The Oxford dictionary of modern quotations (37 page)

American women shoot the hippopotamus with eyebrows made of platinum.

Abinger Harvest (1936) "Mickey and Minnie." Cf. 24:8

It is frivolous stuff, and how rare, how precious is frivolity! How few

writers can prostitute all their powers! They are always implying "I am

capable of higher things."

Abinger Harvest (1936) "Ronald Firbank"

The historian must have a third quality as well: some conception of how

men who are not historians behave. Otherwise he will move in a world of

the dead.

Abinger Harvest (1936) "Captain Edward Gibbon"

Yes--oh dear yes--the novel tells a story.

Aspects of the Novel (1927) ch. 2

That old lady in the anecdote...was not so much angry as contemptuous....

"How can I tell what I think till I see what I say?"

Aspects of the Novel (1927) ch. 5. Cf. Graham Wallas 222:8

I am only touching on one aspect of Ulysses: it is of course far more

than a fantasy--it is a dogged attempt to cover the universe with mud, an

inverted Victorianism, an attempt to make crossness and dirt succeed where

sweetness and light failed, a simplification of the human character in the

interests of Hell.

Aspects of the Novel (1927) ch. 6

Long books, when read, are usually overpraised, because the reader wishes

to convince others and himself that he has not wasted his time.

Note from commonplace book, in O. Stallybrass (ed.) Aspects of the Novel

and Related Writings (1974) p. 129

Like many others who have lived long in a great capital, she had strong

feelings about the various railway termini. They are our gates to the

glorious and the unknown. Through them we pass out into adventure and

sunshine, to them, alas! we return.

Howards End (1910) ch. 2

It will be generally admitted that Beethoven's Fifth Symphony is the most

sublime noise that has ever penetrated into the ear of man.

Howards End (1910) ch. 5

The music [the scherzo of Beethoven's 5th Symphony] started with a goblin

walking quietly over the universe, from end to end. Others followed him.

They were not aggressive creatures; it was that that made them so terrible

to Helen. They merely observed in passing that there was no such thing as

splendour or heroism in the world. After the interlude of elephants

dancing, they returned and made the observation for a second time. Helen

could not contradict them, for, once at all events, she had felt the same,

and had seen the reliable walls of youth collapse. Panic and emptiness!

The goblins were right.

Howards End (1910) ch. 5

All men are equal--all men, that is to say, who possess umbrellas.

Howards End (1910) ch. 6

Personal relations are the important thing for ever and ever, and not this

outer life of telegrams and anger.

Howards End (1910) ch. 19

She would only point out the salvation that was latent in his own soul,

and in the soul of every man. Only connect! That was the whole of her

sermon. Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted,

and human love will be seen at its height. Live in fragments no longer.

Only connect, and the beast and the monk, robbed of the isolation that is

life to either, will die.

Howards End (1910) ch. 22 (the title-page also has "Only connect...")

Death destroys a man: the idea of Death saves him.

Howards End (1910) ch. 27 (chapter 41 has "Death destroys a man, but the

idea of death saves him")

"I don't think I understand people very well. I only know whether I like

or dislike them."

"Then you are an Oriental."

Passage to India (1924) ch. 2

The so-called white races are really pinko-grey.

Passage to India (1924) ch. 7

The echo in a Marabar cave is not like these, it is entirely devoid of

distinction. Whatever is said, the same monotonous noise replies, and

quivers up and down the walls until it is absorbed into the roof. "Boum"

is the sound as far as the human alphabet can express it, or "bou-oum,"

or "ou-boum,"--utterly dull. Hope, politeness, the blowing of a nose, the

squeak of a boot, all produce "boum."

Passage to India (1924) ch. 14

The echo began in some indescribable way to undermine her hold on life.

Coming at a moment when she chanced to be fatigued, it had managed to

murmur, "Pathos, piety, courage--they exist, but are identical, and so is

filth. Everything exists, nothing has value."

Passage to India (1924) ch. 14

The inscriptions which the poets of the State had composed were hung where

they could not be read, or had twitched their drawing-pins out of the

stucco, and one of them (composed in English to indicate His universality)

consisted, by an unfortunate slip of the draughtsman, of the words, "God

si Love."

God si Love. Is this the first message of India?

Passage to India (1924) ch. 33

A room with a view.

Title of novel (1908)

The traveller who has gone to Italy to study the tactile values of Giotto,

or the corruption of the Papacy, may return remembering nothing but the

blue sky and the men and women under it.

Room with a View (1908) ch. 2

I hate the idea of causes, and if I had to choose between betraying my

country and betraying my friend, I hope I should have the guts to betray

my country.

Two Cheers for Democracy (1951) "What I Believe"

So Two cheers for Democracy: one because it admits variety and two because

it permits criticism. Two cheers are quite enough: there is no occasion

to give three. Only Love the Beloved Republic deserves that.

Two Cheers for Democracy (1951) "What I Believe" ("Love, the Beloved

Republic" is a phrase from Swinburne's poem Hertha )

Think before you speak is criticism's motto; speak before you think

creation's.

Two Cheers for Democracy (1951) "Raison d'�tre of Criticism"

I suggest that the only books that influence us are those for which we are

ready, and which have gone a little farther down our particular path than

we have yet got ourselves.

Two Cheers for Democracy (1951) "Books That Influenced Me"

Creative writers are always greater than the causes that they represent.

Two Cheers for Democracy (1951) "Gide and George"

6.38 Bruce Forsyth =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1928-

Didn't she [or he or they] do well?

Catch-phrase in "The Generation Game" on BBC Television, 1973 onwards

Nice to see you--to see you, nice.

