The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (180 page)
Read The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Online
Authors: Elizabeth Knowles
(
Guillaume Sulpice Chevalier
) 1804–66
Les enfants terribles.The little terrors.
title of a series of prints (1842)
1685–1732
Our Polly is a sad slut! nor heeds what we have taught her.
I wonder any man alive will ever rear a daughter!
The Beggar's Opera
(1728) act 1, sc. 8, air 7
Do you think your mother and I should have lived comfortably so long together, if ever we had been married?
The Beggar's Opera
(1728) act 1, sc. 8
The comfortable estate of widowhood, is the only hope that keeps up a wife's spirits.
The Beggar's Opera
(1728) act 1, sc. 10
If with me you'd fondly stray.
Over the hills and far away.
The Beggar's Opera
(1728) act 1, sc. 13, air 16
How happy could I be with either,
Were t'other dear charmer away!
The Beggar's Opera
(1728) act 2, sc. 13, air 35
And when a lady's in the case,
You know, all other things give place.
Fables
(1727) "The Hare and Many Friends" l. 41
An open foe may prove a curse,
But a pretended friend is worse.
Fables
(1727) "The Shepherd's Dog and the Wolf" l. 33
Give me, kind heaven, a private station,
A mind serene for contemplation.
Fables
(1738) "The Vulture, the Sparrow, and Other Birds" l. 69
Behold the bright original appear.
"A Letter to a Lady" (1714) l. 85
An inconstant woman, tho' she has no chance to be very happy, can never be very unhappy.
"Polly" (1729) act 1, sc. 14
All in the Downs the fleet was moored,
The streamers waving in the wind,
When black-eyed Susan came aboard.
"Sweet William's Farewell to Black-Eyed Susan" (1720)
They'll tell thee, sailors, when away,
In ev'ry port a mistress find.
"Sweet William's Farewell to Black-Eyed Susan" (1720)
1898–1954
I'm leaning on a lamp post at the corner of the street,
In case a certain little lady comes by.
"Leaning on a Lamp Post" (1937); sung by George Formby in the film
Father Knew Best
1875–1937
The Germans, if this Government is returned, are going to pay every penny; they are going to be squeezed as a lemon is squeezed—until the pips squeak.
speech at Cambridge, 10 December 1918
1954– and
Ure, Midge
1953–
Do they know it's Christmas?
title of song (1984)
1908–98
I had no idea you could be what I became, an unscathed tourist of wars.
The Face of War
(1959)
Never believe governments, not any of them, not a word they say; keep an untrusting eye on all they do.
in obituary,
Daily Telegraph
17 February 1998