The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Preface

Son of Atreus, what manner of speech has escaped the barrier of your teeth?
‘The Iliad’ bk. 4, l. 350
Like that of leaves is a generation of men.
‘The Iliad’ bk. 6, l. 146
Always to be best, and to be distinguished above the rest.
‘The Iliad’ bk. 6, l. 208
Smiling through her tears.
‘The Iliad’ bk. 6, l. 484
Hateful to me as the gates of Hades is that man who hides one thing in his heart and speaks
another.
‘The Iliad’ bk. 9, l. 312
This is the one best omen, to fight in defence of one’s country.
‘The Iliad’ bk. 12, l. 243
He lay great and greatly fallen, forgetful of his chivalry.
‘The Iliad’ bk. 16, l. 776
Tell me, Muse, of the man of many tricks, who wandered far and wide after he had sacked
Troy’s sacred city, and saw the towns of many men and knew their mind.
The ‘Odyssey’ bk. 1, l. 1 (referring to Odysseus)
Rosy-fingered dawn.
The ‘Odyssey’ bk. 2, l. 1 and elsewhere
I would rather be tied to the soil as another man’s serf, even a poor man’s, who hadn’t much to
live on himself, than be King of all these the dead and destroyed.
The ‘Odyssey’ bk. 11, l. 489
8.127 William Hone 1780-1842
John Jones may be described as ‘one of the has beens.’
‘The Every-Day Book’ (1826-27) vol. 2, pt. 1, col. 820
8.128 Arthur Honegger 1892-1955
La premiére qualitè d’un compositeur, c’est d’être mort.
The first requirement for a composer is to be dead.
‘Je suis compositeur’ (1951) p. 16
8.129 Thomas Hood 1799-1845
Take her up tenderly,
Lift her with care;
Fashioned so slenderly,
Young, and so fair!
‘The Bridge of Sighs’
Mad from life’s history,