The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (3 page)
Read The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Online
Authors: Elizabeth Knowles
1881–1960
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)
Elections are won by men and women chiefly because most people vote against somebody rather than for somebody.
Nods and Becks
(1944).
1838–1918
A friend in power is a friend lost.
The Education of Henry Adams
(1907) ch. 7
Practical politics consists in ignoring facts.
The Education of Henry Adams
(1907) ch. 22
Nothing in education is so astonishing as the amount of ignorance it accumulates in the form of inert facts.
The Education of Henry Adams
(1907) ch. 25
1735–1826
The law, in all vicissitudes of government…will preserve a steady undeviating course…On the one hand it is inexorable to the cries of the prisoners; on the other it is deaf, deaf as an adder to the clamours of the populace.
argument in defence of the British soldiers in the Boston Massacre Trials, 4 December 1770.
A government of laws, and not of men.
in
Boston Gazette
(1774) no. 7; later incorporated in the Massachusetts Constitution (1780).
In politics the middle way is none at all.
letter to Horatio Gates, 23 March 1776
The jaws of power are always opened to devour.
A Dissertation on the Canon and the Feudal Law
(1765)
1767–1848
Think of your forefathers! Think of your posterity!
Oration at Plymouth
22 December 1802
Fiat justitia, pereat coelum
[Let justice be done, though heaven fall]. My toast would be, may our country be always successful, but whether successful or otherwise, always right.
letter to John Adams, 1 August 1816. ,
1722–1803
What a glorious morning is this.
on hearing gunfire at Lexington, 19 April 1775; traditionally quoted as, "What a glorious morning for America"
J. K. Hosmer
Samuel Adams
(1886) ch. 19
A nation of shopkeepers are very seldom so disinterested.
Oration in Philadelphia
1 August 1776 (the authenticity of this publication is doubtful)
1805–48
Nearer, my God, to thee,
Nearer to thee!
"Nearer My God to Thee" in W. G. Fox
Hymns and Anthems
(1841)