The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (400 page)
Read The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Online
Authors: Elizabeth Knowles
1714–63
The world may be divided into people that read, people that write, people that think, and fox-hunters.
Works…
(1764) vol. 2 "On Writing and Books"
1831–88
The only good Indians I ever saw were dead.
in response to the Comanche chief Toch-a-way, who described himself as a "good Indian"
at Fort Cobb, January 1869; attributed but denied by Sheridan
1751–1816
O Lord, Sir—when a heroine goes mad she always goes into white satin.
The Critic
(1779) act 3, sc. 1
Illiterate him, I say, quite from your memory.
The Rivals
(1775) act 1, sc. 2
Madam, a circulating library in a town is as an evergreen tree of diabolical knowledge.
The Rivals
(1775) act 1, sc. 2
He is the very pineapple of politeness!
The Rivals
(1775) act 3, sc. 3
If I reprehend any thing in this world, it is the use of my oracular tongue, and a nice derangement of epitaphs!
The Rivals
(1775) act 3, sc. 3
She's as headstrong as an allegory on the banks of the Nile.
The Rivals
(1775) act 3, sc. 3
No caparisons, Miss, if you please!—Caparisons don't become a young woman.
The Rivals
(1775) act 4, sc. 2
You shall see them on a beautiful quarto page where a neat rivulet of text shall meander through a meadow of margin.
The School for Scandal
(1777) act 1, sc. 1
Here is the whole set! a character dead at every word.
The School for Scandal
(1777) act 2, sc. 2.
Here's to the maiden of bashful fifteen
Here's to the widow of fifty
Here's to the flaunting, extravagant quean;
And here's to the housewife that's thrifty.
The School for Scandal
(1777) act 3, sc. 3
An unforgiving eye, and a damned disinheriting countenance!
The School for Scandal
(1777) act 4, sc. 1
There is no trusting appearances.
The School for Scandal
(1777) act 5, sc. 2
You write with ease, to show your breeding,
But easy writing's vile hard reading.
"Clio's Protest" (written 1771, published 1819)
A man may surely be allowed to take a glass of wine by his own fireside.
on being encountered drinking a glass of wine in the street, while watching his theatre, the Drury Lane, burn down
T. Moore
Life of Sheridan
(1825) vol. 2
1805–73
Remember the Alamo!
battle cry at San Jacinto, 21 April 1836, traditionally attributed to General Sherman
1820–91
Hold out. Relief is coming.
usually quoted as "Hold the fort! I am coming!"
flag signal from Kennesaw Mountain to General John Murray Corse at Allatoona Pass, 5 October 1864.
There is many a boy here to-day who looks on war as all glory, but, boys, it is all hell.
speech at Columbus, Ohio, 11 August 1880, in Lloyd Lewis
Sherman, Fighting Prophet
(1932)
