British Quotes - Page 23

• I think of part of myself as a very passionate person, but I don't think that comes across. I don't know where it comes from, that reserve or veneer of British niceness. But it doesn't bother me if other people don't spot the passion. I know it's there.

  Julie Andrews

  Passion, Thinking, People

  The New York Times, March 14, 1982.

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• I have no intention of slurring over the differences we have with socialism, nor concealing my belief that we are the National Party of Great Britain, representing not narrow class interest, nor the bigotry of the left wing intellectuals, but all those who support the British tradition of democracy, of personal freedom, of personal responsibility for one's own affairs and those of one's family, with the least possible interference from the State.

  Norman Tebbit

  Party, Responsibility, Class

  Speech to Epping Conservatives, November 17, 1969.

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• I always felt I wasn't completely American and I wasn't completely British: there was a feeling of having my feet in both places.

  Gillian Anderson

  Feet, Feelings, Felt

  "Agent Scullery - Interview". Interview with Tony Barrell, The Sunday Times, p. Sunday Times Magazine 46, September 18, 2005.

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• I venture to claim two qualifications for the great office which I hold, which to my mind, without making invidious distinctions, is one of the most important that can be held by any Englishman; and those qualifications are that in the first place I believe in the British Empire, and in the second place I believe in the British race. I believe that the British race is the greatest of the governing races that the world has ever seen.

  Joseph Chamberlain

  Believe, Race, Two

  Joseph Chamberlain (1897). “Foreign & Colonial Speeches”, London ; New York : Routledge

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• Let it be our endeavour, let it be our task, to keep alight the torch of imperial patriotism, to hold fast the affection and the confidence of our kinsmen across the seas; so that in every vicissitude of fortune the British Empire may present an unbroken front to all her foes, and may carry on even to distant ages the glorious traditions of the British flag.

  Joseph Chamberlain

  Sea, Age, Torches

  Joseph Chamberlain (1897). “Foreign & Colonial Speeches”, London ; New York : Routledge

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• the twelve or fifteen millions in the British Empire, who, while they possess no electoral rights, are yet persuaded they are freemen, and who are mystified into the notion that they are not political bondmen, by that great juggle of the ' English Constitution ' a thing of monopolies, and Church-craft, and sinecures, armorial hocus-pocus, primogeniture, and pageantry!

  Richard Cobden

  Rights, Political, Church

  Richard Cobden (2007). “Richard Cobden's German Diaries”, p.24, Walter de Gruyter

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• Unless the Arab states give Israel formal recognition, within secure, recognised and mutually agreed boundaries, as a permanent feature of the geography and politics of the Middle East. But if Israel is to obtain this recognition, she must, in a settlement, put an end to the territorial occupation which she has maintained since the war of 1967; the nine members of the European Community have declared that this is an essential element in a settlement. On behalf of the British Government I underline that need today.

  Anthony Crosland

  War, Government, Israel

  Speech to the UN General Assembly, October 5, 1976.

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• The successful sale of British Telecom... reveals a vast and untapped yearning among ordinary people for a direct stake in the ownership of British enterprise. Investment in shares has begun to take its place, with ownership of a home and either a bank or building society deposit, as a way for ordinary people to participate in enterprise and wealth creation. We are seeing the birth of people's capitalism.

  Nigel Lawson

  Home, Successful, People

  "The View from No. 11: Memoirs of a Tory Radical". Book by Nigel Lawson, 1992.

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• America is replicated at every level of British life, from the taxi driver to the prime minister.

  Timothy Garton Ash

  America, Levels, Prime

  Timothy Garton Ash (2005). “Free World: America, Europe, and the Surprising Future of the West”, p.28, Vintage

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• It is time to train British workers for the British jobs that will be available over the coming few years and to make sure that people who are inactive and unemployed are able to get the new jobs on offer in our country.

  Gordon Brown

  Country, Jobs, Years

  "Brown Pledges 'British Workers for British Jobs'". Evening Standard, June 05, 2007.

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• I have just accepted the invitation of Her Majesty The Queen to form a Government. This will be a new Government with new priorities and I have been privileged to have been granted the great opportunity to serve my country and at all times I will be strong in purpose, steadfast in will, resolute in action in the service of what matters to the British people, meeting the concerns and aspirations of our whole country.

  Gordon Brown

  Country, Strong, Queens

  "Gordon Brown's First Speech as Prime Minister". www.telegraph.co.uk. June 27, 2007.

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• The attempt to regulate relations between people too closely, by means of the law, in the name of an abstraction such as equality, leads to both absurdity and cruelty. The British are fast turning themselves into a nation of slaves, where even the slave-masters are not free.

