The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (358 page)

Putnam, Israel
1718–90

1
Don't one of you fire until you see the white of their eyes.
also attributed to William Prescott (1726–95)

at Bunker Hill, 1775, in R. Frothingham
History of the Siege of Boston
(1873) ch. 5

 
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Puzo, Mario
1920–99

1
I'll make him an offer he can't refuse.

The Godfather
(1969) ch. 1

2
A lawyer with his briefcase can steal more than a hundred men with guns.

The Godfather
(1969) ch. 1

 
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Pyrrhus
319
bc

1
One more such victory and we are lost.
on defeating the Romans at Asculum, 279
bc

Plutarch
Parallel Lives
"Pyrrhus" ch. 21, sect. 9

 
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Quant, Mary
1934–

1
Being young is greatly overestimated…Any failure seems so total. Later on you realize you can have another go.

interview in
Observer
5 May 1996

 
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Quarles, Francis
1592–1644

1
Our God and soldiers we alike adore
Ev'n at the brink of danger; not before:
After deliverance, both alike requited,
Our God's forgotten, and our soldiers slighted.

Divine Fancies
(1632) "Of Common Devotion".

2
We spend our midday sweat, our midnight oil;
We tire the night in thought, the day in toil.

Emblems
(1635) bk. 2, no. 2, l. 33

3
Man is man's A.B.C. There is none that can
Read God aright, unless he first spell Man.

Hieroglyphics of the Life of Man
(1638) no. 1, l. 1

4
We'll cry both arts and learning down,
And hey! then up go we!

The Shepherd's Oracles
(1646) Eclogue 11 "Song of Anarchus"

 
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Quiller-Couch, Arthur
(
"Q"
) 1863–1944

1
The best is the best, though a hundred judges have declared it so.

Oxford Book of English Verse
(1900) preface

2
All the old statues of Victory have wings: but Grief has no wings. She is the unwelcome lodger that squats on the hearthstone between us and the fire and will not move or be dislodged.

Armistice Day anniversary sermon, Cambridge, November 1923

 
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