The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (302 page)

BOOK: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
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Mearns, Hughes
1875–1965
1
As I was walking up the stair
I met a man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today.
I wish, I wish he'd stay away.

lines written for
The Psycho-ed
, an amateur play, in Philadelphia, 1910 (set to music in 1939 as "The Little Man Who Wasn't There")

Medawar, Peter
1915–87
1
If politics is the art of the possible, research is surely the art of the soluble. Both are immensely practical-minded affairs.

in
New Statesman
19 June 1964.

Medici, Catherine de'
1518–89
1
A false report, if believed during three days, may be of great service to a government.

Isaac D'Israeli
Curiosities of Literature
2nd series (1849) vol. 2; perhaps apocryphal

Medici, Cosimo de'
1389–1464
1
We read that we ought to forgive our enemies; but we do not read that we ought to forgive our friends.
speaking of what Bacon refers to as "perfidious friends"

Francis Bacon
Apophthegms
(1625) no. 206

Meir, Golda
1898–1978
1
Those that perished in Hitler's gas chambers were the last Jews to die without standing up to defend themselves.

speech to United Jewish Appeal Rally, New York, 11 June 1967

Melba, Nellie
1861–1931
1
Sing 'em muck! It's all they can understand!
advice to Dame Clara Butt, prior to her departure for Australia

W. H. Ponder
Clara Butt
(1928) ch. 12

Melbourne, William Lamb, Lord
1779–1848
1
God help the Minister that meddles with art!

Lord David Cecil
Lord M
(1954) ch. 3

2
I wish I was as cocksure of anything as Tom Macaulay is of everything.

Lord Cowper's preface to
Lord Melbourne's Papers
(1889)

3
Now, is it to lower the price of corn, or isn't it? It is not much matter which we say, but mind, we must all say
the same.

attributed; Walter Bagehot
The English Constitution
(1867) ch. 1

4
What I want is men who will support me when I am in the wrong.
replying to a politician who said "I will support you as long as you are in the right"

Lord David Cecil
Lord M
(1954) ch. 4

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