The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Preface

‘Lettres et Opuscules Inèdits’ (1851) vol. 1, letter 53, 15 August 1811
1.48 Bernard Malamud 1914-86
The past exudes legend: one can’t make pure clay of time’s mud. There is no life that can be
recaptured wholly; as it was. Which is to say that all biography is ultimately fiction.
‘Dubin’s Lives’ (1979) p. 20
1.49 Stèphane Mallarmè 1842-98
La chair est triste, hèlas! et j’ai lu tous les livres.
The flesh, alas, is wearied; and I have read all the books there are.
‘Brise Marin’
Le vierge, le vivace et le bel aujourd’hui.
That virgin, vital, fine day: today.
‘Plusieurs Sonnets’
Un coup de dès jamais n’abolira le hasard.
A throw of the dice will never eliminate chance.
‘Cosmopolis’ May 1897
1.50 David Mallet (or Malloch) c.1705-65
O grant me, Heaven, a middle state,
Neither too humble nor too great;
More than enough, for nature’s ends,
With something left to treat my friends.
Imitation of Horace.
And thrice he called on Margaret’s name,
And thrice he wept full sore:
Then laid his cheek to her cold grave.
And word spake never more.
‘William and Margaret’ l. 65
1.51 George Leigh Mallory 1886-1924
Because it’s there.
Explaining why he wanted to climb Mount Everest, in ‘New York Times’ 18 March 1923
1.52 Sir Thomas Malory d. 1471
Whoso pulleth out this sword of this stone and anvil is rightwise King born of all England.
‘Le Morte D’Arthur’ (finished 1470, printed by Caxton 1485) bk. 1, ch. 4
This beast went to the well and drank, and the noise was in the beast’s belly like unto the
questing of thirty couple hounds, but all the while the beast drank there was no noise in the
beast’s belly.