The Oxford dictionary of modern quotations (71 page)

1878-1953

Life begins at forty.

Title of book (1932)

16.46 Ruth Pitter =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1897-

I dream

Already that I hear my lover's voice;

What music shall I have--what dying wails--

The seldom female in a world of males!

On Cats (1947) "Kitten's Eclogue"

16.47 Sylvia Plath =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1932-1963

Love set you going like a fat gold watch.

The midwife slapped your footsoles, and your bald cry

Took its place among the elements.

Ariel (1965) "Morning Song"

Dying,

Is an art, like everything else.

I do it exceptionally well.

Encounter Oct. 1963, "Lady Lazarus"

Every woman adores a Fascist,

The boot in the face, the brute

Brute heart of a brute like you.

Encounter Oct. 1963, "Daddy"

16.48 William Plomer =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1903-1973

They took the hill (Whose hill? What for?)

But what a climb they left to do!

Out of that bungled, unwise war

An alp of unforgiveness grew.

Collected Poems (1960) "The Boer War"

On a sofa upholstered in panther skin

Mona did researches in original sin.

Collected Poems (1960) "Mews Flat Mona"

A rose-red sissy half as old as time.

The Dorking Thigh (1945) "Playboy of the Demi-World." Cf. Oxford

Dictionary of Quotations (1979) 108:4

A family portrait not too stale to record

Of a pleasant old buffer, nephew to a lord,

Who believed that the bank was mightier than the sword,

And that an umbrella might pacify barbarians abroad:

Just like an old liberal

Between the wars.

The Dorking Thigh (1945) "Father and Son"

Fissures appeared in football fields

And houses in the night collapsed.

The Thames flowed backward to its source,

The last trickle seen to disappear

Swiftly, like an adder to its hole,

And here and there along the river-bed

The stranded fish gaped among empty tins,

Face downward lay the huddled suicides

Like litter that a riot leaves.

Visiting the Caves (1936) "The Silent Sunday"

16.49 Henri Poincar� =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1854-1912

Science is built up of facts, as a house is built of stones; but an

accumulation of facts is no more a science than a heap of stones is

a house.

Science and Hypothesis (1905) ch. 9

16.50 Georges Pompidou =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1911-1974

A statesman is a politician who places himself at the service of the

nation. A politician is a statesman who places the nation at his service.

In Observer 30 Dec. 1973

16.51 Arthur Ponsonby (first Baron Ponsonby of Shulbrede) =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1871-1946

When war is declared, Truth is the first casualty.

Kommt der Krieg ins Land

Gibt L�gen wie Sand.

[When war enters a country

It produces lies like sand.]

Epigraphs to Falsehood in Wartime (1928) p. 11

16.52 Sir Karl Popper =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1902-

We may become the makers of our fate when we have ceased to pose as its

prophets.

The Open Society and its Enemies (1945) Introduction

There is no history of mankind, there are only many histories of all kinds

of aspects of human life. And one of these is the history of political

power. This is elevated into the history of the world.

The Open Society and its Enemies (1945) vol. 2, ch. 25

We must plan for freedom, and not only for security, if for no other

reason than that only freedom can make security secure.

The Open Society and its Enemies (1945) vol. 2, ch. 21

Piecemeal social engineering resembles physical engineering in regarding

the ends as beyond the province of technology.

Poverty of Historicism (1957) pt. 3, sect. 21

For this, indeed, is the true source of our ignorance--the fact that our

knowledge can only be finite, while our ignorance must necessarily be

infinite.

Lecture to British Academy, 20 Jan. 1960, in Proceedings of the British

Academy (1960) vol. 46, p. 69

16.53 Cole Porter =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1891-1964

In olden days a glimpse of stocking

Was looked on as something shocking

Now, heaven knows,

Anything goes.

Anything Goes (1934 song)

When they begin the Beguine

It brings back the sound of music so tender,

It brings back a night of tropical splendour,

It brings back a memory ever green.

Begin the Beguine (1935 song)

Oh, give me land, lots of land

Under starry skies above

DON'T FENCE ME IN.

Don't Fence Me In (1934 song; revived in 1944 film Hollywood Canteen)

I get no kick from champagne,

Mere alcohol doesn't thrill me at all,

So tell me why should it be true

That I get a kick out of you?

I Get a Kick Out of You (1934 song)

I've got you under my skin.

Title of song (1936)

So goodbye dear, and Amen,

Here's hoping we meet now and then,

It was great fun,

But it was just one of those things.

Just One of Those Things (1935 song)

Birds do it, bees do it,

Even educated fleas do it.

Let's do it, let's fall in love.

Let's Do It (1954 song; these words are not in the original 1928 version)

Miss Otis regrets (she's unable to lunch today).

Title of song (1934)

My heart belongs to Daddy.

Title of song (1938)

Night and day, you are the one,

Only you beneath the moon and under the sun.

