The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations

The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, first published by the Oxford University Press in 1941, is an 1100-page book listing short quotations that are common in English language and culture.

Quotations are also cross-referenced. For example, on looking up Napoleon's quotation about Britain being a nation of shopkeepers, one also finds Adam Smith, who said it first. Quotations about absolute power are cross-referenced to Lord Acton, and from him to William Pitt the Elder, who said something similar.

The dictionary has been jokingly called the Oxford Dikker of Quotaggers using the Oxford "-er".

The first edition in 1941 was compiled by a committee drawn from the staff of the OUP under the editorship of Alice Mary Smyth (later Alice Mary Hadfield). She recounts some of the details of choosing and processing quotations in her book on the life of Charles Williams (one of the committee). Later editions of the Dictionary were published in 1953 and thereafter, the 6th edition appearing in 2004 (ISBN 0-19-860720-2), followed in 2009 by the 7th edition, both edited by Elizabeth Knowles. (ISBN 0-19-923717-4)