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University of Oxford

collegiate research university in Oxford, England

The University of Oxford (informally Oxford University, or simply Oxford) is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world's second-oldest university in continuous operation. It grew rapidly from 1167 when Henry II banned English students from attending the University of Paris. After disputes between students and Oxford townsfolk in 1209, some academics fled north-east to Cambridge where they established what became the University of Cambridge. The two English ancient universities share many common features and are jointly referred to as Oxbridge. Oxford is ranked among the most prestigious universities in the world.

University of Oxford coat of arms
Examination Schools Oxford University

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  • And that sweet City with her dreaming spires
She needs not June for beauty's heightening
[Describing the view of Oxford from Boars Hill]
  • Matthew Arnold, Thyrsis (1866) l. 19. Ratcliffe, Susan, ed (2008). "Arnold, Matthew". Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. Oxford University Press. [1]. Retrieved 2 December 2009.
  • Home of lost causes, and forsaken beliefs, and unpopular names, and impossible loyalties!
  • Oxford is on the whole more attractive than Cambridge to the ordinary visitor; and the traveller is therefore recommended to visit Cambridge first, or to omit it altogether if he cannot visit both.
    • Karl Baedeker, Great Britain (1887) Route 30 "From London to Oxford". Knowles, Elizabeth. "Karl Baedeker". Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. Oxford University Press. [3]. Retrieved 2 December 2009.
  • The nonsense which was knocked out of [boys] at school is all put gently back at Oxford or Cambridge.
    • Max Beerbohm, More (1899) "Going Back to School". Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. 1991. p. 37. ISBN 019211560X.
  • I was not unpopular [at school]... It is Oxford that has made me insufferable.
    • Max Beerbohm, More (1899) "Going Back to School". Knowles, Elizabeth. "Max Beerbohm". Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. Oxford University Press. [4]. Retrieved 2 December 2009.
  • The King to Oxford sent a troop of horse,
For Tories own no argument but force:
With equal skill to Cambridge books he sent,
For Whigs admit no force but argument.
  • William Browne, Literary Anecdotes Vol. III. (Lines written on George I's donation of the Bishop of Ely's Library to the University of Cambridge, in reply to Joseph Trapp, below.) Bloomsbury Thematic Dictionary of Quotations. Bloomsbury Publishing. 1997. [5]. Retrieved 3 December 2009.
  • I am constantly filled with admiration at this – at the way you can wander through a town like Oxford and in the space of a few hundred yards pass the home of Christopher Wren, the buildings where Halley found his comet and Boyle his first law, the track where Roger Banister ran the first sub-four minute mile, the meadow where Lewis Carroll strolled; or how you can stand on Snow's Hill at Windsor and see, in a single sweep, Windsor Castle, the playing fields of Eton, the churchyard where Gray wrote his 'Elegy,' the site The Merry Wives of Windsor was first performed. Can there anywhere on earth be, in such a modest span, a landscape more packed with centuries of busy, productive attainment?
  • If I had to do literary work of an absorbing character, Oxford is the last place in which I should attempt to do it.
    • Robert Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, Letter to William Sanday, 30 May 1900; Brock and Curthoys (ed.) History of the University of Oxford (2000) vol. 7, pt. 2, ch. 25. Knowles, Elizabeth. "Lord Salisbury". Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. Oxford University Press. [6]. Retrieved 2 December 2009.
  • I speak not of this college or of that, but of the University as a whole; and, gentlemen, what a whole Oxford is!
  • [Blackadder is proving that Nurse Mary is a German spy]
Captain Blackadder: And then the final irrefutable proof. Remember you mentioned a clever boyfriend?
Nurse Mary: Yes?
Blackadder: Well, I leapt on the opportunity to test you. I asked you whether he had been to one of the great universities, Oxford, Cambridge, Hull.
Mary: Well?
