England Quotes - Page 36

• In that pleasant district of merry England which is watered by the river Don, there extended in ancient times a large forest, covering the greater part of the beautiful hills and valleys which lie between Sheffield and the pleasant town of Doncaster.

  Walter Scott

  Beautiful, Lying, Book

  Sir Walter Scott (1854). “The Waverley novels: in twelve volumes, printed from the latest English editions, embracing the author's last corrections, prefaces, and notes”, p.360

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• I am not of the opinion generally entertained in this country [England], that man lives by Greek and Latin alone; that is, by knowing a great many words of two dead languages, which nobody living knows perfectly, and which are of no use in the common intercourse of life. Useful knowledge, in my opinion, consists of modern languages, history, and geography; some Latin may be thrown into the bargain, in compliance with custom, and for closet amusement.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Education, Country, Latin

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• England has the most sordid literary scene I've ever seen. They all meet in the same pub. This guy's writing a foreword for this person. They all have to give radio programs, they have to do all this just in order to scrape by. They're all scratching each other's backs.

  William S. Burroughs

  Writing, Order, Giving

  Forbes Magazine (p. 172), April 2, 2001.

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• We who represent the Unionist Party in England and Scotland have supported, and we mean to support to the end, the loyal minority [in Ireland]. We support them not because we are intolerant, but because their claims are just.

  Bonar Law

  Party, Mean, Scotland

  Bonar Law's speech in the Albert Hall, January 26, 1912.

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• Industrialization came to England but has since left.

  P. J. O'Rourke

  Industrialization, Left

  P. J. O'Rourke (2016). “Republican Party Reptile: The Confessions, Adventures, Essays and (Other) Outrages of . . .”, p.11, Pan Macmillan

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• England still waits for the supreme moment of her literature--for the great poet who shall voice her, or, better still, for the thousand little poets whose voices shall pass into our common talk.

  E. M. Forster

  Voice, Poetry, Waiting

  E. M. Forster (2013). “Delphi Collected Works of E. M. Forster (Illustrated)”, p.733, Delphi Classics

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• English literature is a flying fish.

  E. M. Forster

  Fishing, Flying, Literature

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• I am actually what my age and my upbringing have made me - a bourgeois who adheres to the British constitution, adheres to it rather than supports it, and the fact that this isn't dignified doesn't worry me.

  E. M. Forster

  Class, Worry, Support

  "Liberty In England", Speech (June 21, 1935), reprinted in "Abinger Harvest", 1936.

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• Solidity, caution, integrity, efficiency. Lack of imagination, hypocrisy. These qualities characterize the middle classes in everycountry, but in England they are national characteristics.

  E. M. Forster

  Integrity, Character, Class

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• The Germans are called brutal, the Spanish cruel, the Americans superficial, and so on; but we are perfide Albion, the island of hypocrites, the people who have built up an Empire with a Bible in one hand, a pistol in the other, and financial concessions in both pockets. Is the charge true? I think it is.

  E. M. Forster

  Hypocrite, Thinking, Islands

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• And still I look for the men who will dare to be
  roses of England
  wild roses of England
  men who are wild roses of England
  with metal thorns, beware!
  but still more brave and still more rare
  the courage of rosiness in a cabbage world
  fragrance of roses in a stale stink of lies
  rose-leaves to bewilder the clever fools
  and rose-briars to strangle the machine.

  D. H. Lawrence

  Clever, Lying, Men

  D. H. Lawrence (2008). “Complete Poems by Lawrence: Easyread Super Large 24pt Edition”, p.214, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• I hate England and its hopelessness. I hate [Arnold] Bennett's resignation. Tragedy ought really to be a great big kick at misery.

  D. H. Lawrence

  Hate, Tragedy, Literature

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• The real tragedy of England, as I see it, is the tragedy of ugliness. The country is so lovely: the man-made England is so vile.

  D. H. Lawrence

  Country, Real, Men

  D. H. Lawrence, James T. Boulton (2004). “D. H. Lawrence: Late Essays and Articles”, p.291, Cambridge University Press

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• Why doesn't the United States take over the monarchy and unite with England? England does have important assets. Naturally the longer you wait, the more they will dwindle. At least you could use it for a summer resort instead of Maine.

  W. H. Auden

  Summer, Waiting, Important

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• Utopia's quite another land;
  In her enterprising movements,
  She is England--with improvements

  W. S. Gilbert

  Land, Movement, Improvement

  W. S. Gilbert, Ian C. Bradley (2016). “The Complete Annotated Gilbert and Sullivan”, p.1121, Oxford University Press

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• Absolute Evil is not the kingdom of hell. The inhabitants of hell are ourselves, i.e., those who pay our painful, embarrassing, humanistic duties to society and who are compromised by our intellectually dubious commitment to virtue, which can be defined by the perpetual smear-word of French polemic: the bourgeois. (Bourgeois equals humanist.) This word has long been anathema in France where categories are part of the ruling notion of logique. The word cannot be readily matched in England or America.

  V. S. Pritchett

  Commitment, America, Long

  "The Myth Makers: European and Latin American Writers" by V. S. Pritchett, (p. 102), 1979.

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• It's very important to feel foreign. I was born in England, but when I'm being a writer, everyone in England is foreign to me.

  V. S. Pritchett

  Important, Born, Feels

  "How Did I Do That?" by Deborah Stead, archive.nytimes.com. March 24, 1991.

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• There is no land like England,
  Where'er the light of day be;
  There are no hearts like English hearts,
  Such hearts of oak as they be;
  There is no land like England,
  Where'er the light of day be:
  There are no men like Englishmen,
  So tall and bold as they be!
  And these will strike for England,
  And man and maid be free
  To foil and spoil the tyrant
  Beneath the greenwood tree.

  Alfred Lord Tennyson

  Heart, Men, Light

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• When I left the dining room after sitting next to Mr. Gladstone, I thought he was the cleverest man in England. But after sitting next to Mr. Disraeli, I thought I was the cleverest woman in England.

  Benjamin Disraeli

  Men, Dining, Sitting

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• Of late years an abundant shower of curates has fallen upon the North of England.

  Charlotte Bronte

  Years, Clergy, Showers

  Shirley ch. 1 (1849)

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• In England, wit is at least a profession, if not an art. everything becomes professional there, and even the rogues of that islandare pedants. So are the "wits" there too. They introduce into reality absolute freedom whose reflection lends a romantic and piquant air to wit, and thus they live wittily; hence their talent for madness. They die for their principles.

  Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel

  Art, Reflection, Reality

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• The law of England is a very strange one; it cannot compel anyone to tell the truth. . . . But what the law can do is to give you seven years for not telling the truth.

  Charles Darling, 1st Baron Darling

  Years, Law, Giving

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• Some Englishmen, of whom Kitchener was chief, believed that a rebellion of Arabs against Turks would enable England, while fighting Germany, simultaneously to defeat Turkey. Their knowledge of the nature and power and country of the Arabic-speaking peoples made them think that the issue of such a rebellion would be happy: and indicated its character and method. So they allowed it to begin.

  Edward Thomas

  Country, Character, Fighting

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• English people ... never speak, excepting in cases of fire or murder, unless they are introduced.

  Letitia Elizabeth Landon

  Fire, People, Murder

  Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1833). “The Book of Beauty: Comprising a Collection of Tales, Poems, &c”, p.211

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• Suicide and antipathy to fires in a bedroom seem to be among the national characteristics. Perhaps the same moral cause may originate both.

  Letitia Elizabeth Landon

  Suicide, Fire, May

  Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1852). “Romance and reality”, p.64

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