The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Preface

10.27 St John of the Cross 1542-91
Muero porque no muero.
I die because I do not die.
‘Coplas del alma que pena por ver a dios’
Con un no saber sabiendo.
With a knowing ignorance.
‘Coplas hechas sobre un èxtasis de alta contemplación’
10.28 John of Salisbury c.1115-80
Siquidem uita breuis, sensus hebes, neglegentiae torpor, inutilis occupatio, nos paucula scire
permittunt, et eadem iugiter excutit et auellit ab animo fraudatrix scientiae, inimica et infida
semper memoriae nouerca, obliuio.
The brevity of our life, the dullness of our senses, the torpor of our indifference, the futility of
our occupation, suffer us to know but little: and that little is soon shaken and then torn from the
mind by that traitor to learning, that hostile and faithless stepmother to memory, oblivion.
‘Prologue to the Policraticus’ (C. C. J. Webb’s edition, 1909) vol. 1, p. 12, l. 13, translated by Helen Waddell
10.29 Pope John XXIII (Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli) 1881-1963
If civil authorities legislate for or allow anything that is contrary to that order and therefore
contrary to the will of God, neither the laws made or the authorizations granted can be binding on
the consciences of the citizens, since God has more right to be obeyed than man.
‘Pacem in Terris’ (1963) p. 142
The social progress, order, security and peace of each country are necessarily connected with
the social progress, order, security and peace of all other countries.
‘Pacem in Terris’ (1963) p. 150
In the universal Declaration of Human Rights (December, 1948), in most solemn form, the
dignity of a person is acknowledged to all human beings; and as a consequence there is
proclaimed, as a fundamental right, the right of free movement in search for truth and in the
attainment of moral good and of justice, and also the right to a dignified life.
‘Pacem in Terris’ (1963)
10.30 Linton Kwesi Johnson b. 1952
Brothers and sisters rocking,
a dread beat pulsing fire, burning.
‘Dread Beat an Blood’ (1975)
Cold lights hurting, breaking, hurting;
fire in the head and a dread beat bleeding, beating fire: dread.
‘Dread Beat an Blood’ (1975)
10.31 Lionel Johnson 1867-1902