Oxford Dictionary of Quotations »

Elizabeth Knowles has been the Managing Editor of Oxford's Quotations Dictionaries since 1993. She lives in the United Kingdom.

Yes, Oscar Wilde's last words, addressed to his ugly wallpaper, were "One of us has to go." Yes, the official advice on how to respond to a local nuclear attack was to "duck and cover." And no, Kirk never said "Beam me up, Scotty." Readers are likely to be both shaken and stirred by this collection of 20,000 quotations, generated by both the intentionally and accidentally brilliant. Each entry includes the briefest of biographies, provenance, and (when necessary) context. Especially helpful are the index based on key words and phrases, and a series of thematic listings such as film titles, advertising slogans, prayers, songs, telegrams and toasts. This new edition includes some of the latest musings by leaders of governments both active and deposed, and some truly startling pronouncements by people who are said to be the brightest lights of pop culture, that is, until they speak without a script. The only apparent downside to this volume is that one can browse, and laugh, for hours and hours. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Library Journal

In one of his elegies, Rilke proclaimed, "Who has not sat nervously before the stage curtain of his heart." In a short story, Anton Chekhov wrote, "If a lot of cures are suggested for a disease, it means that the disease is incurable." This is but a sampling of the kinds of quotations one finds in this newly revised Oxford classic. With its more than 20,000 quotations, organized alphabetically by author's last name, the dictionary will both educate and entertain anyone who appreciates other people's wisdom or, alternately, enjoys discovering statements that are downright dumb (e.g., Bill Clinton's comment about smoking pot). Since the publication of the fifth edition in 1999, so much has been said by such omnipresent figures as Saddam Hussein, George W. Bush, and Martha Stewart that libraries will definitely want an update, though the hundreds of new entries reach back to older times as well. Mirela Roncevic Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.