The first edition of the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations was published in 1941 and for over 70 years this bestselling book has remained unrivalled in its coverage of quotations past and present. The eighth 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. Lord Byron may have taken the view: 'I think it great affectation not to quote oneself', but for the less self-centred the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations provides a quote for every occasion from the greatest minds of history and from undistinguished characters known only for one happy line.

Drawing on Oxford's unrivalled dictionary research programme and unique language monitoring, over 700 new quotations have been added to this eighth edition from authors ranging from St Joan of Arc and Coco Chanel to Albrecht Durer and Thomas Jefferson. New sayings from across the ages include 'It would not be better if things happened to men just as they wish' (the classical writer Heraclitus), 'Fight on, and God will give the Victory' (the suffragette Emily Wilding Davison), and 'The future is already here--it's just not evenly distributed' (the writer William Gibson).