Back and side go bare, go bare, Both foot and hand go cold; But, belly,God send thee good ale enough, Whether it be new or old.

-Anonymous
c.1575  Song, included in the play Gammer Gurton's Needle, act 2. William Stevenson (c.1530^75) and John Still (1543^1608) have both been credited with authorship of the play, but the song probably predates it.

O waly, waly up the bank, And waly, waly doun the brae, And waly, waly yon burn-side Where I and my love wont to gae. I lean'd my back unto an aik, I thocht it was a trustie tree; But first it bow'd, and syne it brakeö Sae my true love did lichtlie me. O waly, waly, gin love be bonnie A little time while it is new; But when 'tis auld it waxeth cauld And fades awa' like morning dew. O wherefore should I busk my heid, O wherefore should I kame my hair? For my true love has me forsook, And says he'll never lo'e me mair.

-Ballads
pre-1566  'Waly, Waly', opening stanzas.

One who never turned his back but marched breast forward, Never doubted clouds would break, Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would triumph, Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better, Sleep to wake.

-Browning, Robert
  Asolando, epilogue.

Either back us or sack us.

-Baron
  Speech, Labour Party Conference, 5 Oct.

The man that hails youTom or Jack, And proves by thumps upon your back How he esteems your merit, Is such a friend, that one had need Be very much his friend indeed To pardon or to bear it.

-Cowper,William
  Poems,'Friendship', l.169^74.

The distance that the dead have gone Does not at first appearö Their coming back seems possible For manyan ardent year.

-Dickinson, Emily Elizabeth
Complete Poems, no.1742 (first published1896).

If at times my eyes are lenses through which the brain explores constellations of feeling my ears yielding like swinging doors admit princes to the corridors into the mind, do not envy me. I have a beast on my back.

-Douglas, Gavin
  'Be"  te Noire'.

Sweet Thames, run softly till I end my song, Sweet Thames, run softly, for I speak not loud or long. But at my back in a cold blast I hear The rattle of the bones, and chuckle spread from ear to ear. See Marvell 556:62.

-Eliot,T(homas) S(tearns)
  The Waste Land, pt.3,'The Fire Sermon'.

He stared the assorted meannesses and failed promises of American life straight in the face, and they stared back.

-Gill, Brendan
  On Walker Evans's photographs for James  Agee's book on the destitute South.  A NewYork Life.

All the world over, I will back the masses against the classes.

-Gladstone,W(illiam) E(wart)
  Speech, Liverpool, 28  Jun.

Certain people always say we should go back to nature.I notice they never say we should go forward to nature. It seemstometheyare more concerned that we should go back, than about nature.

-Gottlieb, Adolph
  In Tiger's Eye, vol.1, no.2, Dec, quoted in C Harrison and Paul Wood (eds)  Art in Theory1900^1990 (1992).

The worstthing thatcanhappento oldgoodmusic isthat it might become dated for a while, but watch out, in twenty years it will come drifting back like bell-bottoms and W.C. Fields movies.

-Hawes, Hampton
  Raise Up Off Me (with Don  Asher), ch.22.

A man with a good coat upon his back meets with a better reception than he who has a bad one.

-Johnson, Samuel known as Dr Johnson
  Remark, 20  Jul. Quoted in  James Boswell The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), vol.1.

Idonot caretospeak ill of any man behind his back, but I believe the gentleman is an attorney.

-Johnson, Samuel known as Dr Johnson
  Quoted in  James Boswell The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), vol.2.

If somebody's gonna stab me in the back, I wanna be there.

-Lamport, Allan
  Quotations from Chairman Lamport.

My vegetable love should grow Vaster than empires, and more slow, An hundred years should go to praise Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze. Two hundred to adore each breast: But thirty thousand to the rest. An age at least to every part, And the last age should show your heart. For Lady you deserve this state; Nor would I love at lower rate. But at my back I always hear Time's winged chariot hurrying near: And yonder all before us lie Deserts of vast eternity.

-Marvell, Andrew
c.1650^1652  'To His Coy Mistress' (published1681).

Bonnie Charlie's now awa, Safely owre the friendly main; Monya heart will break in twa, Should he ne'er come back again. Will ye no come back again? Will ye no come back again? Better lo'ed ye canna be, Will ye no come back again?

-Nairne, Caroline, Lady
'WillYe No Come Back  Again?', stanza1and chorus.

If neurotic is wanting two mutually exclusive things at one and the same time, then I'm neurotic as hell. I'll be flying back and forth between one mutually exclusive thing and another for the rest of my days.

-Plath, Sylvia
  The BellJar, ch.8.

Look how you use proud words, When you let proud wordsgo, it is not easy to call them back, They wear long boots, hard boots; they walk off proud; they can't hear you callingö look out how you use proud words.

-Sandburg, Carl
  Slabs of the SunburntWest,'Primer Lesson'.

I'll be back.

-Schwarzenegger, Arnold
  TheTerminator.