The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Preface

Of polished pillars, or a roof of gold;
Thou hast no lantern whereof tales are told,
Or stair, or courts; but standst an ancient pile,
And these grudged at, art reverenced the while.
‘To Penshurst’ (1616) l. 1
The blushing apricot and woolly peach
Hang on thy walls, that every child may reach.
‘To Penshurst’ (1616) l. 43
His censure of the English poets was this...That Donne, for not keeping of accent, deserved
hanging. That Shakespeare wanted art.
In ‘Conversations with William Drummond of Hawthornden’ (written 1619) no. 3
The players have often mentioned it as an honour to Shakespeare that in his writing,
whatsoever he penned, he never blotted out a line. My answer hath been ‘Would he had blotted a
thousand’; which they thought a malevolent speech. I had not told posterity this, but for their
ignorance, who chose that circumstance to commend their friend by wherein he most faulted...His
wit was in his own power; would the rule of it had been so too...But he redeemed his vices with
his virtues. There was ever more in him to be praised than to be pardoned.
‘Timber, or Discoveries made upon Men and Matter’ (1641) l. 658 ‘De Shakespeare Nostrati’.
The fear of every man that heard him was, lest he should make an end.
‘Timber, or Discoveries made upon Men and Matter’ (1641) l. 906 ‘Dominus Verulamius’ (on Francis Bacon)
Talking and eloquence are not the same: to speak, and to speak well, are two things.
‘Timber, or Discoveries made upon Men and Matter’ (1641) l. 1882 ‘Praecept [a]. Element [aria]
10.46 Janis Joplin 1943-70
Fourteen heart attacks and he had to die in my week. In my week.
When Eisenhower’s death prevented her photograph appearing on the cover of ‘Newsweek’, in ‘New Musical
Express’ 12 April 1969
10.47 Thomas Jordan c.1612-85
They plucked communion tables down
And broke our painted glasses;
They threw our altars to the ground
And tumbled down the crosses.
They set up Cromwell and his heir—
The Lord and Lady Claypole—
Because they hated Common Prayer,
The organ and the maypole.
‘How the War began’ (1664)
10.48 John Jortin 1698-1770
Palmam qui meruit, ferat.