The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Preface

Do you realize, Mrs Foster, the hours I’ve put into that woman? When I met her, you know,
she was nothing. Nothing at all. With my own hands I have built her up. Encouraging her to join
the public library and make use of her non-fiction tickets.
‘How the Other Half Loves’ (1972) act 2, sc. 1
If you gave Ruth a rose, she’d peel all the petals off to make sure there weren’t any greenfly.
And when she’d done that, she’d turn round and say, do you call that a rose? Look at it, it’s all in
bits.
‘Table Manners’ (1975) act 1, sc. 2
I always feel with Norman that I have him on loan from somewhere. Like one of his library
books.
‘Table Manners’ (1975) act 2, sc. 1
1.122 A. J. Ayer (Sir Alfred Jules Ayer) 1910-89
The criterion which we use to test the genuineness of apparent statements of fact is the
criterion of verifiability. We say that a sentence is factually significant to any given person, if,
and only if, he knows how to verify the proposition which it purports to express—that is, if he
knows what observations would lead him, under certain conditions, to accept the proposition as
being true, or reject it as being false.
‘Language, Truth, and Logic’ (2nd ed., 1946) p. 35
If I...say ‘Stealing money is wrong,’ I produce a sentence which has no factual meaning—that
is, expresses no proposition which can be either true or false. It is as if I had written ‘Stealing
money!!’—where the shape and thickness of the exclamation marks show, by a suitable
convention, that a special sort of moral disapproval is the feeling which is being expressed.
‘Language, Truth, and Logic’ (2nd ed., 1946) p. 107
[We] offer the theist the same comfort as we gave to the moralist. His assertions cannot
possibly be valid, but they cannot be invalid either. As he says nothing at all about the world, he
cannot justly be accused of saying anything false, or anything for which he has insufficient
grounds. It is only when the theist claims that in asserting the existence of a transcendent god he
is expressing a genuine proposition that we are entitled to disagree with him.
‘Language, Truth, and Logic’ (2nd ed., 1946) p. 116
1.123 Pam Ayres 1947—
Medicinal discovery,
It moves in mighty leaps,
It leapt straight past the common cold
And gave it us for keeps.
‘Oh no, I got a cold’
1.124 Sir Robert Aytoun 1570-1638
I loved thee once. I’ll love no more,