The Oxford dictionary of modern quotations (72 page)

doesn't exist.

In Listener 1 July 1965, p. 12

It is hard to tell where the MCC ends and the Church of England begins.

In New Statesman 20 July 1962, p. 78

16.64 V. S. Pritchett =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1900-

The principle of procrastinated rape is said to be the ruling one in all

the great best-sellers.

The Living Novel (1946) "Clarissa"

What Chekhov saw in our failure to communicate was something positive and

precious: the private silence in which we live, and which enables us to

endure our own solitude. We live, as his characters do, beyond any tale

we happen to enact.

Myth Makers (1979) "Chekhov, a doctor"

The detective novel is the art-for-art's-sake of our yawning Philistinism,

the classic example of a specialized form of art removed from contact with

the life it pretends to build on.

New Statesman 16 June 1951, "Books in General"

16.65 Marcel Proust =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1871-1922

A la recherche du temps perdu.

In search of lost time.

Title of novel (1913-27), translated by C. K. Scott-Moncrieff and S.

Hudson, 1922-31, as "Remembrance of things past"

Longtemps, je me suis couch� de bonne heure.

For a long time I used to go to bed early.

Du c�t� de chez Swann (Swann's Way, 1913, translated 1922 by C. K.

Scott-Moncrieff, vol. 1, p. 1)

Je portai � mes l�vres une cuiller�e du th� o� j'avais laiss� s'amollir un

morceau de madeleine....Et tout d'un coup le souvenir m'est apparu. Ce

go�t c'�tait celui du petit morceau de madeleine que le dimanche matin �

Combray...ma tante L�onie m'offrait apr�s l'avoir tremp� dans son infusion

de th� ou de tilleul.

I raised to my lips a spoonful of the tea in which I had soaked a morsel

of cake....And suddenly the memory returns. The taste was that of the

little crumb of madeleine which on Sunday mornings at Combray...my aunt

L�onie used to give me, dipping it first in her own cup of real or of

lime-flower tea.

Du c�t� de chez Swann (Swann's Way, 1913, translated 1922 by C. K.

Scott-Moncrieff, vol. 1, pp. 46 and 61)

Et il ne fut plus question de Swann chez les Verdurin.

After which there was no more talk of Swann at the Verdurins'.

Du c�t� de chez Swann (Swann's Way, 1913, translated 1922 by C. K.

Scott-Moncrieff, vol. 2, p. 99)

Dire que j'ai g�ch� des ann�es de ma vie, que j'ai voulu mourir, que j'ai

eu mon plus grand amour, pour une femme qui ne me plaisait pas, qui

n'�tait pas mon genre!

To think that I have wasted years of my life, that I have longed for

death, that the greatest love that I have ever known has been for a woman

who did not please me, who was not in my style!

Du c�t� de chez Swann (Swann's Way, 1913, translated 1922 by C. K.

Scott-Moncrieff, vol. 2, p. 228)

On devient moral d�s qu'on est malheureux.

As soon as one is unhappy one becomes moral.

A l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs (Within a Budding Grove, 1918,

translated 1924 by C. K. Scott-Moncrieff, vol. 1, p. 290)

Tout ce que nous connaissons de grand nous vient des nerveux. Ce sont eux

et non pas d'autres qui ont fond� les religions et compos� les

chefs-d'�uvre. Jamais le monde ne saura tout ce qu'il leur doit et surtout

ce qu'eux ont souffert pour le lui donner.

All the greatest things we know have come to us from neurotics. It is

they and they only who have founded religions and created great works of

art. Never will the world be conscious of how much it owes to them, nor

above all of what they have suffered in order to bestow their gifts on it.

Le c�t� de Guermantes (Guermantes Way, 1921, translated 1925 by C. K.

Scott-Moncrieff, vol. 1, p. 418)

Il n'y a rien comme le d�sir pour emp�cher les choses qu'on dit d'avoir

aucune ressemblance avec ce qu'on a dans la pens�e.

