The Oxford dictionary of modern quotations (42 page)

8.5 Sir William Haley =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1901-

It is a moral issue.

Heading of leading article on the Profumo affair, in The Times 11 June

1963

8.6 Henry Hall =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1899-1989

This is Henry Hall speaking, and tonight is my guest night.

Catch-phrase on BBC Radio's Guest Night from 1934 (see Henry Hall's Here's

to the Next Time (1955) ch. 11)

8.7 Sir Peter Hall =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1930-

Sir Peter [Hall] has always maintained that, although nobody appeared to

want a National Theatre when it was first promulgated, the public has

consistently supported it with cash at the box office--with "bottoms on

seats" to use his own earthy phrase.

Spectator 10 May 1980 (the phrase is often "bums on seats")

8.8 Margaret Halsey =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1910-

Englishwomen's shoes look as if they had been made by someone who had

often heard shoes described but had never seen any.

With Malice Toward Some (1938) pt. 2, p. 107

Towards people with whom they disagree the English gentry, or at any rate

that small cross section of them which I have seen, are tranquilly

good-natured. It is not comme il faut to establish the supremacy of an

idea by smashing in the faces of all the people who try to contradict it.

The English never smash in a face. They merely refrain from asking it to

dinner.

With Malice Toward Some (1938) pt. 3, p. 208

8.9 Oscar Hammerstein II =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1895-1960

Climb ev'ry mountain, ford ev'ry stream

Follow ev'ry rainbow, till you find your dream!

Climb Ev'ry Mountain (1959 song; music by Richard Rodgers)

June is bustin' out all over.

Title of song (1945; music by Richard Rodgers)

The last time I saw Paris

Her heart was warm and gay,

I heard the laughter of her heart in ev'ry street caf�.

The Last Time I saw Paris (1940 song; music by Jerome Kern)

The corn is as high as an elephant's eye,

An' it looks like it's climbin' clear up to the sky.

Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin' (1943 song; music by Richard Rodgers)

Oh, what a beautiful mornin',

Oh, what a beautiful day!

I got a beautiful feelin'

Ev'rything's goin' my way.

Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin' (1943 song; music by Richard Rodgers)

Ol' man river, dat ol' man river,

He must know sumpin', but don't say nothin',

He just keeps rollin',

He keeps on rollin' along.

Ol' Man River (1927 song; music by Jerome Kern)

Some enchanted evening,

You may see a stranger,

You may see a stranger,

Across a crowded room.

Some Enchanted Evening (1949 song; music by Richard Rodgers)

The hills are alive with the sound of music,

With songs they have sung for a thousand years.

The hills fill my heart with the sound of music,

My heart wants to sing ev'ry song it hears.

The Sound of Music (1959 song; music by Richard Rodgers)

There is nothin' like a dame.

Title of song (1949; music by Richard Rodgers)

You'll never walk alone.

Title of song (1945; music by Richard Rodgers)

8.10 Christopher Hampton =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1946-

Masturbation is the thinking man's television.

Philanthropist (1970) act. 1, sc. 3

If I had to give a definition of capitalism I would say: the process

whereby American girls turn into American women.

Savages (1974) sc. 16

8.11 Learned Hand =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1872-1961

A self-made man may prefer a self-made name.

In Bosley Crowther Lion's Share (1957) ch. 7 (referring to Samuel Goldfish

changing his name to Samuel Goldwyn)

8.12 Minnie Hanff =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1880-1942

High o'er the fence leaps Sunny Jim

"Force" is the food that raises him.

Advertising slogan (1903)

8.13 Brian Hanrahan =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1949-

I'm not allowed to say how many planes joined the raid [on Port Stanley in

the Falkland Islands] but I counted them all out and I counted them all

back.

Report broadcast by BBC, 1 May 1982, in Battle for the Falklands (1982)

p. 21

8.14 Otto Harbach =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1873-1963

When a lovely flame dies,

Smoke gets in your eyes.

Smoke Gets in your Eyes (1933 song; music by Jerome Kern)

8.15 E. Y. 'Yip' Harburg =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1898-1981

Once I built a railroad. Now it's done--

Brother can you spare a dime?

Brother Can You Spare a Dime? (1932 song; music by Jay Gorney)

Somewhere over the rainbow

Way up high,

There's a land that I heard of

Once in a lullaby.

Over the Rainbow (1939 song; music by Harold Arlen)

When I'm not near the girl I love,

I love the girl I'm near.

When I'm Not Near the Girl I Love (1947 song; music by Burton Lane)

8.16 Gilbert Harding =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1907-1960

Before he [Gilbert Harding] could go to New York he had to get a US visa

at the American consulate in Toronto. He was called upon to fill in a long

form with many questions, including "Is it your intention to overthrow the

Government of the United States by force?" By the time Harding got to that

one he was so irritated that he answered: "Sole purpose of visit."

W. Reyburn Gilbert Harding (1978) ch. 2

If, sir, I possessed, as you suggest, the power of conveying unlimited

sexual attraction through the potency of my voice, I would not be reduced

to accepting a miserable pittance from the BBC for interviewing a faded

female in a damp basement.

In S. Grenfell Gilbert Harding by his Friends (1961) p. 118 (reply to Mae

West's manager who asked "Can't you sound a bit more sexy when you

interview her?")

8.17 Warren G. Harding =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1865-1923

America's present need is not heroics, but healing; not nostrums but

normalcy; not revolution, but restoration.

Speech at Boston, 14 May 1920, in Frederick E. Schortemeier Rededicating

America (1920) ch. 17

8.18 Godfrey Harold Hardy =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1877-1947

Beauty is the first test: there is no permanent place in the world for

ugly mathematics.

