The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Preface

‘The Code of the Woosters’ (1938) ch. 1
It is no use telling me that there are bad aunts and good aunts. At the core, they are all alike.
Sooner or later, out pops the cloven hoof.
‘The Code of the Woosters’ (1938) ch. 2
Roderick Spode? Big chap with a small moustache and the sort of eye that can open an oyster
at sixty paces?
‘The Code of the Woosters’ (1938) ch. 2
To my daughter Leonora without whose never-failing sympathy and encouragement this book
would have been finished in half the time.
‘The Heart of a Goof’ (1926) dedication
The lunches of fifty-seven years had caused his chest to slip down into the mezzanine floor.
‘The Heart of a Goof’ (1926) ‘Chester Forgets Himself’
I turned to Aunt Agatha, whose demeanour was now rather like that of one who, picking
daisies on the railway, has just caught the down express in the small of the back.
‘The Inimitable Jeeves’ (1923) ch. 4
Sir Roderick Glossop, Honoria’s father, is always called a nerve specialist, because it sounds
better, but everybody knows that he’s really a sort of janitor to the looney-bin.
‘The Inimitable Jeeves’ (1923) ch. 7
As a rule, you see, I’m not lugged into Family Rows. On the occasions when Aunt is calling to
Aunt like mastodons bellowing across primeval swamps and Uncle James’s letter about Cousin
Mabel’s peculiar behaviour is being shot round the family circle (‘Please read this carefully and
send it on to Jane’), the clan has a tendency to ignore me. It’s one of the advantages I get from
being a bachelor—and, according to my nearest and dearest, practically a half-witted bachelor at
that.
‘The Inimitable Jeeves’ (1923) ch. 16
It was my Uncle George who discovered that alcohol was a food well in advance of medical
thought.
‘The Inimitable Jeeves’ (1923) ch. 16
It is a good rule in life never to apologize. The right sort of people do not want apologies, and
the wrong sort take a mean advantage of them.
‘The Man Upstairs’ (1914) title story
She fitted into my biggest armchair as if it had been built round her by someone who knew
they were wearing armchairs tight about the hips that season.
‘My Man Jeeves’ (1919) ‘Jeeves and the Unbidden Guest’
What with excellent browsing and sluicing and cheery conversation and what-not, the
afternoon passed quite happily.
‘My Man Jeeves’ (1919) ‘Jeeves and the Unbidden Guest’
‘What ho!’ I said. ‘What ho!’ said Motty. ‘What ho! What ho!’ ‘What ho! What ho! What ho!’
After that it seemed rather difficult to go on with the conversation.
‘My Man Jeeves’ (1919) ‘Jeeves and the Unbidden Guest’