Catch-phrase in "The Generation Game" on BBC Television, 1973 onwards

I'm in charge.

Catch-phrase in "Sunday Night at the London Palladium" on ITV, 1958

onwards

6.39 Harry Emerson Fosdick =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1878-1969

I renounce war for its consequences, for the lies it lives on and

propagates, for the undying hatred it arouses, for the dictatorships it

puts in the place of democracy, for the starvation that stalks after it.

I renounce war and never again, directly or indirectly, will I sanction or

support another.

Sermon in New York on Armistice Day 1933, in Secret of Victorious Living

(1934) p. 97

6.40 Anatole France (Jacques-Anatole-Fran�ois Thibault) =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1844-1924

Dans tout �tat polic�, la richesse est chose sacr�e; dans les d�mocraties

elle est la seule chose sacr�e.

In every well-governed state, wealth is a sacred thing; in democracies it

is the only sacred thing.

L'Ile des pingouins (Penguin Island, 1908) pt. 6, ch. 2

Ils [les pauvres] y doivent travailler devant la majestueuse �galit� des

lois, qui interdit au riche comme au pauvre de coucher sous les ponts, de

mendier dans les rues et de voler du pain.

They [the poor] have to labour in the face of the majestic equality of the

law, which forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to

beg in the streets, and to steal bread.

Le Lys rouge (The Red Lily, 1894) ch. 7

Le bon critique est celui qui raconte les aventures de son �meau milieu

des chefs-d'�uvre.

The good critic is he who relates the adventures of his soul among

masterpieces.

La Vie litt�raire (The Literary Life, 1888) dedicatory letter

6.41 Georges Franju =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1912-

See Jean-Luc Godard (7.34)

6.42 Sir James George Frazer =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1854-1941

The awe and dread with which the untutored savage contemplates his

mother-in-law are amongst the most familiar facts of anthropology.

The Golden Bough (ed. 2, 1900) vol. 1, p. 288

6.43 Stan Freberg =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1926-

It's too loud, man....It's too shrill, man, it's too piercing.

Banana Boat (Day-O) (1957 record; lines spoken by Peter Leeds)

Excuse me, you ain't any kin to the snare drummer, are you?

Yellow Rose of Texas (1955 record; words spoken to a loud banjo-player)

6.44 Arthur Freed =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1894-1973

Singin' in the rain.

Title of song (1929; music by Nacio Herb Brown)

6.45 Ralph Freed =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

I like New York in June,

How about you?

How About You? (1941 song; music by Burton Lane)

6.46 Cliff Freeman =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Where's the beef?

Advertising slogan for Wendy's Hamburgers in campaign launched 9 Jan.

1984 (taken up by Walter Mondale in a televised debate with Gary Hart from

Atlanta, 11 March 1984: "When I hear your new ideas I'm reminded of that

ad, 'Where's the beef?'")

6.47 John Freeman =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1880-1929

It was the lovely moon--she lifted

Slowly her white brow among

Bronze cloud-waves that ebbed and drifted

Faintly, faintlier afar.

Stone Trees (1916) "It Was the Lovely Moon"

6.48 Marilyn French =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1929-

Whatever they may be in public life, whatever their relations with men, in

their relations with women, all men are rapists, and that's all they are.

They rape us with their eyes, their laws, and their codes.

The Women's Room (1977) bk. 5, ch. 19

6.49 Sigmund Freud =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1856-1939

Die Anatomie ist das Schicksal.

Anatomy is destiny.

Gesammelte Schriften (Collected Writings, 1924) vol. 5, p. 210

"Itzig, wohin reit'st Du?" "Weiss ich, frag das Pferd."

"Itzig, where are you riding to?" "Don't ask me, ask the horse."

Letter to Wilhelm Fliess, 7 July 1898, in Aus den Anf�ngen der

Psychoanalyse (Origins of Psychoanalysis, 1950) p. 275

Wir sind so eingerichtet, dass wir nur den Kontrast intensiv geniessen

k�nnen, den Zustand nur sehr wenig.

We are so made, that we can only derive intense enjoyment from a contrast,

and only very little from a state of things.

Das Unbehagen in der Kultur (Civilization and its Discontents, 1930)

ch. 2

Vergleiche entscheiden nichts, das ist wahr, aber sie k�nnen machen, dass

man sich heimischer f�hlt.

Analogies decide nothing, that is true, but they can make one feel more at

home.

Neue Folge der Vorlesungen zur Einf�hrung in die Psychoanalyse (New

Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis, 1933) ch. 31

The great question that has never been answered and which I have not yet

been able to answer, despite my thirty years of research into the feminine

soul, is "What does a woman want?"

Letter to Marie Bonaparte, in Ernest Jones Sigmund Freud: Life and Work

(1955) vol. 2, pt. 3, ch. 16

6.50 Max Frisch =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1911-

Diskussion mit Hanna!--�ber Technik (laut Hanna) als Kniff, die Welt so

einzurichten, dass wir sie nicht erleben m�ssen.

Discussion with Hanna--about technology (according to Hanna) as the knack

of so arranging the world that we need not experience it.

Homo Faber (1957) pt. 2

6.51 Charles Frohman =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1860-1915

Why fear death? It is the most beautiful adventure in life.

Last words before drowning in the Lusitania, 7 May 1915, in I. F.

Marcosson and D. Frohman Charles Frohman (1916) ch. 19. Cf. J. M. Barrie

19:9

6.52 Erich Fromm =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1900-1980

Man's main task in life is to give birth to himself, to become what he

potentially is. The most important product of his effort is his own

personality.

Man for Himself (1947) ch. 4

In the nineteenth century the problem was that God is dead; in the

twentieth century the problem is that man is dead. In the nineteenth