The Oxford Dictionary of Humorous Quotations

Book Overview

In The Oxford Dictionary of Humorous Quotations, noted writer and satirist Ned Sherrin has gathered nearly 5,000 quotations in a rollicking collection drawn from an international cast of humorists and pundits, ranging from Shakespeare, Jane Austen, and Oscar Wilde to Groucho Marx, Monty Python, and Roseanne. Arranged in themes, from Actors and Acting (including Dorothy Parker's famous barb on Katherine Hepburn's Broadway debut, "She ran the whole...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0192142445
• ISBN13: 9780192142443
• Release Date: November 1995
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 576 Pages
• Weight: 2.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.9" x 6.5" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

When you need a great quip that fits the occasion ...look here!

This is a treasure trove of humor for all occasions. There are many books of quotations from all kinds of people and for all occasions and topics; but here the book keeps to what is humorous.It is a great source to have handy; but it also makes for wonderful light hearted reading ,just to start at the front and to keep going.It is organized several ways so that a quote on a subject or by personality is easy to find. It was published in Britain so has a lot of lines that are new over here. Here are a couple I enjoyed; On being told that his fly buttons were undone,Winston Churchill commented;"No matter,dead birds do not leave the nest." To her husband a chicken farmer in California,after a flash flood had wiped out his entire flock. "I told you to stick to ducks." "Oh what a wonderous bird is the Pelican! His beak holds more than his belican. He takes in his beak,food enough for a week, But I'll be damned if I know the helican." "I opened it at page 96--the secret page,on which I wrote my name to catch out borrowers and book sharks." Flan O'Brien It'd be hard to find a better book of humorous quotes.

Useful (and funny) reference for all

Collection of witty, funny, sarcastic or apprantely innocent quotations from famous and not so famous people.Book is well organized. Quotations are divided into categories. These categories are given in alphabetical order starting from 'Actors and Acting, 'Advertising' to 'Writers and Writing' and 'Youth'. Surprisingly there is no topic with Z! You may also find some every interesting categories. Just to give you an idea there are quotations on 'Quotations', 'Insults and Invective' and 'Censorship'.For every quotation there is, along with the author name, a brief description of where and when was it said/used and in some cases why was it used. That adds to the meaning of the quote.Such as why Winston Churchill said 'And they say the old man's getting deaf as well'.At the end of book, apart from the keywork index, there is also an author index, in case you need quotes from a particular person.A useful book for adding spice to your speech and writing or just skim through it for literally pleasure.Just to quote an example from the book: 'I know heaps of quotations, so I can always make quite a fair show of knowledge' -- O. Douglas

An Excellent Resource, And A Great Read Too

A fantastic book of quotations, and the most comprehensive collection of humorous quotes I've yet to come across. The organization is excellent, with an adequate list of themes serving as the table of contents. Further aiding discovery of the perfect quote is an index of authors/sources, and a very well developed keyword index. Both of these supplemental indices are a bit confusing, but not overly so. They list the applicable theme and the numbered entry under that theme; there are no page numbers given. It's a bit confusing on the first few uses, after that it is simple.The book is a fun, quick read as well, dense (with its relatively small print) with goodies from John Updike, Cheryl Tiegs, Henry Kissinger, Frank Zappa, George Foreman, P. J. O'Rourke, etc. I heartily recommend it.

A Great Quote Book

This book was great. I loved every quote. It had a lot of excellent ideas. I will make you laugh and teach you life leason's at the same time. One of my friends loaned it to me and I had to go out and get my own. If you like quotes then you will love this book.