The Oxford dictionary of modern quotations (16 page)

establishment.

Forty Years On (1969) act 1

We started off trying to set up a small anarchist community, but people

wouldn't obey the rules.

Getting On (1972) act 1

One of the few lessons I have learned in life is that there is invariably

something odd about women who wear ankle socks.

Old Country (1978) act 1

We were put to Dickens as children but it never quite took. That

unremitting humanity soon had me cheesed off.

Old Country (1978) act 2

2.54 Arnold Bennett =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1867-1931

I place it upon record frankly--the Clayhanger trilogy is good....The

scene, for instance, where Darius Clayhanger dies that lingering death

could scarcely be bettered....And why?...Because I took infinite pains

over it. All the time my father was dying, I was at the bedside making

copious notes. You can't just slap these things down. You have to take

trouble.

Overheard conversation with Hugh Walpole circa 1926, in P. G. Wodehouse

and Guy Bolton Bring on the Girls (1954) ch. 15

His opinion of himself, having once risen, remained at "set fair."

The Card (1911) ch. 1

"Ye can call it influenza if ye like," said Mrs Machin. "There was no

influenza in my young days. We called a cold a cold."

The Card (1911) ch. 8

"And yet," demanded Councillor Barlow, "what's he done? Has he ever done

a day's work in his life? What great cause is he identified with?" "He's

identified," said the first speaker, "with the great cause of cheering us

all up."

The Card (1911) ch. 12

My general impression is that Englishmen act better than Frenchmen, and

Frenchwomen better than Englishwomen.

Cupid and Commonsense (1909) preface

Good taste is better than bad taste, but bad taste is better than no

taste, and men without individuality have no taste--at any rate no taste

that they can impose on their publics.

Evening Standard 21 Aug. 1930

"Bah!" she said. "With people like you, love only means one thing." "No,"

he replied. "It means twenty things, but it doesn't mean nineteen."

Journal (1932) 20 Nov. 1904

A test of a first-rate work, and a test of your sincerity in calling it a

first-rate work, is that you finish it.

Things that have Interested Me (1921) "Finishing Books"

In the meantime alcohol produces a delightful social atmosphere that

nothing else can produce.

Things that have Interested Me (1921) "For and Against Prohibition"

Seventy minutes had passed before Mr Lloyd George arrived at his proper

theme. He spoke for a hundred and seventeen minutes, in which period he

was detected only once in the use of an argument.

Things that have Interested Me (1921) "After the March Offensive."

Pessimism, when you get used to it, is just as agreeable as optimism.

Indeed, I think it must be more agreeable, must have a more real savour,

than optimism--from the way in which pessimists abandon themselves to it.

Things that have Interested Me (1921) "Slump in Pessimism"

The price of justice is eternal publicity.

Things that have Interested Me (2nd series, 1923) "Secret Trials"

A cause may be inconvenient, but it's magnificent. It's like champagne or

high heels, and one must be prepared to suffer for it.

The Title (1918) act 1

Examine the Honours List and you can instantly tell how the Government

feels in its inside. When the Honours List is full of rascals,

millionaires, and--er--chumps, you may be quite sure that the Government

is dangerously ill.

The Title (1918) act 1

Being a husband is a whole-time job. That is why so many husbands fail.

They cannot give their entire attention to it.

The Title (1918) act 1

Journalists say a thing that they know isn't true, in the hope that if

they keep on saying it long enough it will be true.

The Title (1918) act 2

Literature's always a good card to play for Honours. It makes people

think that Cabinet ministers are educated.

The Title (1918) act 3

2.55 Ada Benson and Fred Fisher =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1875-1942

Your feet's too big,

Don't want you 'cause your feet's too big,

Mad at you 'cause your feet's too big,

Hates you 'cause your feet's too big.

Your Feet's Too Big (1936 song)

2.56 A. C. Benson =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1862-1925

I don't like authority, at least I don't like other people's authority.

Excerpts from Letters to M. E. A. (1926) p. 41

Land of Hope and Glory, Mother of the Free,

How shall we extol thee who are born of thee?

Wider still and wider shall thy bounds be set;

God who made thee mighty, make thee mightier yet.

Land of Hope and Glory (1902 song; music by Sir Edward Elgar)

2.57 Stella Benson =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1892-1933

Call no man foe, but never love a stranger.

This is the End (1917) p. 63

2.58 Edmund Clerihew Bentley =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1875-1956

When their lordships asked Bacon

How many bribes he had taken

He had at least the grace

To get very red in the face.

Baseless Biography (1939) "Bacon"

The Art of Biography

Is different from Geography.

Geography is about Maps,

But Biography is about Chaps.

Biography for Beginners (1905) introd.

Sir Christopher Wren

Said, "I am going to dine with some men.

If anybody calls

Say I am designing St Paul's."

Biography for Beginners (1905) "Sir Christopher Wren"

Sir Humphrey Davy

Abominated gravy.

He lived in the odium

Of having discovered Sodium.

Biography for Beginners (1905) "Sir Humphrey Davy"

John Stuart Mill,

By a mighty effort of will,

Overcame his natural bonhomie

And wrote "Principles of Political Economy."

Biography for Beginners (1905) "John Stuart Mill"

What I like about Clive

Is that he is no longer alive.

There is a great deal to be said

For being dead.

