The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Preface

The proper union of gin and vermouth is a great and sudden glory; it is one of the happiest
marriages on earth and one of the shortest lived.
‘The Hour’ (1951)
4.47 Peter De Vries 1910—
It is the final proof of God’s omnipotence that he need not exist in order to save us.
‘The Mackerel Plaza’ (1958) ch. 1
The value of marriage is not that adults produce children but that children produce adults.
‘The Tunnel of Love’ (1954) ch. 8
4.48 Lord Dewar 1864-1930
[There are] only two classes of pedestrians in these days of reckless motor traffic—the quick,
and the dead.
In George Robey ‘Looking Back on Life’ (1933) ch. 28
4.49 Sergei Diaghilev 1872-1929
Ètonne-moi.
Astonish me.
To Jean Cocteau, in ‘Journals of Jean Cocteau’ (1957) ch. 1
4.50 Charles Dibdin 1745-1814
Did you ever hear of Captain Wattle?
He was all for love, and a little for the bottle.
‘Captain Wattle and Miss Roe’
For a soldier I listed, to grow great in fame,
And be shot at for sixpence a-day.
‘Charity’
In every mess I finds a friend,
In every port a wife.
‘Jack in his Element’
What argufies sniv’ling and piping your eye?
‘Poor Jack’
But the standing toast that pleased the most
Was—The wind that blows, the ship that goes,
And the lass that loves a sailor!
‘The Round Robin’
Here, a sheer hulk, lies poor Tom Bowling,
The darling of our crew.
‘Tom Bowling’
Faithful, below, he did his duty;