The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (183 page)

BOOK: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
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Getty, J. Paul
1892–1976
1
If you can actually count your money, then you are not really a rich man.

in
Observer
3 November 1957

Giacosa, Giuseppe
1847–1906 and
Illica, Luigi
1857–1919
1
Che gelida manina.Your tiny hand is frozen.
Rodolfo to Mimi

La Bohème
(1896) act 1; music by Puccini

Gibbon, Edward
1737–94
1
In elective monarchies, the vacancy of the throne is a moment big with danger and mischief.

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
(1776–88) ch. 3

2
History…is, indeed, little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
(1776–88) ch. 3.

3
Twenty-two acknowledged concubines, and a library of sixty-two thousand volumes, attested the variety of his inclinations, and from the productions which he left behind him, it appears that the former as well as the latter were designed for use rather than ostentation. [Footnote] By each of his concubines the younger Gordian left three or four children. His literary productions were by no means contemptible.

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
(1776–88) ch. 7

4
Whenever the offence inspires less horror than the punishment, the rigour of penal law is obliged to give way to the common feelings of mankind.

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
(1776–88) ch. 14

5
In every deed of mischief he had a heart to resolve, a head to contrive, and a hand to execute.
of Comnenus

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
(1776–88) ch. 48.

6
To the University of Oxford I acknowledge no obligation; and she will as cheerfully renounce me for a son, as I am willing to disclaim her for a mother. I spent fourteen months at Magdalen College: they proved the fourteen months the most idle and unprofitable of my whole life.

Memoirs of My Life
(1796) ch. 3

7
I sighed as a lover, I obeyed as a son.

Memoirs of My Life
(1796) ch. 4 n.

8
It was at Rome, on the fifteenth of October, 1764, as I sat musing amidst the ruins of the Capitol, while the barefoot friars were singing vespers in the Temple of Jupiter, that the idea of writing the decline and fall of the city first started to my mind.

Memoirs of My Life
(1796) ch. 6 n.

9
My English text is chaste, and all licentious passages are left in the obscurity of a learned language.
parodied as "decent obscurity" in the Anti-Jacobin, 1797–8

Memoirs of My Life
(1796) ch. 8

Gibbons, Orlando
1583–1625
1
The silver swan, who, living had no note,
When death approached unlocked her silent throat.

The First Set of Madrigals and Motets of Five Parts
(1612) "The Silver Swan"

Gibbons, Stella
1902–89
1
When the sukebind hangs heavy from the wains.

Cold Comfort Farm
(1932) ch. 5

2
Something nasty in the woodshed.

Cold Comfort Farm
(1932) ch. 10

Gibbs, Wolcott
1902–58
1
Backward ran sentences until reeled the mind.
satirizing the style of Time magazine

in
New Yorker
28 November 1936 "Time…Fortune…Life…Luce"

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