The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (17 page)

Aristophanes
c.
450
bc

1
How about "Cloudcuckooland"?
naming the capital city of the Birds

The Birds
(414
bc
) l. 819

2
This Second Logic then, I mean the Worse one,
They teach to talk unjustly, and—prevail.

The Clouds
(423
bc
) l. 113.

3
The old are in a second childhood.

The Clouds
(423
bc
) l. 1417

4
Brekekekex koax koax.
cry of the Frogs

The Frogs
(405
bc
) l. 209 and
passim

5
Under every stone lurks a politician.

Thesmophoriazusae
l. 530

 
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Aristotle
384
bc

1
We make war that we may live in peace.

Nicomachean Ethics
bk. 10, 1177b 5–6 (tr M. Ostwald).

2
Tragedy is thus a representation of an action that is worth serious attention, complete in itself and of some amplitude…by means of pity and fear bringing about the purgation of such emotions.

Poetics
ch. 6, 1449b 24–8

3
A whole is that which has a beginning, a middle, and an end.

Poetics
ch. 7

4
Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities.

Poetics
ch. 24, 1460a 26–7

5
Man is by nature a political animal.

Politics
bk. 1, 1253a 2–3

6
He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god.

Politics
bk. 1, 1253a 27–9

7
Nature does nothing without purpose or uselessly.

Politics
bk. 1, 1256b 20–21

8
Amicus Plato, sed magis amica veritas.Plato is dear to me, but dearer still is truth.

Latin translation of a Greek original ascribed to Aristotle

9
When he was asked "What is a friend?" he said "One soul inhabiting two bodies."

Diogenes Laertius
Lives of Philosophers
bk. 5, sect. 20

 
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Armistead, Lewis Addison
1817–63

1
Give them the cold steel, boys!
during the American Civil War, 1863

attributed

 
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Armstrong, Harry
1879–1951

1
There's an old mill by the stream, Nellie Dean,
Where we used to sit and dream.

"Nellie Dean" (1905 song)

 
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Armstrong, John
1709–79

1
'Tis not for mortals always to be blest.

The Art of Preserving Health
(1744) bk. 4, l. 260

2
'Tis not too late tomorrow to be brave.

The Art of Preserving Health
(1744) bk. 4, l. 460

 
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Armstrong, Louis
1901–71

1
If you still have to ask…shame on you.
when asked what jazz is; sometimes quoted as, "Man, if you gotta ask you'll never know"

Max Jones et al.
Salute to Satchmo
(1970)

 
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