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comment on T. E. Lawrence, ‘Always backing into the limelight’, is traditionally
attributed to Lord Berners, but we now know that a similar comment was made by
George Bernard Shaw, and recorded in a contemporary source. The diaries of the
German diplomat, Count Harry Kessler, tell of a meeting with Shaw in November
1929. Lawrence had apparently complained that every move of his was followed by
the Press, eliciting the Shavian response, ‘You always hide just in the middle of the
limelight.’ The information came to light just too late to be fully covered by this
edition.
What will perhaps be considered the most famous soundbite of 2003 (‘Ladies and
gentlemen, we got him’—Paul Bremer on the capture of Saddam Hussein) was
uttered after the book went to Press. Topical material will always be a problem, not
least because we have a devoted, and protective, readership. Those who care for
the
Dictionary
are, rightly, concerned for its quality: less rightly, they may then
extrapolate the view that the inclusion of topical or ephemeral material is somehow
likely to devalue an adjacent quotation from classical literature. While having the
charge of an iconic reference book is properly a serious responsibility, we still need
to remember that we are publishing for our own times. A quotations collection
published in 2004 needs to include the highest profile quotations of the recent past,
though with the awareness that by the time the next edition is published some of
them will be dropped. In the interim, however, we cannot tell people what they
should remember, or refuse to answer questions which they may reasonably ask.
In compiling the new edition, we have once more drawn on the resources of Oxford
Quotations Dictionaries: our published texts (and the research which lies behind
them), and our growing database of new quotations derived from our reading
programme. As always we have benefited from the generosity of readers who take
the trouble to write to us with questions, comments, and suggestions. Colleagues in
the Reference Department have again put forward quotations encountered in work
and leisure. Among those to whom we are particularly grateful for contributions of
material or solutions to particular questions, we would like to thank Matthew Carter,
Margot Charlton, Mike Clark, Susie Dent, Henry Hardy, Antony Jay, Ian Linton, Kirk
Marlow, Nigel Rees, Ned Sherrin, Donald Smith, and Sarah Waldram. Finally, and
most importantly, Susan Ratcliffe’s editorial contribution has been of key impor-
tance in the preparation of this edition.
In his Introduction to the First Edition, Bernard Darwin envisaged typical readers of
the
Dictionary
as ‘friends by the fireside…indulging in a heated quoting-match’, or
as allies trying to solve a crossword puzzle. In 2004, readers are as likely to turn to
it as a resource when trying to outdo a contestant on a television quiz show, solving
a reference found while browsing the Net, or preparing for a presentation of their
own. But although there are over sixty years, and infinite cultural and technological
differences, between the worlds of the first and sixth editions, there is still a
common thread: the fascination with words identified by Darwin in his opening
sentence: ‘Quotation brings to many people one of the intensest joys of living.’ It is
in response to this continuing fascination that we monitor the language and collect
quotations. It is as always our aim to edit a text that for our own time will answer the
key quotations questions, ‘Who said that?’ and ‘What’s been said about this?’
Elizabeth Knowles
Oxford 2004
How to use the Dictionary
The sequence of entries is by alphabetical order of author, usually by surname but
with occasional exceptions such as members of royal families (e.g. Diana,
Princess of Wales and Elizabeth II) and Popes (John Paul II), or authors known
by a pseudonym (‘Saki’) or a nickname (Caligula). In general authors’ names are
given in the form by which they are best known, so that we have Harold Macmillan
(not Lord Stockton), George Eliot (not Mary Ann Evans), and H.G.Wells (not
Herbert George Wells). Collections such as Anonymous, the Bible, the Book of
Common Prayer, the Missal, and so forth, are included in the alphabetical
sequence. Some Anonymous quotations may be included in one of the special
category sections (see below).
Author names are followed by dates of birth and death (where known) and brief
descriptions; where appropriate, cross-references (
) are then given to quotations
about that author elsewhere in the text (
on Byron
:
see
Lamb). Cross-references
are also made to other entries in which the author appears, e.g. ‘
see also
Epitaphs’ and ‘
see also
Lennon and McCartney’. Within each author entry,
quotations are separated by literary form (novels, plays, poems: see further below)