The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Preface

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!
‘Wishes of an Elderly Man’ (1923)
6.8 Srinivasa Ramanujan 1887-1920
No, it is a very interesting number; it is the smallest number expressible as a sum of two cubes
in two different ways.
Replying to G. H. Hardy’s suggestion that the number of a cab—1729—was ‘dull’; in ‘Proceedings of the
London Mathematical Society’ 26 May 1921, p. 57 (the two ways being 13 +123 and 93 +103 )
6.9 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.
‘Here Lies a Lady’
6.10 Arthur Ransome 1884-1967
better drowned than duffers if not duffers wont drown.
‘Does that mean Yes?’ asked Roger.
‘I think so.’
‘Swallows and Amazons’ (1930) ch. 1
6.11 Frederic Raphael 1931—
Your idea of fidelity is not having more than one man in the bed at the same time.
‘Darling’ (1965) ch. 18
[Cambridge] is the city of perspiring dreams.
‘The Glittering Prizes’ (1976) ch. 3.
Oh no, of course. That’s the whole thing about England, isn’t it? Everything’s a preparation. A
preparation for nothing. It’s not a preparation, it’s a postponement.
‘The Glittering Prizes’ (1976) ‘An Early Life’ pt. 2, sect. 3
I come from suburbia, Dan, personally, and I don’t ever want to go back.
It’s the one place in the world that’s further away than anywhere else.
‘The Glittering Prizes’ (1976) ‘A Sex Life’ pt. 1, sect. 3
6.12 Terence Rattigan 1911-77
Do you know what ‘le vice Anglais’—the English vice—really is? Not flagellation, not