  Anthony Daniels

  Mean, Law, Names

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• Americans also seem to believe that the monarchy is a kind of mediaeval hangover, encumbered by premodern notions of decorum; the reality is that the British monarchy, for good or ill, is a modern political institution - perhaps the first modern political institution.

  Adam Gopnik

  Hangover, Believe, Reality

  The New Yorker, September 29, 1997.

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• A lot of American actors when they do Shakespeare put on a phoney English accent and it drives me crazy. You're always fighting against the idea that only the British know how to do Shakespeare.

  Ethan Hawke

  Crazy, Fighting, Ideas

  "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• The Führer confirms my impressions of yesterday. He would like an understanding with Great Britain. He knows that war with the British will be hard and bloody, and knows also that people everywhere today are averse to bloodshed.

  Franz Halder

  War, Yesterday, People

  Diary entry, spartacus-educational.com. July 14, 1940.

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• I will walk on no grave of Ulster's honoured dead to do a deal with the IRA or the British government.

  Ian Paisley

  Government, Ulster, Ira

  1997 Speech at the annual conference of the Democratic Unionist Party. InThe IrishTimes,'ThisWeekThey Said', 6 Dec.

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• Now, the United States' response, the western response to this is a continuation of the appeasement that was started back in the '50s with Eisenhower when Iran seized western oil companies. The Americans, the British, and the Israelis, as I remember, launched an attack to try to reclaim it and - or at least the British and the Israelis did and Eisenhower vetoed it.

  Leonard Peikoff

  Iran, Oil, Trying

  "What do you think of the plan for a mosque in New York City near Ground Zero?". Podcast on peikoff.com, June 28, 2010.

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• The programme of the British Labour Party under Neil Kinnock is so wildly irresponsible, so separate and apart from the historic NATO strategy, that I think a Labour government that stood by its present policies - and I rather doubt that they would - would, if it didn't destroy the Alliance, at least diminish its effective ability to do the task for which it was created.

  Richard Perle

  Party, Thinking, Government

  The Times, September 25, 1986.

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• Most liberal-minded folk would like to think that since they are not hostile to people of a different race, racism is a disease of the uneducated, unenlightened and socially backward - football hooligans, British National Party supporters, policemen. You could call this the Bad Guy Theory. But the Bad Guy Theory does not explain why Indian-heritage children do nearly twice as well as Pakistani-heritage children at GCSE.

  Trevor Phillips

  Football, Children, Party

  The Times, October 29, 2004.

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• On one occasion, Daniel Day-Lewis, Jeremy Irons and myself were due to appear at the Sarajevo film festival and were turned off a UN plane on orders from Geneva. We had to get local journalists to transport the films in for us. I tell you this only to demonstrate that festivals can be a lifeline. But, after all the difficulties I'd had in getting there, in 1996 I found myself being flown in on a four-seater RAF plane as an official guest, endorsed by the British Embassy. Ironically, the film I was to present was Mission: Impossible.

  Vanessa Redgrave

  Order, Iron, Raf

  "Vanessa Redgrave: 'I want to give people the jolliest time'". Interview with Michael Billington, www.theguardian.com. April 11, 2012.

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• Here's a viewer's guide to BP media briefings. Whenever you hear someone with a British accent talking about this on behalf of British Petroleum they are not telling you the truth. That's the bottom-line.

  Anthony Weiner

  Media, Talking, Lines

  YouTube Channel "Douglas Johnston"/"Weiner says anyone from BP with a British accent is lying", www.youtube.com. June 07, 2010.

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• I consider myself British and have very happy memories of the UK. I spent the first 14 years of my life in England and never wanted to leave. When I was in Australia I went back to England a lot.

  Naomi Watts

  Memories, Years, Australia

  "Watts Turns Back on Australia". The Daily Telegraph, April 24, 2007.

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• The well-being of the British people and the health of our economy are far more important than any government's commitment to a particular strategy, but to change course now would be fatal to the whole counter-inflation strategy.

  Geoffrey Howe

  Commitment, Government, People

  "Chancellor determined not to change course in the fight against inflation". The Times, March 11, 1981.

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• The orgy of thieving in Iraq has more to do with the character of the people than the absence of restraining troops. And to think that good, decent, law-abiding young British and American men and women laid down their lives to liberate this thieving mob.

  Robert Kilroy-Silk

  Character, Men, Thinking

  The Sunday Express, May 04, 2003.

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• The art of British Columbia's native Indians played a big role in inspiring my creativity... the simplicity of the images, the graciousness of the lines and curves, and the emotional impact of the bright simple primary colours.

  Joe Average

  Art, Creativity, Simple

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