The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (298 page)
Read The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Online
Authors: Elizabeth Knowles
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c.
40–104
Non amo te, Sabidi, nec possum dicere quare:
Hoc tantum possum dicere, non amo te.
I don't love you, Sabidius, and I can't tell you why; all I can tell you is this, that I don't love you.
Epigrammata
bk. 1, no. 32.
Laudant illa sed ista legunt.
They praise those works, but read these.
Epigrammata
bk. 4, no. 49
Non est vivere, sed valere vita est.
Life's not just being alive, but being well.
Epigrammata
bk. 6, no. 70
Difficilis facilis, iucundus acerbus es idem:
Nec tecum possum vivere nec sine te.
Difficult or easy, pleasant or bitter, you are the same you: I cannot live with you—or without you.
Epigrammata
bk. 12, no. 46(47)
Rus in urbe.
Country in the town.
Epigrammata
bk. 12, no. 57
1621–78
Where the remote Bermudas ride
In the ocean's bosom unespied.
"Bermudas" (
c.
1653)
Echo beyond the Mexique Bay.
"Bermudas" (
c.
1653)
My love is of a birth as rare
As 'tis for object strange and high:
It was begotten by Despair
Upon Impossibility.
Magnanimous Despair alone
Could show me so divine a thing,
Where feeble Hope could ne'er have flown
But vainly flapped its tinsel wing.
"The Definition of Love" (1681)
How vainly men themselves amaze
To win the palm, the oak, or bays.
"The Garden" (1681) st. 1
What wondrous life is this I lead!
Ripe apples drop about my head;
The luscious clusters of the vine
Upon my mouth do crush their wine;
The nectarine, and curious peach,
Into my hands themselves do reach;
Stumbling on melons, as I pass,
Ensnared with flowers, I fall on grass.
"The Garden" (1681) st. 5
Annihilating all that's made
To a green thought in a green shade.
"The Garden" (1681) st. 6
He
nothing common did or mean
Upon that memorable scene:
But with his keener eye
The axe's edge did try.
on the execution of Charles I
"An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland" (written 1650) l. 57
Had we but world enough, and time,
This coyness, lady, were no crime.
"To His coy Mistress" (1681) l. 1
I would
Love you ten years before the flood:
And you should, if you please, refuse
Till the conversion of the Jews.
My vegetable love should grow
Vaster than empires, and more slow.
"To His coy Mistress" (1681) l. 7
But at my back I always hear
Time's wingèd chariot hurrying near:
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity.
"To His Coy Mistress" (1681) l. 21.
The grave's a fine and private place,
But none, I think, do there embrace.
"To His Coy Mistress" (1681) l. 27
Let us roll all our strength, and all
Our sweetness, up into one ball:
And tear our pleasures with rough strife,
Thorough the iron gates of life.
Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.
"To His Coy Mistress" (1681) l. 41
A cigarette that bears a lipstick's traces,
An airline ticket to romantic places;
And still my heart has wings
These foolish things
Remind me of you.
"These Foolish Things Remind Me of You" (1935 song)
1891–1961
I wasn't kissing her, I was just whispering in her mouth.
on being discovered by his wife with a chorus girl
Groucho Marx and Richard J. Anobile
Marx Brothers Scrapbook
(1973) ch. 24
1895–1977
please accept my resignation. i don't want to belong to any club that will accept me as a member.
Groucho and Me
(1959) ch. 26
I never forget a face, but in your case I'll be glad to make an exception.
Leo Rosten
People I have Loved, Known or Admired
(1970) "Groucho"
