The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Preface

The more things change, the more they are the same.
‘Les Guêpes’ January 1849
Si l’on veut abolir la peine de mort en ce cas, que MM les assassins commencent.
If we are to abolish the death penalty, I should like to see the first step taken by our friends the
murderers.
‘Les Guêpes’ January 1849
11.7 George S. Kaufman 1889-1961
Satire is what closes Saturday night.
In Scott Meredith ‘George S. Kaufman and his Friends’ (1974) ch. 6
11.8 Gerald Kaufman 1930—
The longest suicide note in history.
Describing the Labour Party’s ‘New Hope for Britain’ (1983), in Denis Healey ‘The Time of My Life’ (1989)
ch. 23
11.9 Paul Kaufman and Mike Anthony
Poetry in motion.
Title of song (1960).
11.10 Christoph Kaufmann 1753-95
Sturm und Drang.
Storm and stress.
Title suggested by Kaufman for a romantic drama of the American War of Independence by the German
playwright, F. M. Klinger (1775) and thereafter given to a period of literary ferment which prevailed in
Germany during the latter part of the 18th century
11.11 Patrick Kavanagh 1905-67
Cassiopeia was over
Cassidy’s hanging hill,
I looked and three whin bushes rode across
The horizon—the Three Wise Kings.
‘A Christmas Childhood’ (1947)
Clay is the word and clay is the flesh
Where the potato-gatherers like mechanized scarecrows move
Along the side-fall of the hill—Maguire and his men.
‘The Great Hunger’ (1947)
That was how his life happened.
No mad hooves galloping in the sky,
But the weak, washy way of true tragedy—
A sick horse nosing around the meadow for a clean place to die.