The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Preface

It is not written what a man shall do
If the rude caitiff smite the other too!
‘Non-Resistance’
And, when you stick on conversation’s burrs,
Don’t strew your pathway with those dreadful urs.
‘A Rhymed Lesson’
Man wants but little drink below,
But wants that little strong.
‘A Song of other Days’.
Blank cheques of intellectual bankruptcy.
Definition of catch-phrases (attributed)
8.124 John Home 1722-1808
My name is Norval; on the Grampian hills
My father feeds his flocks; a frugal swain,
Whose constant cares were to increase his store
And keep his only son, myself, at home.
‘Douglas’ (1756) act 2, sc. 1
Like Douglas conquer, or like Douglas die.
‘Douglas’ (1756) act 5
8.125 Lord Home (fourteenth Earl of Home, formerly Sir Alec Douglas-Home) 1903—1963-4
As far as the fourteenth earl is concerned, I suppose Mr Wilson, when you come to think of it,
is the fourteenth Mr Wilson.
Referring to Harold Wilson in a television interview, 21 October 1963, when asked how he would defend his
position as a ‘fourteenth Earl, a reactionary, and an out-of-date figure’
8.126 Homer 8th century B.C.
Achilles’ cursed anger sing, O goddess, that son of Peleus, which started a myriad sufferings
for the Achaeans.
‘The Iliad’ bk. 1, l. 1. In Alexander Pope’s translation:
Achilles’ wrath, to Greece the direful spring
Of woes unnumbered, heavenly goddess, sing.
Winged words.
‘The Iliad’ bk. 1, l. 201
The son of Kronos [Zeus] spoke, and nodded with his darkish brows, and immortal locks fell
forward from the lord’s deathless head, and he made great Olympus tremble.
‘The Iliad’ bk. 1, l. 528
It is no cause for anger that the Trojans and the well-greaved Achaeans have suffered for so
long over such a woman: she is wondrously like the immortal goddesses to look upon.
‘The Iliad’ bk. 3, l. 156 (referring to Helen)