The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Preface

Ev’n at the brink of danger; not before:
After deliverance, both alike requited,
Our God’s forgotten, and our soldiers slighted.
‘Divine Fancies’ (1632) ‘Of Common Devotion’.
My soul, sit thou a patient looker-on;
Judge not the play before the play is done:
Her plot hath many changes; every day
Speaks a new scene; the last act crowns the play.
‘Epigram: Respice Finem’
He teaches to deny that faintly prays.
‘A Feast for Worms’ (1620) sect. 7, Meditation 7, l. 2
Man is man’s A.B.C. There is none that can
Read God aright, unless he first spell Man.
‘Hieroglyphics of the Life of Man’ (1638) no. 1, l. 1
He that begins to live, begins to die.
‘Hieroglyphics of the Life of Man’ (1638) no. 1, epigram 1
Physicians of all men are most happy; what good success soever they have, the world
proclaimeth, and what faults they commit, the earth covereth.
‘Hieroglyphics of the Life of Man’ (1638) no. 4
We’ll cry both arts and learning down,
And hey! then up go we!
‘The Shepherd’s Oracles’ (1646) Eclogue 11 ‘Song of Anarchus’
5.3 Peter Quennell 1905—
An elderly fallen angel travelling incognito.
‘The Sign of the Fish’ (1960) ch. 2 (describing Andrè Gide)
5.4 François Quesnay 1694-1774
Vous ne connaissez qu’une seule régle du commerce; c’est (pour me servir de vos propres
termes) de laisser passer et de laisser faire tous les acheteurs et tous les vendeurs quelconques.
You recognize but one rule of commerce; that is (to avail myself of your own terms) to allow
free passage and freedom of action to all buyers and sellers whoever they may be.
Attributed in a letter to Quesnay from M. Alpha, but not found elsewhere. L. Salleron ‘François Quesnay et la
Physiocratie’ (1958) vol. 2, p. 940; attributed also to Marquis d’Argenson.
5.5 Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch (‘Q’) 1863-1944
The best is the best, though a hundred judges have declared it so.
‘Oxford Book of English Verse’ (1900) preface
Simple this tale!—but delicately perfumed
As the sweet roadside honeysuckle. That’s why,