There is nothing like desire for preventing the thing one says from

bearing any resemblance to what one has in mind.

Le c�t� de Guermantes (Guermantes Way, 1921, translated 1925 by C. K.

Scott-Moncrieff, vol. 2, p. 60)

Un artiste n'a pas besoin d'exprimer directement sa pens�e dans son

ouvrage pour que celui-ci en refl�te la qualit�; on a m�me pu dire que la

louange la plus haute de Dieu est dans la n�gation de l'ath�e qui trouve

la Cr�ation assez parfaite pour se passer d'un cr�ateur.

An artist has no need to express his mind directly in his work for it to

express the quality of that mind; it has indeed been said that the highest

praise of God consists in the denial of Him by the atheist, who finds

creation so perfect that it can dispense with a creator.

Le c�t� de Guermantes (Guermantes Way, 1921, translated 1925 by C. K.

Scott-Moncrieff, vol. 2, p. 147)

Du reste, continua Mme de Cambremer, j'ai horreur des couchers de soleil,

c'est romantique, c'est op�ra.

"Anyhow," Mme de Cambremer went on, "I have a horror of sunsets, they're

so romantic, so operatic."

Sodome et Gomorrhe (Cities of the Plain, 1922, translated by C. K.

Scott-Moncrieff, vol. 1, p. 296)

Une de ces d�p�ches dont M. de Guermantes avait spirituellement fix� le

mod�le: "Impossible venir, mensonge suit."

One of those telegrams of which the model had been wittily invented by M.

de Guermantes: "Impossible to come, lie follows."

Le temps retrouv� (Time Regained, 1926, translated 1931 by S. Hudson,

ch. 1, p. 7). Cf. Lord Charles Beresford

Les vrais paradis sont les paradis qu'on a perdus.

The true paradises are paradises we have lost.

Le temps retrouv� (Time Regained, 1926, translated 1931 by S. Hudson,

ch. 3, p. 215)

Le bonheur seul est salutaire pour le corps, mais c'est le chagrin qui

d�veloppe les forces de l'esprit.

Happiness is salutary for the body but sorrow develops the powers of the

spirit.

Le temps retrouv� (Time Regained, 1926, translated 1931 by S. Hudson,

ch. 3, p. 259)

16.66 Olive Higgins Prouty =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1882-1974

She [Charlotte] drew in her breath sharply as if he had touched a nerve.

"O Jerry," she said when she could trust her voice. "Don't let's ask for

the moon! We have the stars!"

THE END

Now, Voyager (1941) ch. 29 (words spoken by Bette Davis in the 1942 film

version)

16.67 John Pudney =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1909-1977

Do not despair

For Johnny-head-in-air;

He sleeps as sound

As Johnny underground.

Fetch out no shroud

For Johnny-in-the-cloud;

And keep your tears

For him in after years.

Better by far

For Johnny-the-bright-star,

To keep your head,

And see his children fed.

Dispersal Point (1942) "For Johnny"

16.68 Mario Puzo =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1920-

He's a businessman....I'll make him an offer he can't refuse.

The Godfather (1969) ch. 1

A lawyer with his briefcase can steal more than a hundred men with guns.

The Godfather (1969) ch. 1

Mario had called George Mandel to say he'd heard Joe [Heller] was

paralysed. "No, Mario....He's got something called Guillain-Barr�." "My

God," Mario blurted out. "That's terrible!" A surprised George murmured,

"Hey Mario, you know about Guillain-Barr�?" "No, I never heard nothing

about it," Mario replied. "But when they name any disease after two guys,

it's got to be terrible!"

Joseph Heller No Laughing Matter (1986) p. 44

17.0 Q =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

17.1 Q =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

See Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch (17.4)

17.2 Salvatore Quasimodo =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1901-1968

Poetry...is the revelation of a feeling that the poet believes to be

interior and personal--which the reader recognizes as his own.

