Vitruvius on his own Latin (de Architectura I.1.18)

Cum ergo talia ingenia ab naturali sollertia non passim cunctis gentibus sed paucis viris habere concedatur, officium vero architecti omnibus eruditionibus debeat esse exercitatum, et ratio propter amplitudinem rei permittat non iuxta necessitatem summas sed etiam mediocris scientias habere disciplinarum, peto, Caesar, et a te et ab is, qui ea volumina sunt lecturi, ut, si quid parum ad regulam artis grammaticae fuerit explicatum, ignoscatur. Namque non uti summus philisophus nec rhetor disertus nec grammaticus summis rationibus artis exercitatus, sed ut architectus his litteris inbutus haec nisus sum scribere. De artis vero potestate quaeque insunt in ea ratiocinationes polliceor uti spero, his voluminibus non modo aedificantibus sed etiam omnibus sapientibus cum maxima auctoritate me sine dubio praestaturum.

The rationale of the OCT series

From the dust jacket of Platonis Opera... Tomus IV (reprinted 1962):

'... In undertaking the series the Delegates were greatly influenced by the consideration of the educational advantages of a long series of Classical Texts upon a uniform plan. As the Oxford Classical Texts are used by the Examiners for the Certificate of the Universities Joint Board and at the Universities themselves, volumes bought at school should serve as the beginning of a small library which will be used by its possessor throughout school and undergraduate life; and be a better stimulus to literary interest than annotated editions of the parts of an author's works which are set for the next examination.'

Ouch!

Toby Ziegler on teamwork

Toby Ziegler: 

We're a group. We're a team. From the President and Leo on
through, we're a team. We win together, we lose together. We celebrate and we
mourn together. And defeats are softened and victories sweeter because we did
them together... You're my guys and I'm yours... and there's nothing I wouldn't
do for you.

The West Wing: War Crimes (Season 3, Episode 6: IMDB).

Walking the job rather than chasing distractions

From Euripides, fragment 187 (Antiope):

ἀνὴρ γὰρ ὅστις εὖ βίον κεκτημένος
τὰ μὲν κατ’ οἴκους ἀμελίᾳ παρεὶς ἐᾷ,
μολπαῖσι δ’ ἡσθεὶς τοῦτ’ ἀεὶ θηρεύεται,
ἀργὸς μὲν οἴκοις καὶ πόλει γενήσεται,
φίλοισι δ’ οὐδείς· ἡ φύσις γὰρ οἴχεται,
ὅταν γλυκείας ἡδονῆς ἥσσων τις ᾖ.

Lifestyles of Lexicographers VI

From W. J. Slater's Lexicon to Pindar, p. VIII:

"A lexicon is the result of two opposing processes, compilation and compression. The first resembles the work of a magpie, the second demands ruthless self criticism. Therefore, even though I have often quoted Pindar at length at the price of doing justice to his commentators, on the principle Πίνδαρον ἐκ Πινδάρου σαφηνίζειν, I have nonetheless been painfully aware, brevis esse laboro, obscurus fio. Any lexicon is a compromise between these two attitudes."

A maxim from Dryden

I trade both with the living and the dead for the enrichment of native language.

Σχολή

Olson writes in his preface to the Oxford Thesmophoriazousae commentary, which he edited with Colin Austin:

I arrived at the train station in Cambridge deeply ill at ease, expecting hard questions, difficult negotiations, and perhaps an abrupt and unhappy end to my trip. But the next day after lunch, after Colin had spent the morning reading through what I had given him and we were sitting together in his upstairs study, he turned to me and said simply, 'Well, how shall we go about doing this?' Our partnership has been easy and cordial ever since.

... But I recall with great fondness Colin and Mishtu's hospitality to me in their wonderful home full of books, children and grandchildren, students, fine wine, and Mishtu's beautiful batiks and the smell of her extraordinary cooking.

Live unnoticed

"Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame."

Alexander Pope, Epilogue to the Satires, 1738.

Lessons from Liddell, Part 3: Time-keeping

The White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland repeatedly exclaims, "I'm late! I'm late!"

Kenneth F. Kitchell, Jr. in The Classical Journal 84.1 (1988): 52 informs us of Liddell's holiday time-keeping habits:

He brooked no nonsense in his academic life, but was mercilessly teased by
his family when his work on the lexicon at Penmorfa was punctuated each day
exactly at noon with a thunderous sneeze.

Lessons from Liddell, Part 2

Liddell's work ethic:

In the interval between one Lecture and another he would
be found standing at his desk over his interleaved
copy of the first edition, correcting and amending
it. And that standing desk recalls his advice which
I have ever since treasured both in reading and
in writing: " Keep your books open, ready to be
returned to when you come back to work." '

From H. L. Lewis, Henry George Liddell, Dean of Christchurch: A Memoir. 1899: p. 48.

Lessons from Lexicographers

From the end of the preface to Sullivan's Lexicon to Achilles Tatius:

"I dedicate this book to the memory of my father, who taught me long ago by trout-streams in Ireland the optimism without which it would never have been begun and the perseverance without which it would never have been finished."