The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (41 page)
Read The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Online
Authors: Elizabeth Knowles
1925–
The future ain't what it used to be.
attributed
It ain't over till it's over.
comment on National League pennant race, 1973, quoted in many versions
It was déjà vu all over again.
attributed
1914–72
People will take balls,
Balls will be lost always, little boy,
And no one buys a ball back.
"The Ball Poem" (1948)
We must travel in the direction of our fear.
"A Point of Age" (1942)
I seldom go to films. They are too exciting,
said the Honourable Possum.
77 Dream Songs
(1964) no. 53
1856–1921
Just for a word "neutrality"—a word which in wartime has so often been disregarded—just for a scrap of paper, Great Britain is going to make war on a kindred nation who desires nothing better than to be friends with her.
summary of a report by Sir Edward Goschen to Sir Edward Grey
British Documents on Origins of the War 1898–1914
(1926) vol. 11;
The Diary of Edward Goschen 1900–1914
(1980) Appendix B discusses the contentious origins of this statement
1906–84
He sipped at a weak hock and seltzer
As he gazed at the London skies
Through the Nottingham lace of the curtains
Or was it his bees-winged eyes?
"The Arrest of Oscar Wilde at the Cadogan Hotel" (1937)
And girls in slacks remember Dad,
And oafish louts remember Mum,
And sleepless children's hearts are glad,
And Christmas-morning bells say "Come!"
"Christmas" (1954)
And is it true? And is it true,
This most tremendous tale of all,
Seen in a stained-glass window's hue,
A Baby in an ox's stall?
The Maker of the stars and sea
Become a Child on earth for me?
"Christmas" (1954)
Oh! Chintzy, Chintzy cheeriness,
Half dead and half alive!
"Death in Leamington" (1931)
Spirits of well-shot woodcock, partridge, snipe
Flutter and bear him up the Norfolk sky.
"Death of King George V" (1937)
Old men who never cheated, never doubted,
Communicated monthly, sit and stare
At the new suburb stretched beyond the run-way
Where a young man lands hatless from the air.
"Death of King George V" (1937)
Phone for the fish-knives, Norman
As Cook is a little unnerved;
You kiddies have crumpled the serviettes
And I must have things daintily served.
"How to get on in Society" (1954)
Think of what our Nation stands for,
Books from Boots' and country lanes,
Free speech, free passes, class distinction,
Democracy and proper drains.
Lord, put beneath Thy special care
One-eighty-nine Cadogan Square.
"In Westminster Abbey" (1940)
Gaily into Ruislip Gardens
Runs the red electric train,
With a thousand Ta's and Pardon's
Daintily alights Elaine.
"Middlesex" (1954)
Come, friendly bombs, and fall on Slough!
It isn't fit for humans now.
"Slough" (1937)
Miss J. Hunter Dunn, Miss J. Hunter Dunn,
Furnish'd and burnish'd by Aldershot sun.
"A Subaltern's Love-Song" (1945)
Love-thirty, love-forty, oh! weakness of joy,
The speed of a swallow, the grace of a boy,
With carefullest carelessness, gaily you won,
I am weak from your loveliness, Joan Hunter Dunn.
"A Subaltern's Love-Song" (1945)
Ghastly good taste, or a depressing story of the rise and fall of English architecture.
title of book (1933)
1903–90
The most extreme agony is to feel that one has been utterly forsaken.
Surviving and other essays
(1979)