those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than
ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it.
Heart of Darkness ch. 1, in Youth (1902)
We live, as we dream--alone.
Heart of Darkness ch. 1, in Youth (1902)
Exterminate all the brutes!
Heart of Darkness ch. 2, in Youth (1902)
He [Kurtz] cried in a whisper at some image, at some vision,--he cried out
twice, a cry that was no more than a breath--"The horror! The horror!"
Heart of Darkness ch. 3, in Youth (1902)
Mistah Kurtz--he dead.
Heart of Darkness ch. 3, in Youth (1902)
A man that is born falls into a dream like a man who falls into the sea.
If he tries to climb out into the air as inexperienced people endeavour to
do, he drowns--nicht wahr?...No! I tell you! The way is to the
destructive element submit yourself, and with the exertions of your hands
and feet in the water make the deep, deep sea keep you up....In the
destructive element immerse....That was the way. To follow the dream, and
again to follow the dream--and so--ewig--usque ad finem.
Lord Jim (1900) ch. 20
You shall judge of a man by his foes as well as by his friends.
Lord Jim (1900) ch. 34
Any work that aspires, however humbly, to the condition of art should
carry its justification in every line.
The Nigger of the Narcissus, author's note, in New Review Dec. 1897
Action is consolatory. It is the enemy of thought and the friend of
flattering illusions.
Nostromo (1904) pt. 1, ch. 6
It's only those who do nothing that make no mistakes, I suppose.
Outcast of the Islands (1896) pt. 3, ch. 2
The terrorist and the policeman both come from the same basket.
Secret Agent (1907) ch. 4
All ambitions are lawful except those which climb upwards on the miseries
or credulities of mankind.
Some Reminiscences (1912; in USA entitled "A Personal Record") p. 19
The scrupulous and the just, the noble, humane, and devoted natures; the
unselfish and the intelligent may begin a movement--but it passes away
from them. They are not the leaders of a revolution. They are its victims.
Under Western Eyes (1911) pt. 2, ch. 3
A belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are
quite capable of every wickedness.
Under Western Eyes (1911) pt. 2, ch. 4
I remember my youth and the feeling that will never come back any
more--the feeling that I could last for ever, outlast the sea, the earth,
and all men; the deceitful feeling that lures us on to joys, to perils, to
love, to vain effort--to death; the triumphant conviction of strength, the
heat of life in the handful of dust, the glow in the heart that with every
year grows dim, grows cold, grows small, and expires--and expires, too
soon, too soon--before life itself.
Youth (1902) p. 41
3.88 Shirley Conran
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1932-
Our motto: Life is too short to stuff a mushroom.
Superwoman (1975) p. 15
First things first, second things never.
Superwoman (1975) p. 157
3.89 A. J. Cook
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1885-1931
Not a penny off the pay, not a second on the day.
Speech at York, 3 Apr. 1926, in The Times 5 Apr. 1926 (referring to
miners' slogan)
3.90 Dan Cook
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
The opera ain't over 'til the fat lady sings.
In Washington Post 3 June 1978
3.91 Peter Cook
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1937-
I have recently been travelling round the world--on your behalf, and at
your expense--visiting some of the chaps with whom I hope to be shaping
your future. I went first to Germany, and there I spoke with the German
Foreign Minister, Herr...Herr and there, and we exchanged many frank words
in our respective languages.
Beyond the Fringe (1961 revue) "TVPM," in Roger Wilmut Complete Beyond
the Fringe (1987) p. 54
Yes, I could have been a judge but I never had the Latin, never had the
Latin for the judging, I just never had sufficient of it to get through
the rigorous judging exams. They're noted for their rigour. People come
staggering out saying, "My God, what a rigorous exam"--and so I became a
miner instead.
Beyond the Fringe (1961 revue) "Sitting on the Bench," in Roger Wilmut
Complete Beyond the Fringe (1987) p. 97
3.92 Calvin Coolidge
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1872-1933
Shortly after Mr Coolidge had gone to the White House, Mrs Coolidge was
unable to go to church with him one Sunday. At lunch she asked what the
sermon was about. "Sins," he said. "Well, what did he say about sin?" "He
was against it."
John H. McKee Coolidge: Wit and Wisdom (1933) p. 4 (but Edward C.
Lathem's Meet Calvin Coolidge (1960) p. 151 quotes Mrs Coolidge as saying
that this was one of "the stories which might reasonably be attributed to
him [Coolidge] but which did not originate with him")
Mr Coolidge...interrupted a discussion of cancellation of the war debts
with: "Well, they hired the money, didn't they?"
