The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Preface

12.106 Livy (Titus Livius) 59 B.C.—AD 17
Vae victis.
Down with the defeated!
The cry (already proverbial) of the Gallic King, Brennus, on capturing Rome (390 B.C.), in ‘Ab Urbe
Condita’ bk. 5, ch. 48, sect. 9
Pugna magna victi sumus.
In a battle, a big one, we were the defeated!
The announcement of the Roman disaster in Hannibal’s ambush at Lake Trasimene (217 B.C.), in ‘Ab Urbe
Condita’ bk. 22, ch. 7, sect. 8
12.107 Richard Llewellyn (Richard Dafydd Vivian Llewellyn Lloyd) 1907-83
How green was my valley.
Title of book (1939)
12.108 Robert Lloyd
Turn parson, Colman, that’s the way to thrive;
Your parsons are the happiest men alive.
‘The Law-Student’ (1762)
Alone from Jargon born to rescue Law,
From precedent, grave hum, and formal saw!
To strip chicanery of its vain pretence,
And marry Common Law to Common Sense!
‘The Law-Student’ (1762) (on Lord Mansfield, Lord Chief Justice, 1756-88)
True Genius, like Armida’s wand,
Can raise the spring from barren land.
While all the art of Imitation,
Is pilf’ring from the first creation.
‘Shakespeare’ (1762)
12.109 David Lloyd George (Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor) 1863-1945
The leal and trusty mastiff which is to watch over our interests, but which runs away at the first
snarl of the trade unions....A mastiff? It is the right hon. Gentleman’s poodle.
On the House of Lords and Lord Balfour, in ‘Hansard’ 26 June 1907, col. 1429
A fully-equipped duke costs as much to keep up as two Dreadnoughts; and dukes are just as
great a terror and they last longer.
Speech at Newcastle, 9 October 1909, in ‘The Times’ 11 October 1909
The great peaks of honour we had forgotten—Duty, Patriotism, and—clad in glittering white—
the great pinnacle of Sacrifice, pointing like a rugged finger to Heaven.
Speech at Queen’s Hall, London, 19 September 1914, in ‘The Times’ 20 September 1914
At eleven o’clock this morning came to an end the cruellest and most terrible war that has ever