The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (448 page)
Read The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Online
Authors: Elizabeth Knowles
fl. 1820
I'm talking to Buncombe ["bunkum"].
excusing a long, dull, irrelevant speech in the House of Representatives,
c.
1820 (Buncombe being his constituency)
W. Safire
New Language of Politics
(2nd ed., 1972).
1919–98
Segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever!
inaugural speech as Governor of Alabama, January 1963, in
Birmingham World
19 January 1963
1888–1965
The century on which we are entering—the century which will come out of this war—can be and must be the century of the common man.
speech, 8 May 1942
d. 1881
For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.
"What rules the world" (1865).
1858–1932
The little girl had the making of a poet in her who, being told to be sure of her meaning before she spoke, said, "How can I know what I think till I see what I say?"
The Art of Thought
(1926) ch. 4
1606–87
Go, lovely rose!
Tell her, that wastes her time and me,
That now she knows,
When I resemble her to thee,
How sweet and fair she seems to be.
"Go, lovely rose!" (1645)
1717–97
Our supreme governors, the mob.
letter to Horace Mann, 7 September 1743
[Strawberry Hill] is a little plaything-house that I got out of Mrs Chenevix's shop, and is the prettiest bauble you ever saw. It is set in enamelled meadows, with filigree hedges.
letter to Hon. Henry Conway, 8 June 1747
Every drop of ink in my pen ran cold.
letter to George Montagu, 30 July 1752
One of the greatest geniuses that ever existed, Shakespeare, undoubtedly wanted taste.
letter to Christopher Wren, 9 August 1764
It is charming to totter into vogue.
letter to George Selwyn, 2 December 1765
The way to ensure summer in England is to have it framed and glazed in a comfortable room.
letter to Revd William Cole, 28 May 1774
The next Augustan age will dawn on the other side of the Atlantic. There will, perhaps, be a Thucydides at Boston, a Xenophon at New York, and, in time, a Virgil at Mexico, and a Newton at Peru. At last, some curious traveller from Lima will visit England and give a description of the ruins of St Paul's, like the editions of Balbec and Palmyra.
letter to Horace Mann, 24 November 1774.
This world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel.
letter to Anne, Countess of Upper Ossory, 16 August 1776
It is the story of a mountebank and his zany.
of Boswell's Tour of the Hebrides
letter to Hon. Henry Conway, 6 October 1785
All his own geese are swans, as the swans of others are geese.
of Joshua Reynolds
letter to Anne, Countess of Upper Ossory, 1 December 1786
How should such a fellow as Sheridan, who has no diamonds to bestow, fascinate all the world?—yet witchcraft, no doubt there has been, for when did simple eloquence ever convince a majority?
letter to Lady Ossory, 9 February 1787
That hyena in petticoats, Mrs Wollstonecraft.
letter to Hannah More, 26 January 1795
While he felt like a victim, he acted like a hero.
of Admiral Byng, on the day of his execution
Memoirs of the Reign of King George II
(ed. Lord Holland, 1846) vol. 2, 1757.
