The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (452 page)
Read The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Online
Authors: Elizabeth Knowles
1903–66
I am not I: thou art not he or she: they are not they.
Brideshead Revisited
(1945) "Author's Note"
The sound of English county families baying for broken glass.
Decline and Fall
(1928) "Prelude".
I expect you'll be becoming a schoolmaster, sir. That's what most of the gentlemen does, sir, that gets sent down for indecent behaviour.
Decline and Fall
(1928) "Prelude"
Any one who has been to an English public school will always feel comparatively at home in prison. It is the people brought up in the gay intimacy of the slums, Paul learned, who find prison so soul-destroying.
Decline and Fall
(1928) pt. 3, ch. 4
The Beast
stands for strong mutually antagonistic governments everywhere…Self-sufficiency at home, self-assertion abroad.
Scoop
(1938) bk. 1, ch. 1
Up to a point, Lord Copper.
Scoop
(1938) bk. 1, ch. 1
"Feather-footed through the plashy fen passes the questing vole"…"Yes," said the Managing Editor. "That must be good style."
Scoop
(1938) bk. 1, ch. 1
To see him fumbling with our rich and delicate language is to experience all the horror of seeing a Sèvres vase in the hands of a chimpanzee.
of Stephen Spender
in
The Tablet
5 May 1951
A typical triumph of modern science to find the only part of Randolph that was not malignant and remove it.
on hearing that Randolph Churchill's lung, when removed, proved non-malignant
Michael Davie (ed.)
Diaries of Evelyn Waugh
(1976) "Irregular Notes 1960–65", March 1964
1848–1929
Where are the boys of the old Brigade,
Who fought with us side by side?
"The Old Brigade" (1886 song)
Roses are flowering in Picardy,
But there's never a rose like you.
"Roses of Picardy" (1916 song)
1859–1947
The inevitability of gradualness.
presidential address to the annual conference of the Labour Party, 26 June 1923
1864–1920
The protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism.
Archiv für Sozialwissenschaft Sozialpolitik
vol. 20 (1904–5) (title of article)
The concept of the "official secret" is its [bureaucracy's] specific invention.
"Politik als Beruf" (1919)
1782–1852
It is, Sir, as I have said, a small college. And yet
there are those who love it
!
argument in the case of the Trustees of Dartmouth College v. Woodward, 10 March 1818
The people's government, made for the people, made by the people, and answerable to the people.
second speech in the Senate on Foote's Resolution, 26 January 1830.
Liberty
and
Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!
second speech in the Senate on Foote's Resolution, 26 January 1830
There is always room at the top.
on being advised against joining the overcrowded legal profession
attributed