It’s still a good thing

A good dictionary of quotations is part-reference book, part-anthology. It is a place where you go to check things up, and where you stay to browse. Many of the items it includes are there not so much because people are actually in the habit of quoting them, but because they are judged to be quotable.

The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, which was first published in 1941, has always been committed to this double role, with conspicuous success. But over the years there has been a shift of emphasis. The original dictionary broadly reflected the culture of club, common room and rectory. In later editions, the compilers have come to take a more democratic (or realistic) view of what most readers are likely to be familiar with. They have extended an increasing welcome to the popular and the contemporary, to mass entertainment, the media and everyday speech.