Blackadder: What you didn't spot is that only two of those are great universities.
Mary: You swine!
General Melchett: That's right. Oxford's a complete dump!
  • To the University of Oxford I acknowledge no obligation; and she will as cheerfully renounce me for a son, as I am willing to disclaim her for a mother. I spent fourteen months at Magdalen College: they proved the fourteen months the most idle and unprofitable of my whole life.
    • Edward Gibbon, Memoirs of My Life (1796) ch. 3. Knowles, Elizabeth. "Edward Gibbon". Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. Oxford University Press. [7]. Retrieved 2 December 2009.
  • The clever men at Oxford
Know all that there is to be knowed.
But they none of them know one half as much
As intelligent Mr Toad!
  • Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows (1908) Chapter 10. Ratcliffe, Susan, ed (2008). "Grahame, Kenneth". Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. Oxford University Press. [8]. Retrieved 2 December 2009.
  • You will hear more good things on the outside of a stagecoach from London to Oxford than if you were to pass a twelvemonth with the undergraduates, or heads of colleges, of that famous university.
    • William Hazlitt, Table Talk vol. 1 (1821) "The Ignorance of the Learned". Knowles, Elizabeth. "William Hazlitt". Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. Oxford University Press. [9]. Retrieved 2 December 2009.
  • Sir, if a man has a mind to prance, he must study at Christ Church and All Souls.
  • At Oxford, as you know, we follow the Cambridge lead, sometimes with uncertain steps.
    • Benjamin Jowett, Letter to Professor Marshall, 5 January 1886. Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. 1991. p. 285. ISBN 019211560X.
  • I saw the spires of Oxford
As I was passing by,
The grey spires of Oxford
Against a pearl-grey sky;
My heart was with the Oxford men
Who went abroad to die.
  • Winifred Mary Letts, The Spires of Oxford (1916). Knowles, Elizabeth. "Winifred Mary Letts". Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. Oxford University Press. [10]. Retrieved 2 December 2009.
  • I remember an acquaintance saying to me that "the Oriel Common Room stank of logic".
    • Cardinal Newman, History of My Religious Opinions from 1841 to 1845. Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. 1991. p. 361. ISBN 019211560X.
  • Anyone taking classics or history for the prestige is either at Oxford or stuck in 1909.
  • From old foundations where the nation rears
Her darlings, came that flower of England's youth
And here in latest teens, or riper years,
Stood drinking in all nobleness and truth
  • Very nice sort of place, Oxford, I should think, for people that like that sort of place. They teach you to be a gentleman there. In the polytechnic they teach you to be an engineer or such like. See?
  • I can't see who's in the lead but it's either Oxford or Cambridge. [Commentary on the 1949 Boat Race, between Oxford and Cambridge...]
    • John Snagge. C. Dodd "Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race" (1983). Knowles, Elizabeth, ed (2008). "Snagge, John". Oxford Dictionary of Modern Quotations. Oxford University Press. [12]. Retrieved 2 December 2009.
  • A self-made man is one who believes in luck and sends his son to Oxford.
  • The King, observing with judicious eyes
The state of both his universities,
To Oxford sent a troop of horse, and why?
That learned body wanted loyalty;
To Cambridge books, as very well discerning
How much that loyal body wanted learning.
  • Joseph Trapp, lines written on George I's donation of the Bishop of Ely's Library to the University of Cambridge. (See above, under William Browne, for a reply). Knowles, Elizabeth. "Joseph Trapp". Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. Oxford University Press. [14]. Retrieved 2 December 2009.
  • Oxford is, and always has been, full of cliques, full of factions, and full of a particular non-social snobbiness.
  • Being published by the Oxford University Press is rather like being married to a duchess: the honour is almost greater than the pleasure.
    • G. M. Young. Rupert Hart-Davis, letter to George Lyttelton, 29 April 1956. Knowles, Elizabeth, ed (2008). "Young, G. M.". Oxford Dictionary of Modern Quotations. Oxford University Press. [16]. Retrieved 2 December 2009.
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