The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (223 page)

Hope, Laurence
1865–1904

1
Pale hands I loved beside the Shalimar,
Where are you now? Who lies beneath your spell?

The Garden of Kama
(1901) "Kashmiri Song"

2
Less than the dust, beneath thy Chariot wheel.

The Garden of Kama
(1901) "Less than the Dust"

 
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Hopkins, Gerard Manley
1844–89

1
Towery city and branchy between towers;
Cuckoo-echoing, bell-swarmèd, lark-charmèd, rook-racked, river-rounded.

"Duns Scotus's Oxford" (written 1879)

2
The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out like shining from shook foil…
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

"God's Grandeur" (written 1877)

3
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

"God's Grandeur" (written 1877)

4
Elected Silence, sing to me
And beat upon my whorlèd ear.

"The Habit of Perfection" (written 1866)

5
What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and wildness? Let them be left,
O let them be left, wildness and wet;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.

"Inversnaid" (written 1881)

6
O the mind, mind has mountains; cliffs of fall
Frightful, sheer, no-man-fathomed. Hold them cheap
May who ne'er hung there.

"No worst, there is none" (written 1885)

7
Glory be to God for dappled things.

"Pied Beauty" (written 1877)

8
All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise him.

"Pied Beauty" (written 1877)

9
Márgarét, áre you gríeving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?

"Spring and Fall: to a young child" (written 1880)

10
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie.

"Spring and Fall: to a young child" (written 1880)

11
It ís the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for.

"Spring and Fall: to a young child" (written 1880)

12
Thou art indeed just, Lord, if I contend
With thee; but, sir, so what I plead is just.
Why do sinners' ways prosper? and why must
Disappointment all I endeavour end?

"Thou art indeed just, Lord" (written 1889)

13
Birds build—but not I build; no, but strain,
Time's eunuch, and not breed one work that wakes.
Mine, O thou lord of life, send my roots rain.

"Thou art indeed just, Lord" (written 1889)

14
I caught this morning morning's minion, kingdom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon.

"The Windhover" (written 1877)

15
On Saturday sailed from Bremen,
American-outward-bound,
Take settler and seamen, tell men with women,
Two hundred souls in the round.

"The Wreck of the Deutschland" (written 1876) pt. 2

16
To lift up the hands in prayer gives God glory, but a man with a dungfork in his hand, a woman with a slop-pail, give him glory too. He is so great that all things give him glory if you mean they should.

"The Principle or Foundation" (1882)

 
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Horace
65
bc

1
Inceptis gravibus plerumque et magna professis
Purpureus, late qui splendeat, unus et alter
Adsuitur pannus.
Works of serious purpose and grand promises often have a purple patch or two stitched on, to shine far and wide.

Ars Poetica
l. 14

2
Brevis esse laboro,
Obscurus fio.
I strive to be brief, and I become obscure.

Ars Poetica
l. 25

3
Grammatici certant et adhuc sub iudice lis est.
Scholars dispute, and the case is still before the courts.

Ars Poetica
l. 78

4
Proicit ampullas et sesquipedalia verba.
He throws aside his paint-pots and his words a foot and a half long.

Ars Poetica
l. 97.

5
Parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus.
Mountains will go into labour, and a silly little mouse will be born.

Ars Poetica
l. 139

6
Semper ad eventum festinat et in medias res
Non secus ac notas auditorem rapit.
He always hurries to the main event and whisks his audience into the middle of things as though they knew already.

Ars Poetica
l. 148

7
Difficilis, querulus, laudator temporis acti
Se puero, castigator censorque minorum.
Tiresome, complaining, a praiser of past times, when he was a boy, a castigator and censor of the young generation.

Ars Poetica
l. 173

8
Indignor quandoque bonus dormitat Homerus.
I'm aggrieved when sometimes even excellent Homer nods.

Ars Poetica
l. 359.

9
Ut pictura poesis.
A poem is like a painting.

Ars Poetica
l. 361

10
Si possis recte, si non, quocumque modo rem.
If possible honestly, if not, somehow, make money.

Epistles
bk. 1, no. 1, l. 66.

