The Oxford dictionary of modern quotations (92 page)

a hell of a lot better than some of the stuff that nature replaces it

with.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955) act 2. Cf. Oxford Dictionary of Quotations

(1979) 403:27

Mendacity is a system that we live in. Liquor is one way out an' death's

the other.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955) act 2

I didn't go to the moon, I went much further--for time is the longest

distance between two places.

The Glass Menagerie (1945) p. 123

We're all of us sentenced to solitary confinement inside our own skins,

for life!

Orpheus Descending (1958) act 2, sc. 1

Turn that off! I won't be looked at in this merciless glare!

A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) sc. 1

I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.

A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) sc. 11 (Blanche's final words)

23.51 William Carlos Williams =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1883-1963

I will teach you my townspeople

how to perform a funeral

for you have it over a troop

of artists--

unless one should scour the world--

you have the ground sense necessary.

Book of Poems Al Que Quiere! (1917) "Tract"

Minds like beds always made up,

(more stony than a shore)

unwilling or unable.

Paterson (1946) bk. 1, preface

so much depends

upon

a red wheel

barrow

glazed with rain

water

beside the white

chickens.

Spring and All (1923) "The Red Wheelbarrow"

Is it any better in Heaven, my friend Ford,

Than you found it in Provence?

The Wedge (1944) "To Ford Madox Ford in Heaven"

23.52 Ted Willis (Edward Henry Willis, Baron Willis of Chislehurst) =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1918-

Evening, all.

Opening words spoken by Jack Warner as Sergeant Dixon in Dixon of Dock

Green (BBC television series, 1956-76)

23.53 Wendell Willkie =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1892-1944

The constitution does not provide for first and second class citizens.

An American Programme (1944) ch. 2

Freedom is an indivisible word. If we want to enjoy it, and fight for it,

we must be prepared to extend it to everyone, whether they are rich or

poor, whether they agree with us or not, no matter what their race or the

colour of their skin.

One World (1943) ch. 13

23.54 Angus Wilson =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1913-

"God knows how you Protestants can be expected to have any sense of

direction," she said. "It's different with us, I haven't been to mass for

years, I've got every mortal sin on my conscience, but I know when I'm

doing wrong. I'm still a Catholic, it's there, nothing can take it away

from me." "Of course, duckie," said Jeremy..."once a Catholic always

a Catholic."

The Wrong Set (1949) p. 168. Cf. Mary O'Malley

23.55 Charles E. Wilson =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1890-1961

For years I thought what was good for our country was good for General

Motors and vice versa. The difference did not exist. Our company is too

big. It goes with the welfare of the country. Our contribution to the

nation is quite considerable.

Testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee on his proposed

nomination to be Secretary of Defence, 15 Jan. 1953, in New York Times

24 Feb. 1953, p. 8

23.56 Edmund Wilson =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1895-1972

Of all the great Victorian writers, he [Dickens] was probably the most

antagonistic to the Victorian age itself.

The Wound and the Bow (1941) "Dickens: the Two Scrooges"

23.57 Harold Wilson (Baron Wilson of Rievaulx) =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1916-

Traders and financiers all over the world had been listening to the

Chancellor. For months he had said that if he could not stop the wage

claims, the country was "facing disaster."... Rightly or wrongly these

people believed him. For them, 5th September--the day that the Trades

Union Congress unanimously rejected the policy of wage restraint--marked

the end of an era. And all these financiers, all the little gnomes in

Zurich and the other financial centres about whom we keep on hearing,

started to make their dispositions in regard to sterling.

Hansard 12 Nov. 1956, col. 578

The Smethwick Conservatives can have the satisfaction of having topped the

poll, and of having sent here as their Member one who, until a further

General Election restores him to oblivion, will serve his term here as

a Parliamentary leper.

Hansard 3 Nov. 1964, col. 71

My hon. Friends know that if one buys land on which there is a slag heap

120 ft. high and it costs �100,000 to remove that slag, that is not land

speculation in the sense that we condemn it. It is land reclamation.

Hansard 4 Apr. 1974, col. 1441

If I had the choice between smoked salmon and tinned salmon, I'd have it

tinned. With vinegar.

In Observer 11 Nov. 1962

The Monarchy is a labour-intensive industry.

In Observer 13 Feb. 1977

Harold Wilson...was unable to remember when he first uttered his dictum to

the effect that: A week is a long time in politics. Inquiries among

political journalists led to the conclusion that in its present form the

phrase was probably first uttered at a meeting between Wilson and the

Parliamentary lobby in the wake of the Sterling crisis shortly after he

first took office as Prime Minister in 1964. However, Robert

Carvel...recalled Wilson at a Labour Party conference in 1960 saying

"Forty-eight hours is a long time in politics."

Nigel Rees Sayings of the Century (1984) p. 149

This party [the Labour Party] is a moral crusade or it is nothing.

Speech at Labour Party Conference 1 Oct. 1962, in The Times 2 Oct. 1962

The Prime Ministers [at the Lagos Conference, 9-12 Jan. 1966] noted the

statement by the British Prime Minister that on the expert advice

available to him the cumulative effects of the economic and financial

sanctions might well bring the rebellion to an end within a matter of

weeks rather than months.

The Times 13 Jan. 1966

From now the pound abroad is worth 14 per cent or so less in terms of

other currencies. It does not mean, of course, that the pound here in

Britain, in your pocket or purse or in your bank, has been devalued.