Night and Day (1932 song)

she: Have you heard it's in the stars,

Next July we collide with Mars?

he: Well, did you evah! What a swell party this is.

Well, Did You Evah? (1956 song)

Who wants to be a millionaire?

Title of song (1956)

You're the top.

Title of song (1934)

16.54 Beatrix Potter =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1866-1943

In the time of swords and periwigs and full-skirted coats with flowered

lappets--when gentlemen wore ruffles, and gold-laced waistcoats of

paduasoy and taffeta--there lived a tailor in Gloucester.

Tailor of Gloucester (1903) p. 9

The tailor replied--"Simpkin, we shall make our fortune, but I am worn to

a ravelling. Take this groat (which is our last fourpence) and...with the

last penny of our fourpence buy me one penn'orth of cherry-coloured silk.

But do not lose the last penny of the fourpence, Simpkin, or I am undone

and worn to a thread-paper, for I have NO MORE TWIST."

Tailor of Gloucester (1903) p. 22

It is said that the effect of eating too much lettuce is "soporific."

Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies (1909) p. 9

Once upon a time there were four little Rabbits, and their names

were--Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail, and Peter.

Tale of Peter Rabbit (1902) p. 9

You may go into the fields or down the lane, but don't go into Mr

McGregor's garden: your Father had an accident there; he was put in a pie

by Mrs McGregor.

Tale of Peter Rabbit (1902) p. 10

Peter sat down to rest; he was out of breath and trembling with

fright....After a time he began to wander about, going

lippity-lippity--not very fast, and looking all round.

The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1902) p. 58

16.55 Gillie Potter (Hugh William Peel) =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1887-1975

Good evening, England. This is Gillie Potter speaking to you in English.

Heard at Hogsnorton (opening words of broadcasts, 6 June 1946 and 11 Nov.

1947)

16.56 Stephen Potter =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1900-1969

A good general rule is to state that the bouquet is better than the taste,

and vice versa.

One-Upmanship (1952) ch. 14

How to be one up--how to make the other man feel that something has gone

wrong, however slightly.

Some Notes on Lifemanship (1950) p. 14

"Yes, but not in the South," with slight adjustments, will do for any

argument about any place, if not about any person.

Some Notes on Lifemanship (1950) p. 43

The theory and practice of gamesmanship or The art of winning games

without actually cheating.

Title of book (1947)

16.57 Ezra Pound =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1885-1972

The author's conviction on this day of New Year is that music begins to

atrophy when it departs too far from the dance; that poetry begins to

atrophy when it gets too far from music.

ABC of Reading (1934) "Warning"

Any general statement is like a cheque drawn on a bank. Its value depends

on what is there to meet it.

ABC of Reading (1934) ch. 1

One of the pleasures of middle age is to find out that one WAS right, and

that one was much righter than one knew at say 17 or 23.

ABC of Reading (1934) ch. 1

Literature is news that STAYS news.

ABC of Reading (1934) ch. 2

Real education must ultimately be limited to one who insists on knowing,

the rest is mere sheep-herding.

ABC of Reading (1934) ch. 8

Tching prayed on the mountain and

wrote make it new

on his bath tub.

Day by day make it new

cut underbrush,

pile the logs

keep it growing.

Cantos (1954) no. 53

Hang it all, Robert Browning,

There can be but the one "Sordello."

Draft of XXX Cantos (1930) no. 2

And even I can remember

A day when the historians left blanks in their writings,

I mean for things they didn't know.

Draft of XXX Cantos (1930) no. 13

Great literature is simply language charged with meaning to the utmost

possible degree.

How To Read (1931) pt. 2

For three years, out of key with his time,

He strove to resuscitate the dead art

Of poetry; to maintain "the sublime"

In the old sense. Wrong from the start--

No, hardly, but seeing he had been born

In a half savage country, out of date.

Hugh Selwyn Mauberley, E. P. Ode pour l'�lection de son s�pulcre (1920)

pt. 1

His true Penelope was Flaubert,

He fished by obstinate isles;

Observed the elegance of Circe's hair

Rather than the mottoes on sundials.

Hugh Selwyn Mauberley, E. P. Ode pour l'�lection de son s�pulcre (1920)

pt. 1

The age demanded an image

Of its accelerated grimace,

Something for the modern stage,

Not, at any rate, an Attic grace;

Not, not certainly, the obscure reveries

Of the inward gaze;

Better mendacities

Than the classics in paraphrase!

Hugh Selwyn Mauberley, E. P. Ode pour l'�lection de son s�pulcre (1920)

pt. 1

Christ follows Dionysus

Phallic and ambrosial

Made way for macerations;

Caliban casts out Ariel.

Hugh Selwyn Mauberley, E. P. Ode pour l'�lection de son s�pulcre (1920)

pt. 1

There died a myriad,

And of the best, among them,

For an old bitch gone in the teeth,

For a botched civilization.

