Oxford Treasury of Sayings and Quotations (4th edition)

I have never been one to take seriously the sortes biblicae or even sortes virgilianae, but I was struck on first opening this volume at random that the first entry my eye hit upon was Mark Twain's remark: “Better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt”. Was I being told something? Does this apply to reviewing? With some trepidation I shall continue anyway.

“A truly unique reference book” is claimed in the introduction: quite possibly. Not a dictionary of quotations, or of proverbs and sayings or of phrase and fable,...