The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Preface

2.72 Ludwig van Beethoven 1770-1827
Muss es sein? Es muss sein.
Must it be? It must be.
String Quartet in F Major, Opus 135, epigraph
2.73 Brendan Behan 1923-64
He was born an Englishman and remained one for years.
‘Hostage’ (1958) act 1
Pat: He was an Anglo-Irishman.
Meg: In the blessed name of God what’s that?
Pat: A Protestant with a horse.
‘Hostage’ (1958) act 1
Meanwhile I’ll sing that famous old song, ‘The Hound that Caught the Pubic Hare’.
‘Hostage’ (1958) act 1
When I came back to Dublin, I was courtmartialled in my absence and sentenced to death in
my absence, so I said they could shoot me in my absence.
‘Hostage’ (1958) act 1
I am a sociable worker. Have you your testament?
‘Hostage’ (1958) act 2
Go on, abuse me—your own husband that took you off the streets on a Sunday morning, when
there wasn’t a pub open in the city.
‘Hostage’ (1958) act 2
We’re here because we’re queer
Because we’re queer because we’re here.
‘Hostage’ (1958) act 3.
There’s no such thing as bad publicity except your own obituary.
In Dominic Behan ‘My Brother Brendan’ (1965) p. 158
2.74 Aphra Behn nèe Johnson
Oh, what a dear ravishing thing is the beginning of an Amour!
‘The Emperor of the Moon’ (1687) act 1, sc. 1
Love ceases to be a pleasure, when it ceases to be a secret.
‘The Lover’s Watch’ (1686) ‘Four o’ Clock. General Conversation’
Since man with that inconstancy was born,
To love the absent, and the present scorn,
Why do we deck, why do we dress
For such a short-lived happiness?
Why do we put attraction on,
Since either way ’tis we must be undone?
‘Lycidus’ (1688) ‘To Alexis, in Answer to his Poem against Fruition’