Hugh Selwyn Mauberley, E. P. Ode pour l'�lection de son s�pulcre (1920)

pt. 1

The tip's a good one, as for literature

It gives no man a sinecure.

And no one knows, at sight, a masterpiece.

And give up verse, my boy,

There's nothing in it.

Hugh Selwyn Mauberley, E. P. Ode pour l'�lection de son s�pulcre (1920)

pt. 1

Poetry must be as well written as prose.

Letter to Harriet Monroe, Jan. 1915, in D. D. Paige Letters of Ezra Pound

(1950) p. 48

Artists are the antennae of the race, but the bullet-headed many will

never learn to trust their great artists.

Literary Essays (1954) "Henry James"

Winter is icummen in,

Lhude sing Goddamm,

Raineth drop and staineth slop,

And how the wind doth ramm!

Sing: Goddamm.

Lustra (1917) "Ancient Music." Cf. Oxford Dictionary of Quotations

(1979) 7:18

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;

Petals on a wet, black bough.

Lustra (1916) "In a Station of the Metro"

Bah! I have sung women in three cities,

But it is all the same;

And I will sing of the sun.

Personae (1908) "Cino"

The ant's a centaur in his dragon world.

Pull down thy vanity, it is not man

Made courage, or made order, or made grace,

Pull down thy vanity, I say pull down.

Learn of the green world what can be thy place

In scaled invention or true artistry,

Pull down thy vanity,

Paquin pull down!

The green casque has outdone your elegance.

Pisan Cantos (1948) no. 81

Pull down thy vanity

Thou art a beaten dog beneath the hail,

A swollen magpie in a fitful sun,

Half black half white

Nor knowst'ou wing from tail

Pull down thy vanity.

Pisan Cantos (1948) no. 81

16.58 Anthony Powell =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1905-

He fell in love with himself at first sight and it is a passion to which

he has always remained faithful.

Acceptance World (1955) ch. 1

Self-love seems so often unrequited.

Acceptance World (1955) ch. 1

Dinner at the Huntercombes' possessed "only two dramatic features--the

wine was a farce and the food a tragedy."

Acceptance World (1955) ch. 4

Books do furnish a room.

Title of novel (1971)

Parents--especially step-parents--are sometimes a bit of a disappointment

to their children. They don't fufil the promise of their early years.

A Buyer's Market (1952) ch. 2

A dance to the music of time.

Title of a novel sequence (1951-75), after title given by Giovanni Pietro

Bellori to a painting by Nicolas Poussin, Le 4 stagioni che ballano al

suono del tempo

Growing old is like being increasingly penalized for a crime you haven't

committed.

Temporary Kings (1973) ch. 1

16.59 Enoch Powell =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1912-

All political lives, unless they are cut off in midstream at a happy

juncture, end in failure, because that is the nature of politics and of

human affairs.

Joseph Chamberlain (1977) epilogue

History is littered with the wars which everybody knew would never happen.

Speech to Conservative Party Conference, 19 Oct. 1967, in The Times

20 Oct. 1967

As I look ahead, I am filled with foreboding. Like the Roman, I seem to

see "the River Tiber foaming with much blood."

Speech at Annual Meeting of West Midlands Area Conservative Political

Centre, Birmingham, 20 Apr. 1968, in Observer 21 Apr. 1968

16.60 Sandy Powell =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1900-1982

Can you hear me, mother?

Catch-phrase: see Can You Hear Me, Mother? Sandy Powell's Lifetime of

Music-Hall (1975) p. 62

16.61 Vince Powell and Harry Driver =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Never mind the quality, feel the width.

Title of ITV comedy series, 1967-9

16.62 Jacques Pr�vert =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1900-1977

C'est tellement simple, l' amour.

Love is so simple.

Les Enfants du Paradis (1945 film)

Notre P�re qui �tes aux cieux

Restez-y

Et nous nous resterons sur la terre

Qui est quelquefois si jolie.

Our Father which art in heaven

Stay there

And we will stay on earth

Which is sometimes so pretty.

Paroles (revised ed., 1949) "Pater Noster"

16.63 J. B. Priestley =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1894-1984

To say that these men paid their shillings to watch twenty-two hirelings

kick a ball is merely to say that a violin is wood and catgut, that Hamlet

is so much paper and ink. For a shilling the Bruddersford United AFC

offered you Conflict and Art.

Good Companions (1929) bk. 1, ch. 1

An inspector calls.

Title of play (1947)

This little steamer, like all her brave and battered sisters, is immortal.

She'll go sailing proudly down the years in the epic of Dunkirk. And our

great-grand-children, when they learn how we began this war by snatching

glory out of defeat, and then swept on to victory, may also learn how the

little holiday steamers made an excursion to hell and came back glorious.

Radio broadcast, 5 June 1940, in Listener 13 June 1940

God can stand being told by Professor Ayer and Marghanita Laski that He