The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Preface

‘Eton Boating Song’ in ‘Eton Scrap Book’ (1865). E. Parker ‘Floreat’ (1923) p. 109
They told me, Heraclitus, they told me you were dead,
They brought me bitter news to hear and bitter tears to shed.
I wept as I remembered how often you and I
Had tired the sun with talking and sent him down the sky.
‘Heraclitus’; translation of Callimachus ‘Epigram 2’ in R. Pfeiffer (ed.) ‘Callimachus’ (1949-53)
You promise heavens free from strife,
Pure truth, and perfect change of will;
But sweet, sweet is this human life,
So sweet, I fain would breathe it still;
Your chilly stars I can forgo,
This warm kind world is all I know.
‘Mimnermus in Church’
All beauteous things for which we live
By laws of space and time decay.
But Oh, the very reason why
I clasp them, is because they die.
‘Mimnermus in Church’
3.182 Charles Cotton 1630-87
The shadows now so long do grow,
That brambles like tall cedars show,
Molehills seem mountains, and the ant
Appears a monstrous elephant.
‘Evening Quatrains’ (1689) st. 3
3.183 Baron Pierre de Coubertin 1863-1937
L’important dans la vie ce n’est point le triomphe mais le combat; l’essentiel ce n’est pas
d’avoir vaincu mais de s’être bien battu.
The important thing in life is not the victory but the contest; the essential thing is not to have
won but to be well beaten.
Speech at government banquet in London, 24 July 1908, in T. A. Cook ‘Fourth Olympiad’ (1909) p. 793
3.184 Èmile Couè 1857-1926
Tous les jours, á tous points de vue, je vais de mieux en mieux.
Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better.
To be repeated 15 to 20 times, morning and evening, in ‘De la suggestion et de ses applications’ (1915) p. 17
3.185 Victor Cousin 1792-1867
Il faut de la religion pour la religion, de la morale pour la morale, comme de l’art pour l’art...le