The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (235 page)
Read The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Online
Authors: Elizabeth Knowles
The land of my fathers, how fair is thy fame.
"Land of My Fathers" (1856), translated by W. G. Rothery
1843–1916
Most English talk is a quadrille in a sentry-box.
The Awkward Age
(1899) bk. 5, ch. 19
The black and merciless things that are behind the great possessions.
The Ivory Tower
(1917) notes
Cats and monkeys—monkeys and cats—all human life is there!
The Madonna of the Future
(1879) vol. 1
We work in the dark—we do what we can—we give what we have. Our doubt is our passion and our passion is our task. The rest is the madness of art.
"The Middle Years" (short story, 1893)
What is character but the determination of incident? What is incident but the illustration of character?
Partial Portraits
(1888) "The Art of Fiction"
The house of fiction has in short not one window, but a million…but they are, singly or together, as nothing without the posted presence of the watcher.
The Portrait of a Lady
(1908 ed.) preface
The note I wanted; that of the strange and sinister embroidered on the very type of the normal and easy.
Prefaces
(1909) "The Altar of the Dead"
The time-honoured bread-sauce of the happy ending.
Theatricals
(1894) 2nd series
The turn of the screw
title of novel (1898)
We were alone with the quiet day, and his little heart, dispossessed, had stopped.
The Turn of the Screw
(1898)
The war has used up words.
in
New York Times
21 March 1915
Of course, of course.
on hearing that Rupert Brooke had died on a Greek island
C. Hassall
Rupert Brooke
(1964) ch. 14
Summer afternoon—summer afternoon…the two most beautiful words in the English language.
Edith Wharton
A Backward Glance
(1934) ch. 10
So here it is at last, the distinguished thing!
on experiencing his first stroke
Edith Wharton
A Backward Glance
(1934) ch. 14
1920–
What the detective story is about is not murder but the restoration of order.
in
Face
December 1986
I had an interest in death from an early age. It fascinated me. When I heard "Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall," I thought, "Did he fall or was he pushed?"
in
Paris Review
1995
1842–1910
There is no worse lie than a truth misunderstood by those who hear it.
The Varieties of Religious Experience
(1902)
The moral flabbiness born of the exclusive worship of the bitch-goddess
success
.
letter to H. G. Wells, 11 September 1906
Hogamus, higamous
Man is polygamous
Higamus, hogamous
Woman monogamous.
in
Oxford Book of Marriage
(1990)
1914–65
In bombers named for girls, we burned
The cities we had learned about in school—
Till our lives wore out; our bodies lay among
The people we had killed and never seen.
When we lasted long enough they gave us medals;
When we died they said, "Our casualties were low."
"Losses" (1963)
It is better to entertain an idea than to take it home to live with you for the rest of your life.
Pictures from an Institution
(1954) pt. 1, ch. 4