11
Nos numerus sumus et fruges consumere nati.
We are just statistics, born to consume resources.

Epistles
bk. 1, no. 2, l. 27

12
Ira furor brevis est.
Anger is a short madness.

Epistles
bk. 1, no. 2, l. 62

13
Nil admirari prope res est una, Numici,
Solaque quae possit facere et servare beatum.
To marvel at nothing is just about the one and only thing, Numicius, that can make a man happy and keep him that way.

Epistles
bk. 1, no. 6, l. 1.

14
Naturam expelles furca, tamen usque recurret.
You may drive out nature with a pitchfork, yet she'll be constantly running back.

Epistles
bk. 1, no. 10, l. 24

15
Concordia discors.
Discordant harmony.

Epistles
bk. 1, no. 12, l. 19

16
Et semel emissum volat irrevocabile verbum.
And once sent out a word takes wing beyond recall.

Epistles
bk. 1, no. 18, l. 71

17
Nam tua res agitur, paries cum proximus ardet.
For it is your business, when the wall next door catches fire.

Epistles
bk. 1, no. 18, l. 84

18
O imitatores, servum pecus.
O imitators, you slavish herd.

Epistles
bk. 1, no. 19, l. 19

19
Scribimus indocti doctique poemata passim.
Skilled or unskilled, we all scribble poems.
Epistles
bk. 2, no. 1, l. 117
20
Atque inter silvas Academi quaerere verum.
And seek for truth in the groves of Academe.

Epistles
bk. 2, no. 2, l. 45

21
Multa fero, ut placem genus irritabile vatum.
I have to put up with a lot, to please the touchy breed of poets.

Epistles
bk. 2, no. 2, l. 102

22
Nil desperandum.
Never despair.

Odes
bk. 1, no. 7, l. 27

23
Dum loquimur, fugerit invida
Aetas: carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero.
While we're talking, envious time is fleeing: seize the day, put no trust in the future.

Odes
bk. 1, no. 11, l. 7

24
Dulce ridentem Lalagen amabo,
Dulce loquentem.
I will go on loving Lalage, who laughs so sweetly and talks so sweetly.

Odes
bk. 1, no. 22, l. 23

25
Nunc est bibendum, nunc pede libero
Pulsanda tellus.
Now for drinking, now the Earth must shake beneath a lively foot.

Odes
bk. 1, no. 37, l. 1

26
Auream quisquis mediocritatem
Diligit.
Someone who loves the golden mean.

Odes
bk. 2, no. 10, l. 5

27
Eheu fugaces, Postume, Postume,
Labuntur anni.
Ah me, Postumus, Postumus, the fleeting years are slipping by.

Odes
bk. 2, no. 14, l. 1

28
Credite posteri.
Believe me, you who come after me!

Odes
bk. 2, no. 19, l. 2

29
Post equitem sedet atra Cura.
Black Care sits behind the horseman.

Odes
bk. 3, no. 1, l. 40

30
Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.
Lovely and honourable it is to die for one's country.

Odes
bk. 3, no. 2, l. 13

31
Opaco
Pelion imposuisse Olympo.
To pile Pelion on top of shady Olympus.

Odes
bk. 3, no. 4, l. 52

32
Exegi monumentum aere perennius.
I have erected a monument more lasting than bronze.

Odes
bk. 3, no. 30, l. 1

33
Non omnis moriar.
I shall not altogether die.

Odes
bk. 3, no. 30, l. 6

34
Non sum qualis eram bonae
Sub regno Cinarae.
I am not as I was when good Cinara was my queen.

Odes
bk. 4, no. 1, l. 3.

35
Est modus in rebus.
There is moderation in everything.

Satires
bk. 1, no. 1, l. 106

36
Etiam disiecti membra poetae.
Even though broken up, the limbs of a poet.
of Ennius

Satires
bk. 1, no. 4, l. 62

37
Hoc erat in votis: modus agri non ita magnus,
Hortus ubi et tecto vicinus iugis aquae fons
Et paulum silvae super his foret.
This was among my prayers: a piece of land not so very large, where a garden should be and a spring of ever-flowing water near the house, and a bit of woodland as well as these.

Satires
bk. 2, no. 6, l. 1.

 
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