The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Preface

‘The Pacifist’ (1938)
When I am living in the Midlands
That are sodden and unkind...
And the great hills of the South Country
Come back into my mind.
‘The South Country’ (1910)
Do you remember an Inn, Miranda?
Do you remember an Inn?
And the tedding and the spreading
Of the straw for a bedding,
And the fleas that tease in the High Pyrenees
And the wine that tasted of the tar?
‘Tarantella’ (1923)
Balliol made me, Balliol fed me,
Whatever I had she gave me again:
And the best of Balliol loved and led me.
God be with you, Balliol men.
‘To the Balliol Men Still in Africa’ (1910)
From quiet homes and first beginning,
Out to the undiscovered ends,
There’s nothing worth the wear of winning,
But laughter and the love of friends.
‘Verses’ (1910) ‘Dedicatory Ode’
Is there no Latin word for Tea? Upon my soul, if I had known that I would have let the vulgar
stuff alone.
‘On Nothing’ (1908) ‘On Tea’
Gentlemen, I am a Catholic...If you reject me on account of my religion, I shall thank God that
He has spared me the indignity of being your representative.
Speech to voters of South Salford, 1906, in R. Speaight ‘Life of Hilaire Belloc’ (1957) ch. 10
2.78 Saul Bellow 1915—
If I am out of my mind, it’s all right with me, thought Moses Herzog.
‘Herzog’ (1961) opening sentence
A novel is balanced between a few true impressions and the multitude of false ones that make
up most of what we call life. It tells us that for every human being there is a diversity of
existences, that the single existence is itself an illusion in part...it promises us meaning, harmony,
and even justice.
Speech on receiving the Nobel Prize, 1976
Art has something to do with the achievement of stillness in the midst of chaos. A stillness
which characterizes prayer, too, and the eye of the storm...an arrest of attention in the midst of