British Quotes - Page 31

• It is very certain that the strong British race which has now overrun much of this continent, must also overrun [Texas], and Mexico and Oregon also, and it will in the course of ages be of small import by what particular occasions and methods it was done.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Strong, Race, Texas

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, James Elliot Cabot (1887). “The Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: With a General Index and a Memoir”

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• Talking to the British about sex is like talking to Americans about reading. Nobody does it so why talk about it?

  Greg Proops

  Sex, Reading, Talking

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• The Empire is a Commonwealth of nations.

  Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery

  Empires, Commonwealth, Nations

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• To this day it cracks me up to think that my debut on national British television as a reporter ends with me turning a trick.

  RuPaul

  Thinking, Cracks, Television

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• When you cut it up, put the pieces in your mouth and swallowed them, the British hamburger shaped itself to the bottom on your stomach like ballast, while interacting with your gastric juices to form an incipient belch of enormous potential, an airship which had been inflated in a garage. This belch, when silently released, would cause people standing twenty yards away to start examining the soles of their shoes. The vocalized version sounded like a bag of tools thrown into a bog.

  Clive James

  Funny, Cutting, Shoes

  Clive James (1991). “Falling Towards England: (Unreliable Memoirs Continued)”, Isis Large Print Books

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• I considered the attacks on London useless, and I told the Fuhrer again and again that inasmuch as I knew the English people as well as I did my own people, I could never force them to their knees by attacking London. We might be able to subdue the Dutch people by such measures but not the British.

  Hermann Goring

  People, Useless, Might

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• More people died as a result of the tiny abortive Easter Uprising against British rule in Ireland (1916) than died as a result of political violence in Germany during the entire National Socialist revolution.

  Adolf Hitler

  Easter, Uprising, People

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• It is a fallacy to believe that a Republic of any kind can be won through the shackled Free State. You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. The Free State is British created and serves British Imperialist interests. It is the buffer erected between British Capitalism and the Irish Republic.

  Liam Mellows

  Believe, Ears, Republic

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• There is really quite an inherent danger in the traditional British view that the council of ministers and inter-governmentalism is your protection against the federalist superstate.

  Gisela Stuart

  Views, Protection, Danger

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• They [some countries] borrowed money to go acquire things, Indian power plants and Danish newspapers and British soccer teams. And they did it willy-nilly, and they themselves a story, that Icelandic history and culture and DNA leaves us very well-suited to being investment bankers.

  Michael Lewis

  Soccer, Country, Team

  "Michael Lewis’ 'Boomerang': 'Money Thrown Out in Hope, Coming Back in Anger'". "PBS NewsHour" with Jeffrey Brown, www.pbs.org. October 21, 2011.

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• That's one of the good things about a lot of the young British bands, they are mixing all styles of music. I think that's very good because that's very now.

  Mick Jagger

  Thinking, Style, Mixing

  "Pop Music: 10 Questions: Mick Jagger". Interview with Robert Hilburn, articles.latimes.com. March 31, 1991.

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• I'm British. I don't really have access to my emotions on a daily basis.

  John Oliver

  Emotion, Bases, Access

  "John Oliver talks ‘The Daily Show,’ Colbert & his new HBO series". Interview with Alan Sepinwall, uproxx.com. April 25, 2014.

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• All these stuff she's done before - the rosary, the deep thoughts, the faux British accent. It's the same thing over and over. She's be so much better if she just retired, and I like Madonna.

  Andrea Tantaros

  Deep Thought, Rosary, Done

  Source: www.foxnews.com

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• It is also absolutely correct that some British folk customs have descended directly from pagan rituals, such ... the giving of presents and decoration of homes with greenery at midwinter.

  Ronald Hutton

  Christmas, Home, Giving

  Ronald Hutton (2001). “The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft”, p.211, OUP Oxford

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• The habit of a midwinter festivity had come by the dawn of history (and probably very long before) to seem a natural one to the British, and not one to be eradicated by changes of political or religious fashion. ... It was general custom in pagan Europe to decorate spaces with greenery and flowers for festivals, attested wherever records have survived.

  Ronald Hutton

  Christmas, Religious, Fashion

  Ronald Hutton (2001). “Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain”, p.71, OUP Oxford

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• Writing has been challenging at times but that's where all the growth is. I know I'm in the right place if it's difficult. Something a British writer said to me once was: "If the project doesn't make him wobble, he doesn't take it." You have to be uncomfortable to grow.

  Geoff Thompson

  Writing, Challenges, Growth

  Source: www.indielondon.co.uk

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• I like the British public. There is something in this country called tall poppy syndrome. You're good but you're not that good, pal, OK? The natural state of our nation is slightly miserable, and probably the healthier for it. In America you don't get a key down the side of your Bentley.

  Steve Coogan

  Country, Keys, America

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• In the UK cycling was very popular until the end of the 1950's but it really lost out to our love affair with the car. Regaining a culture where cycling is seen as an everyday part of life requires time and effort. Of course in some British towns it never really went away - just look at Oxford and Cambridge. In other places, where the car has been king for many decades, it takes more time.

  Adrian Bell

  Kings, Cycling, Oxford

  "Cycling makes you look and feel great!". "Raise Your Game" with Colin Jackson, www.bbc.co.uk.

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• I think the British learn their history through the prism of this gallery of grotesques known as the royals.

  Harry Shearer

  Thinking, Royal, Gallery

  Source: www.motherjones.com

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• I think the United States and its British attack dog are not taken seriously anywhere in the world and can play no role in helping a political solution.

  Tariq Ali

  Dog, Taken, Thinking

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• Most British playwrights of my generation, as well as younger folks, apparently feel somewhat obliged to Russian literature - and not only those writing for theatres. Russian literature is part of the basic background knowledge for any writer. So there is nothing exceptional in the interest I had towards Russian literature and theatre. Frankly, I couldn't image what a culture would be like without sympathy towards Russian literature and Russia, whether we'd be talking about drama or Djagilev.

  Tom Stoppard

  Drama, Writing, Russia

  Source: news.postimees.ee

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• I have won the Australian, I won the British, all PGA championships, but I haven't won the PGA championship.

  Arnold Palmer

  Championship, Havens, Australian

  Source: kellysgolfhistory.blogspot.com

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• I am not anti-English, I am not anti-British, I am not anti-any Government, but I am anti-untruth, anti-humbug and anti-injustice.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Government, Injustice, Language

  Mahatma Gandhi, Dennis Dalton (1996). “Gandhi: Selected Political Writings”, p.66, Hackett Publishing

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• Christianity in India is inextricably mixed up for the last hundred and fifty years with the British rule.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Years, India, Fifty

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• No matter what the cause was and wherever it was, Indian governments must never requisition the services of British soldiers to deal with civil disturbances.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Government, British Soldiers, Matter

  Mahatma Gandhi (1983). “Collected Works”

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