In 1997 who said: "Think what we would have missed if we had never used a mobile phone or surfed the Net - or to be honest, listened to other people talking about surfing the Net"? No, not Bill Gates.

These brave new words were uttered by Her Majesty the Queen, and feature among the top 100 quotes in this year's Oxford Quotations Dictionary.

The Queen is also quoted as saying: "Please don't be too effusive," to the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, at her golden wedding anniversary.

Mr Blair himself scores three points on the Oxford University Press list. On winning the election he said: "We are not the masters. The people are the masters."

His tribute to Diana, Princess of Wales, on the morning of her death was also listed and the soundbite played over and over again on British TV and radio. "She was the people's Princess, and that is how she will stay in our hearts and our memories forever," he said.

The Prime Minister's former English teacher gets a mention for commenting on Mr Blair's party slogan "New Labour, New Britain". Eric Anderson said: "I did spend a lot of time making sure his sentences always had verbs. I'm sorry to see he's slipped in recent years."

The BBC's Mark Coles finds out what makes a good quote (1'22")

Elizabeth Knowles, editor of the OUP dictionary, compiled the list from TV, radio, the press and biographies. "We try to pick up quotations which are in the public consciousness," she said.

Tributes to Diana dominate the usually light-hearted selection of quotes of the year:

• "I for one believe that there are lessons to be learned from her life and from the extraordinary and moving reaction to her death" - Queen Elizabeth II.

• "Now, at last, this sad, glittering century has an image worthy of it: a wandering, wondering girl, a silly Sloane turned secular saint, coming home in her coffin to RAF Northolt like the good soldier she was" - columnist Julie Burchill.

• "It is the only song I've ever written where I get goose bumps every time I play it" - Elton John on "Candle in the Wind".

• "We do not need a loose cannon like her" - an unidentified junior minister.

• "A unique funeral for a unique person" - a Buckingham Palace spokesman.

• "I always believed the press would kill her in the end. But not even I could believe they would take such a direct hand in her death as seems to be the case ... every proprietor and editor of every publication that has paid for intrusive and exploitative photographs of her ... has blood on their hands today" - her brother, Lord Spencer.

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