THE OXFORD DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS, fourth edition (Oxford University Press, $425). THE OXFORD DICTIONARY OF MODERN SLANG, edited by John Ayto and John Simpson (Oxford University Press, $240).
MORE than a century separates politician Alexis de Tocqueville's remark that ''history is a gallery of pictures in which there are few originals and many copies'', and novelist Julian Barnes' assertion that ''history just burps, and we taste again the raw-onion sandwich it swallowed centuries ago''.
Barnes' comments were made 133 years after the Frenchman's, but the essential point - that history repeats itself - is the same. But, as the Bible tells us: ''There is nothing new under the sun [Ecclesiastes 1:8].'' A flip through the 1,061 pages of the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations is to constantly come across these delightful nuggets of wit, insight, wisdom and observation culled from 2,500 people dating from the ancient Greeks to Baroness Thatcher.
There are many who would regard this weighty tome as a reference book for students writing essays, or speech-makers looking for some apposite quote to illustrate a point.
That would be like buying a Rolls-Royce only to use it for shopping; of course, it does the job, but you are scratching the surface of its potential.
The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations is a mammoth compilation of man's fears and foibles; a collection of verse, sharp observation, mordant wit and philosophising that updates the last edition published in 1979.
In the preface, editor Angela Partington writes that a quote should be ''dateless and indisputably true'' as well as ''memorable, significant, important, famous or notorious''.