The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (12 page)
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Authors: Elizabeth Knowles
"The Dilly Song".
I'm armed with more than complete steel—The justice of my quarrel.
Lust's Dominion
(1657) act 4, sc. 3 (attributed to Marlowe, though of doubtful authorship)
I met wid Napper Tandy, and he took me by the hand,
And he said, "How's poor ould Ireland, and how does she stand?"
She's the most disthressful country that iver yet was seen,
For they're hangin' men an' women for the wearin' o' the Green.
"The Wearin' o' the Green" (
c.
1795 ballad)
It became necessary to destroy the town to save it.
statement by unidentified US Army Major, referring to Ben Tre in Vietnam
in Associated Press Report,
New York Times
8 February 1968
Jacques Brel is alive and well and living in Paris.
title of musical entertainment (1968–72) which triggered numerous imitations
John Brown's body lies a mould'ring in the grave,
His soul is marching on.
inspired by the execution of the abolitionist John Brown, after the raid on Harper's Ferry, on 2 December 1859
song (1861), variously attributed to Charles Sprague Hall, Henry Howard Brownell, and Thomas Brigham Bishop
The King over the Water.
Jacobite toast (18th-century)
Liberty is always unfinished business.
title of 36th Annual Report of the American Civil Liberties Union, 1 July 1955–30 June 1956
Licensed to kill.
popular description of the status of Secret Service agent James Bond, 007, in the novels of Ian Fleming
Lions led by donkeys.
associated with British soldiers during the First World War
attributed to Max Hoffman (1869–1927) in Alan Clark
The Donkeys
(1961); this attribution has not been traced elsewhere, and the phrase is of much earlier origin
Little Englanders.
term applied to anti-imperialists
in
Westminster Gazette
1 August 1895; in
Pall Mall Gazette
16 September 1884 the phrase "believe in a little England" occurs
Lizzie Borden took an axe
And gave her mother forty whacks;
When she saw what she had done
She gave her father forty-one!
after the acquittal of Lizzie Borden, in June 1893, from the charge of murdering her father and stepmother at Fall River, Massachusetts on 4 August 1892
popular rhyme
Lloyd George knew my father,
My father knew Lloyd George.
two-line comic song, sung to the tune of "Onward, Christian Soldiers" and possibly by Tommy Rhys Roberts (1910–75)
London, thou art the flower of cities all!
Gemme of all joy, jasper of jocunditie.
"London" l. 16
Love me little, love me long,
Is the burden of my song.
"Love me little, love me long" (1569–70)
Mademoiselle from Armenteers,
Hasn't been kissed for forty years,
Hinky, dinky, parley-voo.
song of the First World War, variously attributed to Edward Rowland and to Harry Carlton
child
: Mamma, are Tories born wicked, or do they grow wicked afterwards?
mother
: They are born wicked, and grow worse.
G. W. E. Russell
Collections and Recollections
(1898) ch. 10
The ministry of all the talents.
name given ironically to William Grenville's coalition of 1806, and also applied to later coalitions
G. W. Cooke
The History of Party
(1837) vol. 3
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
The bed be blest that I lie on.
Four angels to my bed,
Four angels round my head,
One to watch, and one to pray,
And two to bear my soul away.
traditional (the first two lines in Thomas Ady
A Candle in the Dark
, 1656)
Members [of civil service orders] rise from CMG (known sometimes in Whitehall as "Call Me God") to the KCMG ("Kindly Call Me God") to—for a select few governors and super-ambassadors—the GCMG ("God Calls Me God").
Anthony Sampson
Anatomy of Britain
(1962) ch. 18
Miss Buss and Miss Beale
Cupid's darts do not feel.
How different from us,
Miss Beale and Miss Buss.
of the Headmistress of the North London Collegiate School and the Principal of the Ladies' College, Cheltenham
rhyme,
c.
1884
My name is George Nathaniel Curzon,
I am a most superior person.
of Lord Curzon
The Masque of Balliol
(
c.
1870), in W. G. Hiscock
The Balliol Rhymes
(1939).
The nature of God is a circle of which the centre is everywhere and the circumference is nowhere.
said to have been traced to a lost treatise of Empedocles; quoted in the
Roman de la Rose
, and by St Bonaventura in
Itinerarius Mentis in Deum
ch. 5, closing line
The noise, my dear! And the people!
of the retreat from Dunkirk, May 1940; the saying has also been attributed to Ernest Thesiger of the First World War
Anthony Rhodes
Sword of Bone
(1942) ch. 22
No more Latin, no more French,
No more sitting on a hard board bench.
children's rhyme for the end of term
Iona and Peter Opie
Lore and Language of Schoolchildren
(1959) ch. 13
Not so much a programme, more a way of life!
title of BBC television series, 1964
Now I lay me down to sleep;
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
If I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take.
first printed in a late edition of the
New England Primer
(1781)
O Death, where is thy sting-a-ling-a-ling,
O grave, thy victory?
