The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (364 page)

BOOK: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
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Reynolds, Frederic
1764–1841
1
It is better to have written a damned play, than no play at all—it snatches a man from obscurity.

The Dramatist
(1789) act 1, sc. 1

Reynolds, Joshua
1723–92
1
If you have great talents, industry will improve them: if you have but moderate abilities, industry will supply their deficiency.

Discourses on Art
(ed. R. Wark, 1975) no. 2 (11 December 1769)

2
Genius…is the child of imitation.

Discourses on Art
(ed. R. Wark, 1975) no. 6 (10 December 1774)

Reynolds, Malvina
1900–78
1
Little boxes on the hillside…
And they're all made out of ticky-tacky
And they all look just the same.
on the tract houses in the hills to the south of San Francisco

"Little Boxes" (1962 song)

Rhodes, Cecil
1853–1902
1
Ask any man what nationality he would prefer to be, and ninety-nine out of a hundred will tell you that they would prefer to be Englishmen.

Gordon Le Sueur
Cecil Rhodes
(1913)

2
So little done, so much to do.
on the day of his death

Lewis Michell
Life of Rhodes
(1910) vol. 2, ch. 39.

Rhys, Jean
c.
1890–1979
1
The perpetual hunger to be beautiful and that thirst to be loved which is the real curse of Eve.

The Left Bank
(1927) "Illusion"

2
Love was a terrible thing. You poisoned it and stabbed at it and knocked it down into the mud—well down—and it got up and staggered on, bleeding and muddy and awful. Like—like Rasputin.

Quartet
(1928)

3
A doormat in a world of boots.
describing herself

in
Guardian
6 December 1990

Ricardo, David
1772–1823
1
Rent is that portion of the earth, which is paid to the landlord for the use of the original and indestructible powers of the soil.

On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation
(1817) ch. 2

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