The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Preface

The children in Holland take pleasure in making
What the children in England take pleasure in breaking.
Nursery Rhyme
Collapse of Stout Party.
Summary of the standard dènouement in Victorian humour, as exemplified by Punch, in R. Pearsall ‘Collapse
of Stout Party’ (1975) introduction
A Company for carrying on an undertaking of Great Advantage, but no one to know what it is.
The South Sea Company Prospectus (1711), in Cowles ‘The Great Swindle’ (1963) ch. 5
Conduct...to the prejudice of good order and military discipline.
Army Act, 40
Coughs and sneezes spread diseases. Trap the germs in your handkerchief.
World War II health slogan (1942)
[Death is] nature’s way of telling you to slow down.
‘Newsweek’ 25 April 1960 p. 70
Defence, not defiance.
Motto of the Volunteers Movement, 1859
Do not fold, spindle or mutilate.
Instruction on punched cards, found in this form in the 1950s and in differing forms from the 1930s
Don’t die of ignorance.
Slogan used in the British health awareness campaign against AIDS, 1987
Early one morning, just as the sun was rising,
I heard a maid sing in the valley below:
‘Oh, don’t deceive me; Oh, never leave me!
How could you use a poor maiden so?’
‘Early One Morning’ (traditional song)
Earned a precarious living by taking in one another’s washing.
Attributed to Mark Twain by William Morris, in ‘The Commonweal’ 6 August 1887
The eternal triangle.
Book review title in ‘Daily Chronicle’ 5 December 1907
Even your closest friends won’t tell you.
US advertisement for Listerine mouthwash, 1920s
Every country has its own constitution; ours is absolutism moderated by assassination.
Georg Herbert, Count Münster, quoting ‘an intelligent Russian’, in ‘Political Sketches of the State of Europe,
1814-1867’ (1868) 19
Everyman, I will go with thee, and be thy guide.
In thy most need to go by thy side.
‘Everyman’ (c.1509-19) l. 522 (lines spoken by Knowledge)
Every picture tells a story.
Advertisement for Doan’s Backache Kidney Pills, early 1900s
Expletive deleted.