The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Preface

Annotation to a ministerial brief, said to have been read inadvertently in the House of Lords, in Lord Home
‘The Way the Wind Blows’ (1976) p. 204
Though I yield to no one in my admiration for Mr Coolidge, I do wish he did not look as if he
had been weaned on a pickle.
Anonymous remark, in Alice Roosevelt Longworth ‘Crowded Hours’ (1933) ch. 21
Thought shall be the harder, heart the keener, courage the greater, as our might lessens.
‘The Battle of Maldon’ (translated from Anglo-Saxon by R. K. Gordon, 1926)
To err is human but to really foul things up requires a computer.
‘Farmers’ Almanac for 1978’ (1977) ‘Capsules of Wisdom’
Too small to live in and too large to hang on a watch-chain.
Attributed to a guest, describing Chiswick House, in Cecil Roberts ‘And so to Bath’ (1940) ch. 4 ‘By Way of
Chiswick’
Two men wrote a lexicon, Liddell and Scott;
Some parts were clever, but some parts were not.
Hear, all ye learned, and read me this riddle,
How the wrong part wrote Scott, and the right part wrote Liddell.
On Henry Liddell (1811-98) and Robert Scott (1811-87), co-authors of the Greek Lexicon (1843)
Wall St. lays an egg.
Crash headline, ‘Variety’ 30 October 1929
War will cease when men refuse to fight.
Pacifist slogan, from c. 1936 (often quoted ‘Wars will cease...’) ‘Birmingham Gazette’ 21 November 1936, p.
3, and ‘Peace News ‘ 15 October 1938, p. 12
We are the Ovaltineys,
Little girls and boys.
‘We are the Ovaltineys’ promotional song for Ovaltine, from c.1935
The weekend starts here.
Catch-phrase from ‘Ready, Steady, Go,’ British television series, c. 1963
Weep you no more, sad fountains;
What need you flow so fast?
Lute song (1603) set by John Dowland, in ‘Oxford Book of 16th Century Verse’
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed
by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit
of happiness.
The American Declaration of Independence, 4 July 1776.
We’re here
Because
We’re here
Because
We’re here
Because we’re here.