The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Preface

2.179 E. E. Bradford 1860-1944
I walked with Will through bracken turning brown,
Pale yellow, orange, dun and golden-red.
‘God made the country and man made the town—
And woman made Society,’ he said.
‘Society’.
2.180 John Bradford c.1510-55
But for the grace of God there goes John Bradford.
On seeing a group of criminals being led to their execution, in ‘Dictionary of National Biography’ (often
echoed in the form ‘There but for the grace of God go I’)
2.181 F. H. Bradley (Francis Herbert Bradley) 1846-1924
Metaphysics is the finding of bad reasons for what we believe upon instinct; but to find these
reasons is no less an instinct.
‘Appearance and Reality’ (1893) preface
The world is the best of all possible worlds, and everything in it is a necessary evil.
‘Appearance and Reality’ (1893) preface (on optimism)
Where everything is bad it must be good to know the worst.
‘Appearance and Reality’ (1893) preface (on pessimism)
That the glory of this world...is appearance leaves the world more glorious, if we feel it is a
show of some fuller splendour; but the sensuous curtain is a deception...if it hides some
colourless movement of atoms, some...unearthly ballet of bloodless categories.
‘Principles of Logic’ (1883) bk. 3, pt. 2, ch. 4
2.182 Omar Bradley 1893-1981
We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount.
Speech on Armistice Day, 1948, in ‘Collected Writings’ (1967) vol. 1, p. 588
The world has achieved brilliance without conscience. Ours is a world of unclear giants and
ethical infants.
Speech on Armistice Day, 1948, in ‘Collected Writings’ (1967) vol. 1, p.
2.183 John Bradshaw 1602-59
Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.
Suppositious epitaph. Henry S. Randall ‘The Life of Thomas Jefferson’ (1865) vol. 3, appendix 4, p. 585
2.184 Anne Bradstreet c.1612-72
I am obnoxious to each carping tongue,
Who sayes my hand a needle better fits,
A poet’s pen, all scorne, I should thus wrong;