Paris Hilton joins Confucius and Oscar Wilde in latest Oxford Dictionary of Quotes (yes, really!)

Posted by lena on Sep 10, 2009 in News | 0 comments

She is famous for her love of short skirts and small dogs – not for her wit or wisdom.
But Paris Hilton has somehow joined the ranks of the quotable notables.
The hotel heiress makes a surprise appearance in the latest edition of the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations.
Her pithy observation: ‘Dress cute wherever you go, life is too short to blend in’, will stand alongside words from luminaries such as Oscar Wilde and Stephen Hawking.
Paris’s saying is one of more than 20,000 new quotations to enter the seventh edition of the prestigious tome published today.
Another new entry is from former U.S. vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who said: ‘What’s the difference between a hockey mom and a pitbull? Lipstick.’
Others come from the likes of British authors Terry Pratchett and Philip Pullman, Stephen Hawking, Aung San Suu Kyi and late comedy host and jazzman Humphrey Lyttelton.
Some are not as new as they seem. Barack Obama’s contribution, ‘The arc of history is long but it bends towards justice’, is similar to one used by Martin Luther King in 1968.
The dictionary, which is in its 65th year, has also added several ‘new’ quotes from the distant past, such as one from Confucius, the 5th century BC Chinese philosopher.
This may be because they have been used or referenced by others in recent years or that the researchers have, after decades, managed to source and verify them as genuine.
Some have taken on new relevance, such as former U.S. president Thomas Jefferson’s: ‘Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies’, uttered 200 years ago.
The dictionary’s editor-Elizabeth Knowles, said: ‘Events may give an older utterance very topical significance – for example, Thomas Jefferson has for obvious reasons been quoted quite widely in the last year.’
She added that other quotes from the past sometimes become familiar to new audiences because of the internet. ‘Anything quoted today, verbally or “written” in electronic-form, can be and probably will be encountered by people all over the globe,’ she said.
‘As more data is added to online sources, more voices from the past find a route to us today. The new edition of the dictionary reflects the impact of these changes.’
Tony Blair could perhaps do with a copy of the dictionary in his Christmas stocking. He made an embarrassing error on television in the U.S. this week by wrongly attributing a famous quote to either Winston Churchill or Oscar Wilde.
The line: ‘England and America are two countries divided by a common language,’ was actually said by playwright George Bernard Shaw. Mr Blair was appearing on the David Letterman show.
Source: dailymail.co.uk