The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Preface

From a West Indian calypso and adopted as the title of a novel (1959) by Audrey Erskine Lindop
Spheres of influence.
Sir Edward Hertslet ‘Map of Africa by Treaty’ 3rd ed., 868.
Snap! Crackle! Pop!
Slogan for Kellogg’s Rice Krispies, from c. 1928
So farewell then....
Standard opening for obituary poems by ‘E. J. Thribb’ in ‘Private Eye’ from 1970s
So much chewing gum for the eyes.
Small boy’s definition of certain television programmes, 1955, in James Beasley Simpson ‘Best Quotes of
‘50, ‘55, ‘56’ (1957) p. 233
Sticks nix hick pix.
Frontpage headline on lack of interest in farm dramas among rural populations, in ‘Variety’ 17 July 1935
Sumer is icumen in,
Lhude sing cuccu!
Groweth sed, and bloweth med,
And springth the wude nu.
‘Cuckoo Song’ c.1250, sung annually at Reading Abbey gateway and first recorded by John Fornset, a monk
of Reading Abbey
The Sun himself cannot forget
His fellow traveller.
‘Wit’s Recreations’ (1640) epigrams no. 146 (on Sir Francis Drake)
That’ll do nicely, sir.
Advertisement for American Express credit card, 1970s
Therefore let us sing and dance a galliard,
To the remembrance of the mallard:
And as the mallard dives in pool,
Let us dabble, dive, and duck in Bowl.
Oh! by the blood of King Edward,
Oh! by the blood of King Edward,
It was a swapping, swapping mallard.
All Souls College, Oxford, song (perhaps of Tudor date) in ‘The Oxford Sausage’ (1764) p. 83. Manuscript
sources suggest the song was first printed in 1752; Hearne’s Diaries vol. 17, p. 46, May 1708 (see Collections,
ed. C. E. Doble, ii, O.H.S. vii, 1886, p. 111) give the form ‘duck and dive’ in the fourth line
There is a lady sweet and kind,
Was never face so pleased my mind;
I did but see her passing by,
And yet I love her till I die.
Found on the reverse of leaf 53 of ‘Popish Kingdome or reigne of Antichrist’, in Latin verse by Thomas
Naogeorgus, and Englished by Barnabe Googel; printed in 1570. ‘Notes & Queries’ 9th series, vol. 10, p. 427
There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world; and that is an idea whose time has
come.