The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Preface

It is the necessary nature of a political party in this country to avoid, as long as it can be
avoided, the consideration of any question which involves a great change...The best carriage
horses are those which can most steadily hold back against the coach as it trundles down the hill.
‘Phineas Redux’ (1874) ch. 4
To think of one’s absent love is very sweet; but it becomes monotonous after a mile or two of a
towing-path, and the mind will turn away to Aunt Sally, the Cremorne Gardens, and financial
questions. I doubt whether any girl would be satisfied with her lover’s mind if she knew the
whole of it.
‘The Small House at Allington’ (1864) ch. 4
Why is it that girls so constantly do this,—so frequently ask men who have loved them to be
present at their marriages with other men? There is no triumph in it. It is done in sheer kindness
and affection. They intend to offer something which shall soften and not aggravate the sorrow
that they have caused...I fully appreciate the intention, but in honest truth, I doubt the eligibility
of the proffered entertainment.
‘The Small House at Allington’ (1864) ch. 9
It may almost be a question whether such wisdom as many of us have in our mature years has
not come from the dying out of the power of temptation, rather than as the results of thought and
resolution.
‘The Small House at Allington’ (1864) ch. 14
And, above all things, never think that you’re not good enough yourself. A man should never
think that. My belief is that in life people will take you very much at your own reckoning.
‘The Small House at Allington’ (1864) ch. 32
The tenth Muse, who now governs the periodical press.
‘The Warden’ (1855) ch. 14
Is it not singular how some men continue to obtain the reputation of popular authorship
without adding a word to the literature of their country worthy of note?...To puff and to get one’s
self puffed have become different branches of a new profession.
‘The Way We Live Now’ (1875) ch. 1
Love is like any other luxury. You have no right to it unless you can afford it.
‘The Way We Live Now’ (1875) ch. 84
8.74 Leon Trotsky (Lev Davidovich Bronstein) 1879-1940
Old age is the most unexpected of all things that happen to a man.
‘Diary in Exile’ (1959) 8 May 1935
Civilization has made the peasantry its pack animal. The bourgeoisie in the long run only
changed the form of the pack.
‘History of the Russian Revolution’ (1933) vol. 3, ch. 1
You [the Mensheviks] are pitiful isolated individuals; you are bankrupts; your role is played
out. Go where you belong from now on—into the dustbin of history!
‘History of the Russian Revolution’ (1933) vol. 3, ch. 10