The Oxford dictionary of modern quotations (55 page)

1937-

Lead me from death to life, from falsehood to truth.

Lead me from despair to hope, from fear to trust.

Lead me from hate to love, from war to peace.

Let peace fill our heart, our world, our universe.

Prayer for Peace (1981; adapted from the Upanishads)

12.0 L =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

12.1 Henry Labouchere =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1831-1912

Mr Labouchere's jest about Mr Gladstone laying upon Providence the

responsibility of always placing the ace of trumps up his sleeve was a

good one. In one of his private letters I find the quip worded a little

more pungently. "Who cannot refrain," he says, referring to the then Prime

Minister, "from perpetually bringing an ace down his sleeve, even when he

has only to play fair to win the trick."

A. L. Thorold Life of Henry Labouchere (1913) ch. 15. Cf. Earl Curzon's

Modern Parliamentary Eloquence (1913) p. 25 "I recall a phrase of that

incorrigible cynic Labouchere, alluding to Mr Gladstone's frequent appeals

to a higher power, that he did not object to the old man always having a

card up his sleeve, but he did object to his insinuating that the Almighty

had placed it there."

12.2 Fiorello La Guardia =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1882-1947

When I make a mistake, it's a beaut!

In William Manners Patience and Fortitude (1976) p. 219 (on the

appointment of Herbert O'Brien as a judge in 1936)

12.3 R. D. Laing =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1927-1989

Schizophrenia cannot be understood without understanding despair.

The Divided Self (1960) ch. 2

Few books today are forgivable.

Politics of Experience (1967) introduction

We are effectively destroying ourselves by violence masquerading as love.

Politics of Experience (1967) ch. 3

The brotherhood of man is evoked by particular men according to their

circumstances. But it seldom extends to all men. In the name of our

freedom and our brotherhood we are prepared to blow up the other half of

mankind and to be blown up in turn.

Politics of Experience (1967) ch. 4

Madness need not be all breakdown. It may also be break-through. It is

potential liberation and renewal as well as enslavement and existential

death.

Politics of Experience (1967) ch. 6

The experience and behaviour that gets labelled schizophrenic is a special

strategy that a person invents in order to live in an unlivable situation.

Politics of Experience (1967) ch. 5

12.4 Arthur J. Lamb =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1870-1928

She's a bird in a gilded cage.

Title of song (1900; music by Harry von Tilzer)

12.5 Constant Lambert =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1905-1951

To put it vulgarly, the whole trouble with a folk song is that once you

have played it through there is nothing much you can do except play it

over again and play it rather louder.

Music Ho! (1934) ch. 3

The average English critic is a don manqu�, hopelessly parochial when not

exaggeratedly teutonophile, over whose desk must surely hang the motto

(presumably in Gothic lettering) "Above all no enthusiasm."

Opera Dec. 1950

12.6 Giuseppe di Lampedusa =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1896-1957

Se vogliamo che tutto rimanga come �, bisogna che tutto cambi.

If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change.

Il Gattopardo (The Leopard, 1957) p. 33

12.7 Sir Osbert Lancaster =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1908-1986

Today, when the passer-by is a little unnerved at being suddenly

confronted with a hundred and fifty accurate reproductions of Anne

Hathaway's cottage, each complete with central heating and garage, he

should pause to reflect on the extraordinary fact that all over the

country the latest and most scientific methods of mass-production are

being utilized to turn out a stream of old oak beams, leaded window-panes

and small discs of bottle-glass, all structural devices which our

ancestors lost no time in abandoning as soon as an increase in wealth and

knowledge enabled them to do so.

Pillar to Post (1938) "Stockbroker's Tudor"

12.8 Bert Lance =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1931-

Bert Lance believes he can save Uncle Sam billions if he can get the

government to adopt a single motto: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." He

explains: "That's the trouble with government: Fixing things that aren't

broken and not fixing things that are broken."

Nation's Business 27 May 1977

12.9 Andrew Lang =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1844-1912

St Andrews by the Northern sea,

A haunted town it is to me!

Ballades and Verses Vain (1884) p. 79

They hear like ocean on a western beach

The surge and thunder of the Odyssey.

Poetical Works (1923) vol. 2, "The Odyssey"

If the wild bowler thinks he bowls,

Or if the batsman thinks he's bowled,

They know not, poor misguided souls,

They too shall perish unconsoled.

I am the batsman and the bat,

I am the bowler and the ball,

The umpire, the pavilion cat,

The roller, pitch, and stumps, and all.

Poetical Works (1923) vol. 2, "Brahma" (a parody of Emerson--see Oxford

Dictionary of Quotations (1979) 206:17)

12.10 Julia Lang =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1921-

Are you sitting comfortably? Then we'll begin.

Introduction to stories on Listen with Mother, BBC Radio programme,

1950-1982 (sometimes "Then I'll begin")

12.11 Suzanne K. Langer =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1895-1985

Art is the objectification of feeling, and the subjectification of nature.

Mind (1967) vol. 1, pt. 2, ch. 4

12.12 Ring Lardner =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1885-1933

Are you lost daddy I arsked tenderly.

Shut up he explained.

The Young Immigrunts (1920) ch. 10

12.13 Philip Larkin =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1922-1985

Rather than words comes the thought of high windows:

The sun-comprehending glass,

And beyond it, the deep blue air, that shows

Nothing, and is nowhere, and is endless.