Biography for Beginners (1905) "Clive"

Edward the Confessor

Slept under the dresser.

When that began to pall,

He slept in the hall.

Biography for Beginners (1905) "Edward the Confessor"

Chapman & Hall

Swore not at all.

Mr Chapman's yea was yea,

And Mr Hall's nay was nay.

Biography for Beginners (1905) "Chapman & Hall"

George the Third

Ought never to have occurred.

One can only wonder

At so grotesque a blunder.

More Biography (1929) "George the Third"

2.59 Eric Bentley =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1916-

The theatre of farce is the theatre of the human body but of that body in

a state as far from the natural as the voice of Chaliapin is from my voice

or yours. It is a theatre in which, though the marionettes are men, the

men are supermarionettes. It is the theatre of the surrealist body.

Life of Drama (1964) ch. 7

Ours is the age of substitutes: instead of language, we have jargon;

instead of principles, slogans; and, instead of genuine ideas, Bright

Ideas.

New Republic 29 Dec. 1952

2.60 Nikolai Berdyaev =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1874-1948

Utopias are realizable, they are more realizable than what has been

presented as "realist politics" and what has simply been the calculated

rationalism of armchair politicians. Life is moving towards utopias. But

perhaps a new age is opening up before us, in which the intelligentsia and

the cultured classes will dream of ways to avoid utopias and to return to

a non-utopian society, to a less "perfect" a freer society.

Novoe srednevekov'e (New Middle Ages, 1924) p. 122

2.61 Lord Charles Beresford =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1846-1919

On one occasion, when at the eleventh hour he [Beresford] had been

summoned to dine with the then Prince of Wales, he is said to have

telegraphed back: "Very sorry can't come. Lie follows by post." This story

has been told of several other people, but Lord Charles was the real

originator.

Ralph Nevill World of Fashion 1837-1922 (1923) ch. 5. Cf. Marcel Proust

176:5

2.62 Henri Bergson =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1859-1941

La fonction essentielle de l'univers, qui est une machine � faire des

dieux.

The essential function of the universe, which is a machine for making

gods.

Les Deux sources de la morale et de la religion (The Two Sources of

Morality and Religion, 1932) ch. 4

2.63 Irving Berlin (Israel Baline) =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1888-1989

Come on and hear,

Come on and hear,

Alexander's ragtime band,

Come on and hear,

Come on and hear,

It's the best band in the land.

Alexander's Ragtime Band (1911 song)

Anything you can do, I can do better,

I can do anything better than you.

Anything You Can Do (1946 song)

God bless America,

Land that I love,

Stand beside her and guide her

Thru the night with a light from above.

From the mountains to the prairies,

To the oceans white with foam,

God bless America,

My home sweet home.

God Bless America (1939 song)

Oh! how I hate to get up in the morning,

Oh! how I'd love to remain in bed;

For the hardest blow of all,

Is to hear the bugler call,

You've got to get up, you've got to get up,

You've got to get up this morning!

Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning (1918 song)

A pretty girl is like a melody

That haunts you night and day.

A Pretty Girl is like a Melody (1919 song)

The song is ended (but the melody lingers on).

Title of song (1927)

There's no business like show business.

Title of song (1946)

I'm puttin' on my top hat,

Tyin' up my white tie,

Brushin' off my tails.

Top Hat, White Tie and Tails (1935 song)

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas,

Just like the ones I used to know,

Where the tree-tops glisten

And children listen

To hear sleigh bells in the snow.

White Christmas (1942 song)

2.64 Sir Isaiah Berlin =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1909-

There exists a great chasm between those, on one side, who relate

everything to a single central vision...and, on the other side, those who

pursue many ends, often unrelated and even contradictory....The first kind

of intellectual and artistic personality belongs to the hedgehogs, the

second to the foxes.

Hedgehog and Fox (1953) ch. 1

Rousseau was the first militant lowbrow.

Observer 9 Nov. 1952

Liberty is liberty, not equality or fairness or justice or human happiness

or a quiet conscience.

Two Concepts of Liberty (1958) p. 10

2.65 Georges Bernanos =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1888-1948

Le d�sir de la pri�re est d�j� une pri�re.

The wish for prayer is a prayer in itself.

Journal d'un cur� de campagne (Diary of a Country Priest, 1936) ch. 2

L'enfer, madame, c'est de ne plus aimer.

Hell, madam, is to love no more.

Journal d'un cur� de campagne (Diary of a Country Priest, 1936) ch. 2

2.66 Jeffrey Bernard =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

When people say, "You're breaking my heart," they do in fact usually mean

that you're breaking their genitals.

Spectator 31 May 1986

2.67 Eric Berne =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1910-1970

The sombre picture presented in Parts I and II of this book, in which

human life is mainly a process of filling in time until the arrival of

death, or Santa Claus, with very little choice, if any, of what kind of

business one is going to transact during the long wait, is a commonplace

but not the final answer.

Games People Play (1964) ch. 18

Games people play: the psychology of human relationships.

Title of book (1964)

2.68 Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Carl Bernstein 1944-

Bob Woodward 1943-

All the President's men.

Title of book (1974)

2.69 Chuck Berry =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1931-

Roll over, Beethoven, and tell Tchaikovsky the news.

Roll Over, Beethoven (1956 song)

2.70 John Berryman =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1914-1972

Blossomed Sarah, and I