The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Preface

By God, O King, I will neither go nor hang!
Replying to King Edward I’s ‘By God, earl, you shall either go or hang’, 24 February 1297, when requiring
the barons to invade France through Gascony while he took command in Flanders; in Harry Rothwell (ed.)
‘The Chronicles of Walter of Guisbrough’ Camden Society Series 3, vol. 89 (1957) p. 291
2.122 Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw) 1818-85
The trouble with people is not that they don’t know but that they know so much that ain’t so.
‘Josh Billings’ Encyclopedia of Wit and Wisdom’ (1874)
Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just,
But four times he who gets his blow in fust.
‘Josh Billings, his Sayings’ (1865).
2.123 Laurence Binyon 1869-1943
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old.
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
‘For the Fallen’ (1914)
Now is the time for the burning of the leaves.
‘The Ruins’ (1942)
2.124 Nigel Birch (Baron Rhyl) 1906-81
My God! They’ve shot our fox!
When hearing of the resignation of Hugh Dalton, Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government, 13
November 1947, in Harold Macmillan ‘Tides of Fortune’ (1969) ch. 3
2.125 John Bird
That was the week that was.
Title of satirical BBC television series (1962-3)
2.126 Earl of Birkenhead
See F. E. Smith (7.111) in Volume II
2.127 Augustine Birrell 1850-1933
That great dust-heap called ‘history’.
‘Obiter Dicta’ (1884) ‘Carlyle’
2.128 Prince Otto von Bismarck 1815-98
Die Politik ist die Lehre von Möglichen.
Politics is the art of the possible.
In conversation with Meyer von Waldeck, 11 August 1867