Oxford dictionary of quotations (7th ed)

The first edition of the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations was published in 1941 and for 70 years this bestselling book has remained unrivalled in its coverage of quotations past and present.

The seventh edition is a vast treasury of wit and wisdom spanning the centuries and providing the ultimate answer to the question, 'Who said that?' Find that half-remembered line in a browser's paradise of over 20,000 quotations, comprehensively indexed for ready reference.

Whether you lean towards the words of Jane Austen: 'Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure', or the advice of Paris Hilton: 'Dress cute wherever you go.

Life is too short to blend in', the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations provides a quote for every occasion.

Plus to celebrate its 70th birthday the book now comes with a free booklet of misquotations and the fascinating stories behind them.

Drawing on Oxford's unrivalled dictionary research programme and unique language monitoring, almost 1,000 new quotations have been added to this seventh edition from over 500 authors, from Mary Wollstonecraft and Sarah Palin to Herman Hesse and William Hazlitt. These include classic quotations from established names for which new evidence of current usage has been found, such as 'The worth of a soul cannot be told' (the African writer and former slave Olaudah Equiano) and 'Work first - love next' (American writer and feminist Charlotte Perkins Gilman), as well as earlier quotations used by well-known literary authors from around the English-speaking world, e.g. the maxim of Confucius for a ruler, 'If you desire what is good, the people will be good' (quoted by Thoreau), and the view of the Phrygian Stoic philosopher Epictetus that 'Not things, but opinions about things, trouble men' (cited by Laurence Sterne ) 'When a thing has been said and well said, have no scruple: take it and copy it' - Anatole France