The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (468 page)

Woodrooffe, Thomas
1899–1978

1
At the present moment, the whole Fleet's lit up. When I say "lit up", I mean lit up by fairy lamps.
live outside broadcast, Spithead Review, 20 May 1937

Asa Briggs
History of Broadcasting in the UK
(1965) vol. 2

 
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1
Oh we ain't got a barrel of money,
Maybe we're ragged and funny,
But we'll travel along
Singin' a song,
Side by side.

"Side by Side" (1927 song)

 
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Woolf, Virginia
1882–1941

1
Examine for a moment an ordinary mind on an ordinary day.

The Common Reader
(1925) "Modern Fiction"

2
A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.

A Room of One's Own
(1929) ch. 1

3
This is an important book, the critic assumes, because it deals with war. This is an insignificant book because it deals with the feelings of women in a drawing-room.

A Room of One's Own
(1929) ch. 4

4
The scratching of pimples on the body of the bootboy at Claridges.
of James Joyce's Ulysses

letter to Lytton Strachey, 24 April 1922

5
I read the book of Job last night. I don't think God comes well out of it.

letter to Lady Robert Cecil, 12 November 1922

6
As an experience, madness is terrific…and in its lava I still find most of the things I write about.

letter to Ethel Smyth, 22 June 1930

 
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Woollcott, Alexander
1887–1943

1
She was like a sinking ship firing on the rescuers.
of Mrs Patrick Campbell

While Rome Burns
(1944) "The First Mrs Tanqueray"

2
All the things I really like to do are either illegal, immoral, or fattening.

R. E. Drennan
Wit's End
(1973)

 
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Wordsworth, Dorothy
1771–1855

1
A beautiful evening, very starry, the horned moon.

"Alfoxden Journal" 23 March 1798.

2
I never saw daffodils so beautiful. They grew among the mossy stones about and about them; some rested their heads upon these stones as on a pillow for weariness; and the rest tossed and reeled and danced, and seemed as if they verily laughed with the wind that blew upon them over the lake.

"Grasmere Journal" 15 April 1802.

 
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Wordsworth, Elizabeth
1840–1932

1
If all the good people were clever,
And all clever people were good,
The world would be nicer than ever
We thought that it possibly could.
But somehow, 'tis seldom or never
The two hit it off as they should;
The good are so harsh to the clever,
The clever so rude to the good!

"Good and Clever"

 
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