The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Preface

certain quantity of delicate white human flesh.
‘Tom Jones’ (1749) bk. 6, ch. 1
O! more than Gothic ignorance.
‘Tom Jones’ (1749) bk. 7, ch. 3
His designs were strictly honourable, as the phrase is; that is, to rob a lady of her fortune by
way of marriage.
‘Tom Jones’ (1749) bk. 11, ch. 4
That monstrous animal, a husband and wife.
‘Tom Jones’ (1749) bk. 15, ch. 9
All Nature wears one universal grin.
‘Tom Thumb the Great’ (1731) act 1, sc. 1
When I’m not thanked at all, I’m thanked enough,
I’ve done my duty, and I’ve done no more.
‘Tom Thumb the Great’ (1731) act 1, sc. 3
The dusky night rides down the sky,
And ushers in the morn;
The hounds all join in glorious cry,
The huntsman winds his horn:
And a-hunting we will go.
‘A-Hunting We Will Go’
6.22 Dorothy Fields 1905-74
A fine romance with no kisses.
A fine romance, my friend, this is.
‘A Fine Romance’ (1936 song; music by Jerome Kern)
6.23 W. C. Fields (William Claude Dukenfield) 1880-1946
Never give a sucker an even break.
Title of a W. C. Fields film (1941); the catch-phrase (Fields’s own) is said to have originated in the musical
comedy ‘Poppy’ (1923)
Some weasel took the cork out of my lunch.
‘You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man’ (1939 film)
It ain’t a fit night out for man or beast.
Adopted by Fields but claimed by him not to be original. Letter, 8 February 1944, in R. J. Fields (ed.) ‘W. C.
Fields by Himself’ (1974) pt. 2
Hell, I never vote for anybody. I always vote against.
In Robert Lewis Taylor ‘W. C. Fields: His Follies and Fortunes’ (1950) p. 228.
See also Leo Rosten (6.87) in Volume II
6.24 Harry Julian Fink, Rita M. Fink, and Dean Riesner