The bells of Hell go ting-a-ling-a-ling
For you but not for me.
"For You But Not For Me", in S. Louis Guiraud (ed.)
Songs That Won the War
(1930).
O God, if there be a God, save my soul, if I have a soul!
prayer of a common soldier before the battle of Blenheim, 1704
in
Notes and Queries
vol. 173, no. 15 (9 October 1937); quoted in John Henry Newman
Apologia pro Vita Sua
(1864)
Once upon a time…
traditional opening to a story, especially a fairy story
Anonymous, recorded from 1595
One Cartwright brought a Slave from Russia, and would scourge him, for which he was questioned: and it was resolved, That England was too pure an Air for Slaves to breathe in.
"In the 11th of Elizabeth" (17 November 1568–16 November 1569), in John Rushworth
Historical Collections
(1680–1722) vol. 2.
O rare Ben Jonson.
inscription on the tomb of Ben Jonson in Westminster Abbey
O ye'll tak' the high road, and I'll tak' the low road,
And I'll be in Scotland afore ye,
But me and my true love will never meet again,
On the bonnie, bonnie banks o' Loch Lomon'.
"The Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomon'" (traditional song)
A place within the meaning of the Act.
usually taken to be a reference to the Betting Act 1853, sect. 2, which banned off-course betting on horse-races
Please do not shoot the pianist. He is doing his best.
printed notice in a dancing saloon
Oscar Wilde
Impressions of America
"Leadville" (
c.
1882–3)
Please to remember the Fifth of November,
Gunpowder Treason and Plot.
We know no reason why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.
traditional rhyme on the Gunpowder Plot (1605)
The [
or
A] quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
used by keyboarders to ensure that all letters of the alphabet are functioning
R. Hunter Middleton's introduction to
The Quick Brown Fox
(1945) by Richard H. Templeton Jr.
The rabbit has a charming face:
Its private life is a disgrace.
I really dare not name to you
The awful things that rabbits do.
"The Rabbit", in
The Week-End Book
(1925)
Raise the stone, and there thou shalt find me, cleave the wood and there am I.
Oxyrhynchus Papyri, in B. P. Grenfell and A. S. Hunt (eds.)
Sayings of Our Lord
(1897) Logion 5, l. 23
Rest in peace. The mistake shall not be repeated.
inscription on the cenotaph at Hiroshima, Japan
Say it ain't so, Joe.
"Shoeless" Joe Jackson and seven other Chicago players were charged with being bribed to lose the 1919 World Baseball Series
plea said to have been made by a boy as Jackson emerged from the hearing, September 1920
See the happy moron,
He doesn't give a damn,
I wish I were a moron,
My God! perhaps I am!
in
Eugenics Review
July 1929
Seven wealthy towns contend for
homer
dead
Through which the living
homer
begged his bread.
epilogue to
Aesop at Tunbridge; or, a Few Selected Fables in Verse
By No Person of Quality (1698).
She was poor but she was honest
Victim of a rich man's game.
First he loved her, then he left her,
And she lost her maiden name…
It's the same the whole world over,
It's the poor wot gets the blame,
It's the rich wot gets the gravy.
Ain't it all a bleedin' shame?
"She was Poor but she was Honest" (sung by British soldiers in the First World War)
A soldier of the Great War known unto God.
standard epitaph for the unidentified dead of World War One
adopted by the War Graves Commission
Some talk of Alexander, and some of Hercules;
Of Hector and Lysander, and such great names as these;
But of all the world's brave heroes, there's none that can compare
With a tow, row, row, row, row, row, for the British Grenadier.
"The British Grenadiers" (traditional song)
So much chewing gum for the eyes.
small boy's definition of certain television programmes
James Beasley Simpson
Best Quotes of '50, '55, '56
(1957)
So on the Twelfth I proudly wear the sash my father wore.
"The Sash My Father Wore", traditional Orange song
Sumer is icumen in,
Lhude sing cuccu!
Groweth sed, and bloweth med,
And springth the wude nu.
"Cuckoo Song" (
c.
1250), sung annually at Reading Abbey gateway and first recorded by John Fornset, a monk of Reading Abbey.
Swing low, sweet chariot—
Comin' for to carry me home.
Negro spiritual (
c.
1850)
Their name liveth for evermore.
standard inscription on the Stone of Sacrifice in each military cemetery of World War One, proposed by Rudyard Kipling as a member of the War Graves Commission
Charles Carrington
Rudyard Kipling
(rev. ed. 1978)
There is a lady sweet and kind,
Was never face so pleased my mind;
I did but see her passing by,
And yet I love her till I die.