John H. McKee Coolidge: Wit and Wisdom (1933) p. 118
There is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody,
anywhere, any time.
Telegram to Samuel Gompers, 14 Sept. 1919, in Have Faith in Massachusetts
(1919) p. 223
Civilization and profits go hand in hand.
Speech in New York, 27 Nov. 1920, in New York Times 28 Nov. 1920, p. 20
The chief business of the American people is business.
Speech in Washington, 17 Jan. 1925, in New York Times 18 Jan. 1925, p. 19
I do not choose to run for President in nineteen twenty-eight.
Statement issued at Rapid City, South Dakota, 2 Aug. 1927, in New York
Times 3 Aug. 1927, p. 1
3.93 Ananda Coomaraswamy
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1877-1947
The artist is not a special kind of man, but every man is a special kind
of artist.
Transformation of Nature in Art (1934) ch. 2
3.94 Alfred Duff Cooper (Viscount Norwich)
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1890-1954
I really did enjoy Belvoir you know....You must I think have enjoyed it
too, with your two stout lovers frowning at one another across the hearth
rug, while your small, but perfectly formed one kept the party in a roar.
Letter to Lady Diana Manners, Oct. 1914, in Artemis Cooper Durable Fire
(1983) p. 17
3.95 Tommy Cooper
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1921-1984
Just like that!
Title of autobiography (1975), from his catch-phrase.
3.96 Wendy Cope
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1945-
I used to think all poets were Byronic--
Mad, bad and dangerous to know.
And then I met a few. Yes it's ironic--
I used to think all poets were Byronic.
They're mostly wicked as a ginless tonic
And wild as pension plans.
Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis (1986) "Triolet." Cf. Oxford Dictonary of
Quotations (1979) 306:25
It's nice to meet serious people
And hear them explain their views:
Your concern for the rights of women
Is especially welcome news.
I'm sure you'd never exploit one;
I expect you'd rather be dead;
I'm thoroughly convinced of it--
Now can we go to bed?
Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis (1986) "From June to December"
There are so many kinds of awful men--
One can't avoid them all. She often said
She'd never make the same mistake again:
She always made a new mistake instead.
Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis (1986) "Rondeau Redoubl"
It was a dream I had last week
And some kind of record seemed vital.
I knew it wouldn't be much of a poem
But I love the title.
Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis (1986) title-poem
3.97 Aaron Copland
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1900-1990
The whole problem can be stated quite simply by asking, "Is there a
meaning to music?" My answer to that would be, "Yes." And "Can you state
in so many words what the meaning is?" My answer to that would be, "No."
What to Listen for in Music (1939) ch. 2
3.98 Bernard Cornfeld
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1927-
Do you sincerely want to be rich?
Question often asked by Cornfeld of salesmen in the 1960s, in Charles Raw
et al. Do You Sincerely Want to be Rich? (1971) p. 67
3.99 Frances Cornford
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1886-1960
Whoso maintains that I am humbled now
(Who wait the Awful Day) is still a liar;
I hope to meet my Maker brow to brow
And find my own the higher.
Collected Poems (1954) "Epitaph for a Reviewer"
A young Apollo, golden-haired,
Stands dreaming on the verge of strife,
Magnificently unprepared
For the long littleness of life.
Poems (1910) "Youth"
O why do you walk through the fields in gloves,
Missing so much and so much?
O fat white woman whom nobody loves,
Why do you walk through the fields in gloves,
When the grass is soft as the breast of doves
And shivering-sweet to the touch?
O why do you walk through the fields in gloves,
Missing so much and so much?
Poems (1910) "To a Fat Lady seen from the Train." Cf. G. K. Chesterton
51:8
How long ago Hector took off his plume,
Not wanting that his little son should cry,
Then kissed his sad Andromache goodbye--
And now we three in Euston waiting-room.
Travelling Home (1948) "Parting in Wartime"
3.100 Francis Macdonald Cornford
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1874-1943
If you persist to the threshold of old age--your fiftieth year, let us
say--you will be a powerful person yourself, with an accretion of
peculiarities which other people will have to study in order to square
you. The toes you will have trodden on by this time will be as sands on
the sea-shore; and from far below you will mount the roar of a ruthless
multitude of young men in a hurry. You may perhaps grow to be aware what
they are in a hurry to do. They are in a hurry to get you out of the way.
Microcosmographia Academica (1908) p. 2
Every public action, which is not customary, either is wrong, or, if it is
right, is a dangerous precedent. It follows that nothing should ever be
done for the first time.
Microcosmographia Academica (1908) p. 28
3.101 Baron Pierre de Coubertin
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