Ministerial broadcast, 19 Nov. 1967, in The Times 20 Nov. 1967

Everyone wanted more wage increases, he [Mr Wilson] said, believing that

prices would remain stable; but one man's wage increase was another man's

price increase.

Speech at Blackburn, 8 Jan. 1970, in The Times 9 Jan. 1970

23.58 McLandburgh Wilson =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1892-

'Twixt the optimist and pessimist

The difference is droll:

The optimist sees the doughnut

But the pessimist sees the hole.

Optimist and Pessimist

23.59 Sandy Wilson =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1924-

It's never too late to have a fling,

For Autumn is just as nice as Spring,

And it's never too late to fall in love.

It's Never too Late to Fall in Love (1953 song)

23.60 Woodrow Wilson =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1856-1924

It must be a peace without victory.... Only a peace between equals can

last. Only a peace the very principle of which is equality and a common

participation in a common benefit.

Speech to US Senate, 22 Jan. 1917, in Messages and Papers (1924) vol. 1,

p. 352

Sometimes people call me an idealist. Well, that is the way I know I am

an American. America, my fellow citizens--I do not say it in

disaparagement of any other great people--America is the only idealistic

Nation in the world.

Speech at Sioux Falls, South Dakota, 8 Sept. 1919, in Messages and Papers

(1924) vol. 2, p. 822

Once lead this people into war and they will forget there ever was such

a thing as tolerance.

In John Dos Passos Mr Wilson's War (1917) pt. 3, ch. 12

We have stood apart, studiously neutral.

Speech to Congress, 7 Dec. 1915, in New York Times 8 Dec. 1915, p. 4

America can not be an ostrich with its head in the sand.

Speech at Des Moines, 1 Feb. 1916, in New York Times 2 Feb. 1916, p. 1

A little group of wilful men representing no opinion but their own, have

rendered the Great Government of the United States helpless and

contemptible.

Statement, 4 Mar. 1917, after a successful filibuster against Wilson's

bill to arm American merchant ships, in New York Times 5 Mar. 1917, p. 1

Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come from

the subjects of government. The history of liberty is the history of

resistance. The history of liberty is a history of the limitation of

governmental power, not the increase of it.

Speech to New York Press Club in New York, 9 Sept. 1912, in Papers of

Woodrow Wilson (1978) vol. 25, p. 124

No nation is fit to sit in judgement upon any other nation.

Speech in New York, 20 Apr. 1915, in Selected Addresses (1918) p. 79

There is such a thing as a man being too proud to fight; there is such

a thing as a nation being so right that it does not need to convince

others by force that it is right.

Speech in Philadelphia, 10 May 1915, in Selected Addresses (1918) p. 88

Armed neutrality is ineffectual enough at best.

Speech to Congress, 2 Apr. 1917, in Selected Addresses (1918) p. 190

The world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted upon

the tested foundations of political liberty.

Speech to Congress, 2 Apr. 1917, in Selected Addresses (1918) p. 195

The right is more precious than peace.

Speech to Congress, 2 Apr. 1917, in Selected Addresses (1918) p. 197

The programme of the world's peace...is this:

1. Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after which there shall

be no private international understandings of any kind but diplomacy shall

proceed always frankly and in the public view.

Speech to Congress, 8 Jan. 1918, in Selected Addresses (1918) p. 247

23.61 Robb Wilton =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1881-1957

The day war broke out.

Catch-phrase, from circa 1940

23.62 Arthur Wimperis =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1874-1953

I've gotter motter

Always merry and bright!

Look around and you will find

Every cloud is silver-lined;

The sun will shine

Altho' the sky's a grey one;

I've often said to meself, I've said,

"Cheer up, curly you'll soon be dead!

A short life and a gay one!"

My Motter (1909 song; music by Lionel Monckton and Howard Talbot)

23.63 Owen Wister =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1860-1938

Therefore Trampas spoke. "You bet, you son-of-a--" The Virginian's pistol

came out, and...he issued his orders to the man Trampas:--"When you call

me that, smile!"

The Virginian (1902) ch. 2

23.64 Ludwig Wittgenstein =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1889-1951

G�be es ein Verbum mit der Bedeutung "f�lschlich glamben," so h�tte das

heine sinnvolle erste Person im Indikatir des Pr�sens.

If there were a verb meaning "to behave falsely," it would not have any

significant first person, present indicative.

Philosophical Investigations (1953) pt. 2, sec. 10

Was sich �berhaupt sagen l�sst, l�sst sich klar sagen; und wovon man nicht

reden kann, dar�ber muss man schweigen.

What can be said at all can be said clearly; and whereof one cannot speak

thereof one must be silent.

Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1922) preface

Die Welt ist alles, was der Fall ist.

The world is everything that is the case.

Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1922) p. 30

Die Logik muss f�r sich selber sorgen.

Logic must take care of itself.

Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1922) p. 126

Die Grenzen meiner Sprache bedeuten die Grenzen meiner Welt.

The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.

Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1922) p. 148

Die Welt des Gl�cklichen ist eine andere als die des Ungl�cklichen.

The world of the happy is quite different from that of the unhappy.

Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1922) p. 184

23.65 P. G. Wodehouse =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1881-1975

Chumps always make the best husbands. When you marry, Sally, grab

a chump. Tap his forehead first, and if it rings solid, don't hesitate.

All the unhappy marriages come from the husbands having brains. What good

are brains to a man? They only unsettle him.