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Blandings - the logo of www.blandings.org.uk, the Companion to the works of P G Wodehouse

Quote - Unquote

'It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations.' - Winston Churchill.

Wodehouse was very well read but still used a book of quotations. He quoted freely throughout his works, although not always accurately. Each book and short story page in this site has notes on the quotations and other references made in them. This page covers the most quoted in each of three categories as a sort of encore.

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Shakespeare

PG quotes the bard approximately 500 times from 24 plays and two sonnets.

Most quoted plays (best estimates).

  1. Hamlet (127 quotes)
  2. Macbeth (111)
  3. Julius Caesar (75)
  4. Othello (45)
  5. The Merchant of Venice (36)

Most quoted lines or referrals (all over 10 times each).

Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 5.

Yet do I fear thy nature,
It is too full o' th' milk of human kindness
To catch the nearest way.

Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 1. *

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 5.

Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres,
Thy knotted and combined locks to part
And each particular hair to stand on end,
Like quills upon the fretful porpentine

Julius Caesar, Act 4, Scene 3.

There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 7.

Letting 'I dare not' wait upon 'I would'
Like the poor cat 'i the adage

Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 3.

Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff

Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 1. *

Sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,

The Tempest, Act 4, Scene 1.

Leave not a rack behind

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 7.

If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well it were done quickly

Julius Caesar, Act 4, Scene 3.

Why, I will see thee at Philippi, then.

King Henry V, Act 3, Scene 1.

... stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood.

* Both of these are from the famous soliloquy (a fancy way of saying that Hamlet was talking to himself, never a good sign) which PG quotes in part at least 40 times.

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The Bible

PG quotes or makes unambiguous references to the Bible approximately 500 times, about 3:1 in favour of the Old Testament.
The most quoted verses (over ten times each) including referrals, in Book and Chapter order are:

Genesis: Chapter 19, Verse 26. (Lot's wife.)

But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

Deuteronomy: Chapter 34, Verses 1 - 4 (Moses on Mount Pisgah).

And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah that is over against Jericho. And the Lord shewed him all the land of Gilead, unto Dan.
And all Napthali, and the land of Ephraim, and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, unto the utmost sea.
And the south, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, unto Zoar.
And the Lord said unto him, 'This is the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying I will give it unto thy seed: I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither.

Judges: Chapter 16. The story of Samson and Delilah.

Psalm 42, Verse 1.

As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.

Psalm 58, Verses 4-5. (The deaf adder.)

Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear;
Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.

Proverbs: Chapter 23, Verses 31-32.

Look now not upon the wine when it is red; when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright.
At the last it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder.

Daniel: Chapter 3. The story of the burning fiery furnace, including Verse 26:

Then Nebudchadnezzar came near to the moth of the burning fiery furnace, and spake, and said Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, ye servants of the most high God, come forth, and come hither. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, came forth of the midst of the fire.

Daniel: Chapter 6, Verses 16-24. Daniel in the lion's den.

Luke: Chapter 12, Verse 27.

Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

1 Peter: Chapter 1, Verse 24.

... all flesh is as grass ...

The text above is taken from the Authorized or King James Version.

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Other books and poems

Most quoted authors with approximate number of quotes.

  1. Alfred, Lord Tennyson (205)
  2. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (142)
  3. Rudyard Kipling (84)
  4. John Keats (62)
  5. Sir Walter Scott (59)
  6. Robert Browning (51)
  7. Samuel Taylor Coleridge (49)
  8. William Wordsworth (33)
  9. George, Lord Byron (30)
  10. Robert Burns (27)

The numbers depend on how you define 'quote' i.e. whether all of the wording is identical, some of it is the same, or it is simply clear what is being referred to. PG was inclined to take substantial liberties with other authors' words. These two top tens are the tip of an iceberg of over one thousand quotes from some 140 authors (excluding the lyricists below).

Most quoted lines top 10 (numbers are quite close so the order is approximate).

  1. Sir Walter Scott, Marmion, Canto VI, Stanza 30.

    O woman! in our hours of ease
    Uncertain, coy, and hard to please,
    And variable as the shade
    By the light quivering aspen made;
    When pain and anguish wring the brow,
    A ministering angel thou!

  2. Voltaire, Candide.

    All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds.
    (Tout est pour le mieux dans le meilleur des mondes possibles.)

  3. John Keats, On First Looking into Chapman's Homer.

    Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
    When a new planet swims into his ken;
    Or like stout Cortez, when with eagle eyes
    He star'd at the Pacific - and all his men
    Look'd at each other with a wild surmise -
    Silent, upon a peak in Darien.

  4. Rudyard Kipling, Pagett, M. P.

    The toad beneath the harrow knows
    Exactly where each tooth-point goes

  5. Alfred, Lord Tennyson, The May Queen.

    You must wake and call me early, call me early, mother dear;
    To-morrow'll be the happiest time of all the glad New-year;
    Of all the glad New-year, the maddest, merriest day;
    For I'm to be the Queen o' the May, mother, I'm to be Queen o' the May.

  6. Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Lady Clara Vere de Vere, Stanza 7.

    Howe'er it be, it seems to me,
    'T is only noble to be good.
    Kind hearts are more than coronets,
    And simple faith than Norman blood.

  7. John Greenleaf Whittier, Maud Muller.

    ... of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: 'It might have been!'

  8. Alfred, Lord Tennyson, In Memoriam.

    I held it truth, with him who sings
    To one clear harp in divers tones,
    Than men may rise on stepping-stones
    Of their dead selves to higher things

  9. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Excelsior.

    A youth, who bore, 'mid snow and ice,
    A banner with the strange device,
    Excelsior!

  10. Robert Browning, The Year's at the Spring from the play Pippa Passes.

    God's in his Heaven, all's right with the world.

Honourable mentions

Sir Walter Scott, The Lady of the Lake.

The stag at eve had drunk his fill

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Village Blacksmith, including:

Something attempted, something done.
Has earned a night's repose.

and

And the muscles of his brawny arms
Are strong as iron bands.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, A Psalm of Life, including:

Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate

and

Let the dead past bury its dead.

and

Life is real; life is earnest!

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Proverbs, songs and other sources

Proverbs

PG quotes around 30 different proverbs with no obvious favourites.

Songs

An astonishing 160 songs (approx.) are quoted nearly 300 times by title or lyrics. A clear favourite is from the Bohemian Girl by Michael Balfe, words by Alfred Bunn. The verse is:

The heart bow'd down by weight of woe
To weakest hope will cling.
To thought and impulse while they flow,
That can no comfort bring

Of the nearly 20 hymns quoted some 70 times, there are two favourites:

From Greenland's Icy Mountains by Reginald Heber.

What tho' the spicy breezes
Blow soft o'er Ceylon's isle;
Though every prospect pleases,
And only man is vile?

And from Hymns Ancient and Modern, the Troops of Midian who prowl and prowl around.

Other

To complete the picture, PG makes reference to a number of books, stage works and films. As books and plays were sometimes made into films it's not possible to be certain which (if any) PG was referring to. For what it's worth, there's 40-50 stage works and films mentioned and over 60 books by other authors.

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The sheer volume of quotes and references, not to mention PG's deliberate and accidental misquoting, means I've undoubtedly missed many references, allusions and direct quotes. If you spot one I've missed, please let me know - e-mail Reggie.