A Mathematician's Apology (1940) p. 25

8.19 Thomas Hardy =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1840-1928

A local thing called Christianity.

Dynasts (1904) pt. 1, act 1, sc. 6

My argument is that War makes rattling good history; but Peace is poor

reading.

Dynasts (1904) pt. 1, act 2, sc. 5

A lover without indiscretion is no lover at all.

Hand of Ethelberta (1876) ch. 20

A piece of paper was found upon the floor, on which was written, in the

boy's hand, with the bit of lead pencil that he carried: "Done because we

are too menny."

Jude the Obscure (1896) pt. 6, ch. 2

The bower we shrined to Tennyson,

Gentlemen,

Is roof-wrecked; damps there drip upon

Sagged seats, the creeper-nails are rust,

The spider is sole denizen;

Even she who voiced those rhymes is dust,

Gentlemen!

Late Lyrics and Earlier (1922) "An Ancient to Ancients"

This is the weather the cuckoo likes,

And so do I;

When showers betumble the chestnut spikes,

And nestlings fly:

And the little brown nightingale bills his best,

And they sit outside at "The Travellers' Rest,"

And maids come forth sprig-muslin drest,

And citizens dream of the south and west,

And so do I.

Late Lyrics and Earlier (1922) "Weathers"

And meadow rivulets overflow,

And drops on gate-bars hang in a row,

And rooks in families homeward go,

And so do I.

Late Lyrics and Earlier (1922) "Weathers"

Life's little ironies.

Title of book (1894)

"Well, poor soul; she's helpless to hinder that or anything now," answered

Mother Cuxsom. "And all her shining keys will be took from her, and her

cupboards opened; and things a' didn't wish seen, anybody will see; and

her little wishes and ways will all be as nothing!"

Mayor of Casterbridge (1886) ch. 18

One grievous failing of Elizabeth's was her occasional pretty and

picturesque use of dialect words--those terrible marks of the beast to the

truly genteel.

Mayor of Casterbridge (1886) ch. 20

I am the family face;

Flesh perishes, I live on,

Projecting trait and trace

Through time to times anon,

And leaping from place to place

Over oblivion.

Moments of Vision (1917) "Heredity"

In the third-class seat sat the journeying boy

And the roof-lamp's oily flame

Played down on his listless form and face,

Bewrapt past knowing to what he was going,

Or whence he came.

Moments of Vision (1917) "Midnight on the Great Western"

Only a man harrowing clods

In a slow silent walk

With an old horse that stumbles and nods

Half asleep as they stalk.

Only thin smoke without flame

From the heaps of couch-grass;

Yet this will go onward the same

Though Dynasties pass.

Yonder a maid and her wight

Come whispering by:

War's annals will cloud into night

Ere their story die.

Moments of Vision (1917) "In Time of 'The Breaking of Nations'"

When the Present has latched its postern behind my tremulous stay,

And the May month flaps its glad green leaves like wings,

Delicate-filmed as new-spun silk, will the neighbours say,

"He was a man who used to notice such things"?

Moments of Vision (1917) "Afterwards"

At once a voice outburst among

The bleak twigs overhead

In a full-hearted evensong

Of joy illimited;

An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,

In blast-beruffled plume,

Had chosen thus to fling his soul

Upon the growing gloom.

So little cause for carollings

Of such ecstatic sound

Was written on terrestrial things

Afar or nigh around,

That I could think there trembled through

His happy good-night air

Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew

And I was unaware.

Poems of Past and Present (1902) "Darkling Thrush"

If way to the Better there be, it exacts a full look at the worst.

Poems of Past and Present (1902) "De Profundis"

In a solitude of the sea

Deep from human vanity,

And the Pride of Life that planned her, stilly couches she.

Steel chambers, late the pyres

Of her salamandrine fires,

Cold currents thrid, and turn to rhythmic tidal lyres.

Over the mirrors meant

To glass the opulent

The sea-worm crawls--grotesque, slimed, dumb, indifferent.

Satires of Circumstance (1914) "Convergence of the Twain"

The Immanent Will that stirs and urges everything.

Satires of Circumstance (1914) "Convergence of the Twain"

When I set out for Lyonnesse,

A hundred miles away,

The rime was on the spray,

And starlight lit my lonesomeness

When I set out for Lyonnesse

A hundred miles away.

Satires of Circumstance (1914) p. 20

What of the faith and fire within us

Men who march away

Ere the barn-cocks say

Night is growing grey,

To hazards whence no tears can win us;

What of the faith and fire within us

Men who march away?

Satires of Circumstance (1914) "Men Who March Away"

"Justice" was done, and the President of the Immortals (in Aeschylean

phrase) had ended his sport with Tess.

Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1891) ch. 59

Let me enjoy the earth no less

Because the all-enacting Might

That fashioned forth its loveliness

Had other aims than my delight.

Time's Laughing Stocks (1909) "Let me Enjoy"

Yes; quaint and curious war is!

You shoot a fellow down

You'd treat if met where any bar is,

Or help to half-a-crown.

Time's Laughing Stocks (1909) "Man he Killed"

Good, but not religious-good.

Under the Greenwood Tree (1872) ch. 2

Well, World, you have kept faith with me,

Kept faith with me;

Upon the whole you have proved to be

Much as you said you were.

Winter Words (1928) "He Never Expected Much"

"Peace upon earth!" was said. We sing it,

And pay a million priests to bring it.

After two thousand years of mass

We've got as far as poison-gas.