The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (106 page)
Read The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Online
Authors: Elizabeth Knowles
1802–68
Cotton is King; or, the economical relations of slavery.
title of book, 1855
(
Zhuangzi
)
c.
369
bc
Once I, Chang Chou, dreamed that I was a butterfly and was happy as a butterfly. I was conscious that I was quite pleased with myself but I did not know that I was Chou. Suddenly I awoke and there I was, visibly Chou. I do not know whether it was Chou dreaming that he was a butterfly or the butterfly dreaming that it was Chou.
Chuang Tzu
ch. 2.
1839–1906
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.
replying to a letter from eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon
editorial in New York
Sun
, 21 September 1897
1731–64
Be England what she will,
With all her faults, she is my country still.
The Farewell
(1764) l. 27.
Just to the windward of the law.
The Ghost
(1763) bk. 3, l. 56
Keep up appearances; there lies the test;
The world will give thee credit for the rest.
Night
(1761) l. 311
Apt Alliteration's artful aid.
The Prophecy of Famine
(1763) l. 86
1849–94
The forest laments in order that Mr Gladstone may perspire.
on Gladstone's hobby of felling trees
speech on Financial Reform, delivered in Blackpool, 24 January 1884
I decided some time ago that if the G. O. M. went for Home Rule, the Orange card would be the one to play. Please God it may turn out the ace of trumps and not the two.
"G. O. M." = Grand Old Man (Gladstone)
letter to Lord Justice FitzGibbon, 16 February 1886.
Ulster will fight; Ulster will be right.
public letter, 7 May 1886
An old man in a hurry.
on Gladstone
address to the electors of South Paddington, 19 June 1886
I never could make out what those damned dots [decimal points] meant.
W. S. Churchill
Lord Randolph Churchill
(1906) vol. 2
1874–1965
It cannot in the opinion of His Majesty's Government be classified as slavery in the extreme acceptance of the word without some risk of terminological inexactitude.
speech in the House of Commons, 22 February 1906
Business carried on as usual during alterations on the map of Europe.
on the self-adopted "motto" of the British people
speech at Guildhall, 9 November 1914
The whole map of Europe has been changed…but as the deluge subsides and the waters fall short we see the dreary steeples of Fermanagh and Tyrone emerging once again.
speech in the House of Commons, 16 February 1922
Anyone can rat, but it takes a certain amount of ingenuity to re-rat.
on rejoining the Conservatives twenty years after leaving them for the Liberals,
c.
1924
Kay Halle
Irrepressible Churchill
(1966)
I have waited 50 years to see the boneless wonder sitting on the Treasury Bench.
of Ramsay MacDonald
speech in the House of Commons, 28 January 1931
Dictators ride to and fro upon tigers which they dare not dismount. And the tigers are getting hungry.
letter, 11 November 1937
I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.
radio broadcast, 1 October 1939
I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.
speech in the House of Commons, 13 May 1940.
We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.
speech in the House of Commons, 4 June 1940
Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duty, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth lasts for a thousand years, men will still say, "This was their finest hour."
speech in the House of Commons, 18 June 1940
Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.
on the Battle of Britain
speech in the House of Commons, 20 August 1940
Give us the tools and we will finish the job.
radio broadcast, 9 February 1941
When I warned them [the French Government] that Britain would fight on alone whatever they did, their generals told their Prime Minister and his divided Cabinet, "In three weeks England will have her neck wrung like a chicken." Some chicken! Some neck!
speech to Canadian Parliament, 30 December 1941
Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.
on the Battle of Egypt
speech at the Mansion House, London, 10 November 1942
We make this wide encircling movement in the Mediterranean, having for its primary object the recovery of the command of that vital sea, but also having for its object the exposure of the underbelly of the Axis, especially Italy, to heavy attack.
often quoted as, "The soft underbelly of Europe"
speech in the House of Commons, 11 November 1942
There is no finer investment for any community than putting milk into babies.
radio broadcast, 21 March 1943
From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.
"iron curtain" previously had been applied by others to the Soviet Union or her sphere of influence, e.g. Ethel Snowden Through Bolshevik Russia (1920), Dr Goebbels Das Reich (25 February 1945), and by Churchill himself in a cable to President Truman (4 June 1945)
speech at Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri, 5 March 1946
Democracy is the worst form of Government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.
speech in the House of Commons, 11 November 1947
This is the sort of English up with which I will not put.
Ernest Gowers
Plain Words
(1948) "Troubles with Prepositions"
Naval tradition?. Monstrous. Nothing but rum, sodomy, prayers, and the lash.
often quoted as "rum, sodomy, and the lash", as in Peter Gretton Former Naval Person (1968)
Harold Nicolson, diary, 17 August 1950
To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war.
speech at White House, 26 June 1954
It was the nation and the race dwelling all round the globe that had the lion's heart. I had the luck to be called upon to give the roar.
speech at Westminster Hall, 30 November 1954
I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me.
Quentin Reynolds
By Quentin Reynolds
(1964) ch. 11
In defeat unbeatable: in victory unbearable.
of Lord Montgomery
Edward Marsh
Ambrosia and Small Beer
(1964) ch. 5
Like a powerful graceful cat walking delicately and unsoiled across a rather muddy street.
of Balfour's moving from Asquith's Cabinet to that of Lloyd George
Great Contemporaries
(1937)
of the career of Lord Curzon:
The morning had been golden; the noontide was bronze; and the evening lead. But all were solid, and each was polished till it shone after its fashion.
Great Contemporaries
(1937)
It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations.
My Early Life
(1930) ch. 9
In war: resolution. In defeat: defiance. In victory: magnanimity. In peace: goodwill.
The Second World War
vol. 1 (1948) epigraph, which according to Edward Marsh in
A Number of People
(1939), occurred to Churchill shortly after the conclusion of the First World War
Jellicoe was the only man on either side who could lose the war in an afternoon.
The World Crisis
(1927) pt. 1, ch. 5
The ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn't happen.
describing the qualifications desirable in a prospective politician
B. Adler
Churchill Wit
(1965)
I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.
attributed, in M. Gilbert
Never Despair
(1988)
nancy astor
: If I were your wife I would put poison in your coffee!
churchill
: And if I were your husband I would drink it.
Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan
Glitter and Gold
(1952)
A sheep in sheep's clothing.
of Clement Attlee
Lord Home
The Way the Wind Blows
(1976) ch. 6
