The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (164 page)
Read The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Online
Authors: Elizabeth Knowles
1926–
People [in Northern Ireland] don't march as an alternative to jogging. They do it to assert their supremacy. It is pure tribalism, the cause of troubles all over the world.
referring to the "marching season" in Northern Ireland, leading up to the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne on 12 July, when parades by Orange communities traditionally take place
in
The Times
5 August 1994
The people have spoken and the politicians have had to listen.
on the outcome of the referendum on the Good Friday agreement
in
Sunday Telegraph
24 May 1998
You are my honey, honeysuckle, I am the bee.
"The Honeysuckle and the Bee" (1901 song)
c.
1575–1638
And bold and hard adventures t' undertake,
Leaving his country for his country's sake.
Sir Francis Drake
(1596) st. 213
1809–83
Awake! for Morning in the bowl of night
Has flung the stone that puts the stars to flight:
And Lo! the Hunter of the East has caught
The Sultan's turret in a noose of light.
The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám
(1859) st. 1
Here with a loaf of bread beneath the bough,
A flask of wine, a book of verse—and Thou
Beside me singing in the wilderness—
And wilderness is paradise enow.
The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám
(1859) st. 11
A jug of wine, a loaf of bread—and Thou
Beside me singing in the wilderness—
Oh, wilderness were paradise enow!
The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám
(4th ed., 1879) st. 12
Ah, take the cash in hand and waive the rest;
Oh, the brave music of a
distant
drum!
The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám
(1859) st. 12
Nor heed the rumble of a distant drum!
The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám
(4th ed., 1879) st. 13
I sometimes think that never blows so red
The rose as where some buried Caesar bled.
The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám
(1859) st. 18
One thing is certain, and the rest is lies;
The flower that once hath blown for ever dies.
The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám
(1859) st. 26
The flower that once has blown for ever dies.
The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám
(4th ed., 1879) st. 63
The moving finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy piety nor wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a line,
Nor all thy tears wash out a word of it.
The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám
(1859) st. 51; "all your tears" in 4th ed. (1879) st. 71
Who
is
the potter, pray, and who the pot?
The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám
(1859) st. 60
Indeed the idols I have loved so long
Have done my credit in this world much wrong:
Have drowned my glory in a shallow cup
And sold my reputation for a song.
The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám
(4th ed., 1879) st. 93
Alas, that spring should vanish with the rose!
That youth's sweet-scented manuscript should close!
The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám
(1859) st. 72
And when Thyself with shining foot shall pass
Among the guests star-scattered on the grass,
And in thy joyous errand reach the spot
Where I made one—turn down an empty glass!
The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám
(1859) st. 75
Among the guests star-scattered on the grass,
And in your joyous errand reach the spot
Where I made one—turn down an empty glass!
The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám
(4th ed., 1879) st. 101
Taste is the feminine of genius.
letter to J. R. Lowell, October 1877
1896–1940
Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me.
to which Ernest Hemingway replied, "Yes, they have more money"
All the Sad Young Men
(1926) "Rich Boy"
The beautiful and damned.
title of novel (1922)
At eighteen our convictions are hills from which we look; at forty-five they are caves in which we hide.
"Bernice Bobs her Hair" (1920)
I've been drunk for about a week now, and I thought it might sober me up to sit in a library.
The Great Gatsby
(1925) ch. 3
In a real dark night of the soul it is always three o'clock in the morning.
"Handle with Care" in
Esquire
March 1936.
See that little stream—we could walk to it in two minutes. It took the British a month to walk it—a whole empire walking very slowly, dying in front and pushing forward behind. And another empire walked very slowly backward a few inches a day, leaving the dead like a million bloody rugs.
Tender is the Night
(1934)
There are no second acts in American lives.
Edmund Wilson (ed.)
The Last Tycoon
(1941) "Hollywood, etc."
