The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Preface

eneficed clergyman and need not commit himself to any religious belief.
‘Decline and Fall’ (1928) pt. 2, ch. 4
I came to the conclusion many years ago that almost all crime is due to the repressed desire for
aesthetic expression.
‘Decline and Fall’ (1928) pt. 3, ch. 1
Any one who has been to an English public school will always feel comparatively at home in
prison. It is the people brought up in the gay intimacy of the slums, Paul learned, who find prison
so soul-destroying.
‘Decline and Fall’ (1928) pt. 3, ch. 4
You never find an Englishman among the under-dogs—except in England, of course.
‘The Loved One’ (1948) ch. 1
In the dying world I come from quotation is a national vice. No one would think of making an
after-dinner speech without the help of poetry. It used to be the classics, now it’s lyric verse.
‘The Loved One’ (1948) ch. 9
‘The Beast stands for strong mutually antagonistic governments everywhere,’ he [Lord
Copper] said. ‘Self-sufficiency at home, self-assertion abroad.’
‘Scoop’ (1938) bk. 1, ch. 1
Mr Salter’s side of the conversation was limited to expressions of assent.
When Lord Copper was right, he said, ‘Definitely, Lord Copper’; when he was wrong, ‘Up to a
point’.
‘Scoop’ (1938) bk. 1, ch. 1
‘He [Boot]’s supposed to have a particularly high-class style: ‘Feather-footed through the
plashy fen passes the questing vole’...would that be it?’ ‘Yes,’ said the Managing Editor. ‘That
must be good style.’
‘Scoop’ (1938) bk. 1, ch. 1
News is what a chap who doesn’t care much about anything wants to read.
And it’s only news until he’s read it. After that it’s dead.
‘Scoop’ (1938) bk. 1, ch. 5
‘I will not stand for being called a woman in my own house,’ she [Mrs Earl Russell Jackson]
said.
‘Scoop’ (1938) bk. 2, ch. 1
Other nations use ‘force’; we Britons alone use ‘Might’.
‘Scoop’ (1938) bk. 2, ch. 5
All this fuss about sleeping together. For physical pleasure I’d sooner go to my dentist any day.
‘Vile Bodies’ (1930) ch. 6
Lady Peabury was in the morning room reading a novel; early training gave a guilty spice to
this recreation, for she had been brought up to believe that to read a novel before luncheon was
one of the gravest sins it was possible for a gentlewoman to commit.
‘Work Suspended’ (1942) ‘An Englishman’s Home’
Punctuality is the virtue of the bored.