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53
Roosevelt) have always elicited strong views (`ferocious, it forgives nothing' - Diana,
Princess of Wales), but the importance of journalism is stated, with dignity, by Amy
Goodman: `Go to where the silence is, and say something.' Views of the Present
range from Cicero (`O tempora! O mores!') to Tom Wolfe (`We are now in the Me
decade').
As well as author descriptions, we have included biographical cross-references
(accessible using the Super Jump): directions to quotations about that author
elsewhere within the
Dictionary
, so that anyone consulting the entry for Richard
Crossman can also find Hugh Dalton's assessment of him: `loyal to his own career
but only incidentally to anything or anyone else'. Authors mentioned in source notes
who have their own entries appear in bold type, further to facilitate movement
sideways through the dictionary.
In compiling this title we have as always drawn on the substantial resources of
Oxford Quotations Dictionaries: our existing published texts, and our growing bank
of new quotations. Fed by our reading programme, this is constantly enhanced by
the generosity of those who write to us with questions, comments, and suggestions,
a practice which we continue to welcome. Among those who have contributed
particularly to our resources and replied to specific questions, thanks are due to
Pauline Adams, Ralph Bates, Archie Burnett, Glynnis Chantrell, Margot Charlton,
Mike Clark, Robert Franklin, Peter Hennessy, Simon Hornblower, Antony Jay,
Richard Judd, Peter Kemp, John McNeill, Bernard O'Donoghue, Nigel Rees,
Brenda Richardson, Ned Sherrin, Robin Sawers, Hilary Spurling, and Norman
Vance. Colleagues in the Dictionary Department have, as always, supplied us with
quotations that they have come across. We hope once more that our contributors,
as well as those who use the dictionary, will share in the pleasure and interest felt
by the editorial staff in working on it.
Elizabeth Knowles
Oxford 1999
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)
and within each group arranged by order of title, ‘a’ and ‘the’ being ignored. Foreign-
language text is given for most literary quotations, or if it is felt that the quotation is
familiar in the language of origin.
Quotations from diaries, letters, and speeches are given in chronological order and
usually follow the literary or published works quoted, with the form for which the
author is best known taking precedence. Thus in the case of political figures,
speeches appear first, just as poetry quotations precede those in prose for poets,
and poetry quotations come second for an author regarded primarily as a novelist.
Quotations from secondary sources such as biographies and other writer’s works,
to which a date in the author’s lifetime can be assigned, are arranged in sequence
with diary entries, letters and speeches. Other quotations from secondary sources
and attributed quotations which cannot be so dated are arranged in alphabetical
order of quotation text.
Within the alphabetical sequence there are a number of special category entries,
such as Advertising slogans, Catchphrases, Film lines, Misquotations, and
Newspaper headlines and leaders. Quotations in these sections are arranged