High Windows (1974) "High Windows"

Perhaps being old is having lighted rooms

Inside your head, and people in them, acting.

People you know, yet can't quite name.

High Windows (1974) "The Old Fools"

Next year we are to bring the soldiers home

For lack of money, and it is all right.

Places they guarded, or kept orderly,

Must guard themselves, and keep themselves orderly.

High Windows (1974) "Homage to a Government"

Next year we shall be living in a country

That brought its soldiers home for lack of money.

The statues will be standing in the same

Tree-muffled squares, and look nearly the same.

Our children will not know it's a different country.

All we can hope to leave them now is money.

High Windows (1974) "Homage to a Government"

They fuck you up, your mum and dad.

They may not mean to, but they do.

They fill you with the faults they had

And add some extra, just for you.

High Windows (1974) "This Be The Verse"

Man hands on misery to man.

It deepens like a coastal shelf.

Get out as early as you can,

And don't have any kids yourself.

High Windows (1974) "This Be The Verse"

Sexual intercourse began

In nineteen sixty-three

(Which was rather late for me)--

Between the end of the Chatterley ban

And the Beatles' first LP.

High Windows (1974) "Annus Mirabilis"

Hatless, I take off

My cycle-clips in awkward reverence.

The Less Deceived (1955) "Church Going"

A serious house on serious earth it is,

In whose blent air all our compulsions meet,

Are recognised, and robed as destinies.

The Less Deceived (1955) "Church Going"

Why should I let the toad work

Squat on my life?

Can't I use my wit as a pitchfork

And drive the brute off?

Six days of the week it soils

With its sickening poison--

Just for paying a few bills!

That's out of proportion.

The Less Deceived (1955) "Toads"

Nothing, like something, happens anywhere.

The Less Deceived (1955) "I Remember, I Remember"

Far too many [of the books entered for the 1977 Booker Prize] relied on

the classic formula of a beginning, a muddle, and an end.

New Fiction no. 15, Jan. 1978

Deprivation is for me what daffodils were for Wordsworth.

Reply to question "Do you think people go around feeling they haven't got

out of life what life has to offer?"- Required Writing (1983) p. 47

Give me your arm, old toad;

Help me down Cemetery Road.

The Whitsun Weddings (1964) "Toads Revisited"

I thought of London spread out in the sun,

Its postal districts packed like squares of wheat.

The Whitsun Weddings (1964) "The Whitsun Weddings"

What are days for?

Days are where we live.

They come, they wake us

Time and time over.

They are to be happy in:

Where can we live but days?

The Whitsun Weddings (1964) "Days"

Never such innocence,

Never before or since,

As changed itself to past

Without a word--the men

Leaving the gardens tidy,

The thousands of marriages

Lasting a little while longer:

Never such innocence again.

The Whitsun Weddings (1964) "MCMXIV"

Don't read too much now: the dude

Who lets the girl down before

The hero arrives, the chap

Who's yellow and keeps the store,

Seem far too familiar. Get stewed:

Books are a load of crap.

The Whitsun Weddings (1964) "Study of Reading Habits"

Life is first boredom, then fear.

Whether or not we use it, it goes,

And leaves what something hidden from us chose,

And age, and then the only end of age.

The Whitsun Weddings (1964) "Dockery & Son"

Time has transfigured them into

Untruth. The stone fidelity

They hardly meant has come to be

Their final blazon, and to prove

Our almost-instinct almost true:

What will survive of us is love.

The Whitsun Weddings (1964) "An Arundel Tomb"

12.14 Sir Harry Lauder =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1870-1950

Keep right on to the end of the road,

Keep right on to the end.

Tho' the way be long, let your heart be strong,

Keep right on round the bend.

Tho' you're tired and weary,

Still journey on

Till you come to your happy abode,

Where all you love you've been dreaming of

Will be there at the end of the road.

The End of the Road (1924 song)

I love a lassie, a bonnie, bonnie lassie,

She's as pure as the lily in the dell.

She's as sweet as the heather, the bonnie bloomin' heather--

Mary, ma Scotch Bluebell.

I Love a Lassie (1905 song)

It's nice to get up in the mornin' (but it's nicer to lie in bed).

Title of song (1913)

Roamin' in the gloamin',

On the bonnie banks o' Clyde.

Roamin' in the gloamin'

Wae my lassie by my side.

Roamin' in the Gloamin' (1911 song)

12.15 Stan Laurel (Arthur Stanley Jefferson) =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1890-1965

Well, here's another nice mess you've gotten me into.

Another Fine Mess (1930 film; words spoken by Oliver Hardy in many Laurel

and Hardy films: often "another fine mess")

Why don't you do something to help me?

Drivers' Licence Sketch (1947), in J. McCabe Comedy World of Stan Laurel

(1974) p. 107 (words spoken by Oliver Hardy)

12.16 James Laver =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1899-1975

The same costume will be

Indecent ... 10 years before its time

Shameless ... 5 years before its time

Outr� (daring) ... 1 year before its time

Smart

Dowdy ... 1 year after its time

Hideous ... 10 years after its time

Ridiculous ... 20 years after its time

Amusing ... 30 years after its time

Quaint ... 50 years after its time

Charming ... 70 years after its time

Romantic ... 100 years after its time

Beautiful ... 150 years after its time

Taste and Fashion (1937) ch. 18

12.17 Andrew Bonar Law =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1858-1923

See Bonar Law (2.100)

12.18 D. H. Lawrence =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-