The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Preface

When you have nothing to say, say nothing.
‘Lacon’ (1820) vol. 1, no. 183
Examinations are formidable even to the best prepared, for the greatest fool may ask more than
the wisest man can answer.
‘Lacon’ (1820) vol. 1, no. 322
If you would be known, and not know, vegetate in a village; if you would know, and not be
known, live in a city.
‘Lacon’ (1820) vol. 1, no. 334
Man is an embodied paradox, a bundle of contradictions.
‘Lacon’ (1820) vol. 1, no. 408
3.152 Betty Comden 1919-and Adolph Green 1915—
New York, New York,—a helluva town,
The Bronx is up but the Battery’s down,
And people ride in a hole in the ground:
New York, New York,—It’s a helluva town.
‘New York, New York’ (1945 song; music by Leonard Bernstein)
The party’s over.
Title of song (1956; music by Jule Styne)
3.153 Dame Ivy Compton-Burnett 1884-1969
Time has too much credit...It is not a great healer. It is an indifferent and perfunctory one.
Sometimes it does not heal at all. And somtimes when it seems to, no healing has been necessary.
‘Darkness and Day’ (1951) ch. 7
‘Well, of course, people are only human...But it really does not seem much for them to be.’
‘A Family and a Fortune’ (1939) ch. 2
People don’t resent having nothing nearly as much as too little.
‘A Family and a Fortune’ (1939) ch. 4
‘The more we ask, the more we have. And, it is fair enough: asking is not always easy.’ ‘And it
is said to be hard to accept...So no wonder we have so little.’
‘The Mighty and their Fall’ (1961) ch. 6
There are different kinds of wrong. The people sinned against are not always the best.
‘The Mighty and their Fall’ (1961) ch. 7
We must use words as they are used or stand aside from life.
‘Mother and Son’ (1955) ch. 9
3.154 Auguste Comte 1798-1857
M. Comte used to reproach his early English admirers with maintaining the
‘conspiracy of silence’ concerning his later performances.
In J. S. Mill ‘Auguste Comte and Positivism’ (1865) p. 199