The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (277 page)
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Authors: Elizabeth Knowles
1935–
Literature is mostly about having sex and not much about having children. Life is the other way round.
The British Museum is Falling Down
(1965) ch. 4
1910–69
See what the boys in the back room will have
And tell them I'm having the same.
"Boys in the Back Room" (1939 song)
Isn't it grand! Isn't it fine! Look at the cut, the style, the line!
The suit of clothes is altogether, but altogether it's altogether
The most remarkable suit of clothes that I have ever seen.
"The King's New Clothes" (1952 song); from the film
Hans Christian Andersen
1893–1935
For the present you can just call me the Kingfish.
Every Man a King
(1933)
Oh hell, say that I am
sui generis
and let it go at that.
to journalists attempting to analyse his political personality
T. Harry Williams
Huey Long
(1969)
1807–82
I shot an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where.
"The Arrow and the Song" (1845)
Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State!
Sail on, O Union, strong and great!
"The Building of the Ship" (1849)
Between the dark and the daylight,
When the night is beginning to lower,
Comes a pause in the day's occupations,
That is known as the Children's Hour.
"The Children's Hour" (1859)
The cares that infest the day
Shall fold their tents, like the Arabs,
And as silently steal away.
"The Day is Done" (1844)
This is the forest primeval.
Evangeline
(1847) introduction
A youth, who bore, 'mid snow and ice,
A banner with the strange device,
Excelsior!
"Excelsior" (1841)
Giotto's tower,
The lily of Florence blossoming in stone.
"Giotto's Tower" (1866)
I like that ancient Saxon phrase, which calls
The burial-ground God's-Acre!
"God's-Acre" (1841)
Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.
"A Psalm of Life" (1838).
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time.
"A Psalm of Life" (1838)
Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small;
Though with patience He stands waiting, with exactness grinds He all.
"Retribution" (1870), translation of Friedrich von Logau (1604–55)
Sinnegedichte
(1654) no. 3224
A Lady with a Lamp shall stand
In the great history of the land,
A noble type of good,
Heroic womanhood.
on Florence Nightingale
"Santa Filomena" (1857)
By the shore of Gitche Gumee,
By the shining Big-Sea-Water,
Stood the wigwam of Nokomis.
The Song of Hiawatha
(1855) "Hiawatha's Childhood"
Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April in Seventy-five.
Tales of a Wayside Inn
pt. 1 (1863) "The Landlord's Tale: Paul Revere's Ride"
One if by land and two if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and sound the alarm.
Tales of a Wayside Inn
pt. 1 (1863) "The Landlord's Tale: Paul Revere's Ride".
Ships that pass in the night, and speak each other in passing;
Only a signal shown and a distant voice in the darkness.
Tales of a Wayside Inn
pt. 3 (1874) "The Theologian's Tale: Elizabeth" pt. 4
Under a spreading chestnut tree
The village smithy stands;
The smith, a mighty man is he,
With large and sinewy hands.
"The Village Blacksmith" (1839)
Something attempted, something done,
Has earned a night's repose.
"The Village Blacksmith" (1839)
It was the schooner Hesperus,
That sailed the wintry sea;
And the skipper had taken his little daughter,
To bear him company.
"The Wreck of the Hesperus" (1839)
There was a little girl
Who had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead,
When she was good
She was very, very good,
But when she was bad she was horrid.
composed for, and sung to, his second daughter while a babe in arms,
c.
1850
B. R. Tucker-Macchetta
The Home Life of Henry W. Longfellow
(1882) ch. 5