Speech in New York, 13 May 1960, in New York Times 14 May 1960, p. 47

17.3 Peter Quennell =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1905-

He [Andr� Gide] was very bald...with...the general look of an elderly

fallen angel travelling incognito.

The Sign of the Fish (1960) ch. 2

17.4 Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch (often used the pseudonym 'Q') =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1863-1944

Literature is not an abstract science, to which exact definitions can be

applied. It is an Art rather, the success of which depends on personal

persuasiveness, on the author's skill to give as on ours to receive.

Inaugural Lecture at Cambridge University, 1913, in On the Art of Writing

(1916) p. 16

The best is the best, though a hundred judges have declared it so.

Oxford Book of English Verse (1900) preface

Know you her secret none can utter?

Hers of the Book, the tripled Crown?

Poems (1929) "Alma Mater"

He that loves but half of Earth

Loves but half enough for me.

Poems and Ballads (1896) "The Comrade"

Not as we wanted it,

But as God granted it.

Poems and Ballads (1896) "To Bearers"

18.0 R =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

18.1 James Rado and Gerome Ragni =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

James Rado 1939-

Gerome Ragni 1942-

When the moon is in the seventh house,

And Jupiter aligns with Mars,

Then peace will guide the planets,

And love will steer the stars;

This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius,

The age of Aquarius.

Aquarius (1967 song; music by Galt MacDermot)

18.2 John Rae =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1931-

War is, after all, the universal perversion. We are all tainted: if we

cannot experience our perversion at first hand we spend our time reading

war stories, the pornography of war; or seeing war films, the blue films

of war; or titillating our senses with the imagination of great deeds, the

masturbation of war.

The Custard Boys (1960) ch. 13

18.3 Milton Rakove =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1918-1983

The second law, Rakove's law of principle and politics, states that the

citizen is influenced by principle in direct proportion to his distance

from the political situation.

In Virginia Quarterly Review (1965) vol. 41, p. 349

18.4 Sir Walter Raleigh =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1861-1922

In Examinations those who do not wish to know ask questions of those who

cannot tell.

Laughter from a Cloud (1923) "Some Thoughts on Examinations"

We could not lead a pleasant life,

And 'twould be finished soon,

If peas were eaten with the knife,

And gravy with the spoon.

Eat slowly: only men in rags

And gluttons old in sin

Mistake themselves for carpet bags

And tumble victuals in.

Laughter from a Cloud (1923) "Stans Puer ad Mensam"

I wish I loved the Human Race;

I wish I loved its silly face;

I wish I liked the way it walks;

I wish I liked the way it talks;

And when I'm introduced to one

I wish I thought What Jolly Fun!

Laughter from a Cloud (1923) "Wishes of an Elderly Man"

An anthology is like all the plums and orange peel picked out of a cake.

Letter to Mrs Robert Bridges, 15 Jan. 1915, in Letters of Sir Walter

Raleigh (1926) vol. 2, p. 411

18.5 Srinivasa Ramanujan =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1887-1920

I remember once going to see him when he was lying ill at Putney. I had

ridden in taxi-cab No. 1729, and remarked that the number (7.13.19) seemed

to me rather a dull one. "No," he replied, "it is a very interesting

number; it is the smallest number expressible as a sum of two cubes in two

different ways."

G. H. Hardy in Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society 26 May 1921,

p. 57. (The two ways are 1 cubed +12 cubed and 9 cubed +10 cubed)

18.6 John Crowe Ransom =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1888-1974

Here lies a lady of beauty and high degree.

Of chills and fever she died, of fever and chills,

The delight of her husband, her aunts, an infant of three,

And of medicos marvelling sweetly on her ills.

Chills and Fever (1924) "Here Lies a Lady"

18.7 Arthur Ransome =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

1884-1967

Mother smiled, and read the telegram aloud: Better drowned than duffers if

not duffers wont drown. "Does that mean Yes?" asked Roger. "I think so."

Swallows and Amazons (1930) ch. 1

18.8 Frederic Raphael =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-