Englishmen Quotes - Page 3

• When two Eglishmen meet, their first talk is of the weather.

  Samuel Johnson

  Weather, Two, Firsts

  "The Idler" by Samuel Johnson, No. 11, June 24, 1758.

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• We are articulate, but we are not particularly conversational. An Englishman won't talk for the sake of talking. He doesn't mind silence. But after the silence, he sometimes says something.

  Robert Morley

  Talking, Silence, Mind

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• There is scarce any one invention, which this nation has produced in our age, but it has some way or other been set forward by his assistance. ... He is indeed a man born for the good of mankind, and for the honour of his country. ... So I may thank God, that Dr. Wilkins was an Englishman, for wherever he had lived, there had been the chief seat of generous knowledge and true philosophy.

  Robert Hooke

  God, Country, Philosophy

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• One matter Englishmen don't think in the least funny is their happy consciousness of possessing a deep sense of humor.

  Marshall McLuhan

  Thinking, Matter, Sense Of Humor

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• We will never have Fascism in England; no Englishman will dress up, not even for a revolution.

  William Bolitho

  Government, Dresses, Revolution

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• Your Englishman, confronted by something abnormal will always pretend that it isn't there. If, however, you force him to look into it, he'll at once pretend that he sees the object not for what it is but for something that he would like it to be.

  James Agate

  Looks, Abnormal, Force

  October 14, 1932 entry in "Ego". Book by James Agate, 1935.

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• What Englishman will give his mind to politics as long as he can afford to keep a motor car?

  George Bernard Shaw

  Long, Giving, Car

  The Apple Cart (1930) act 1

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• The English have no respect for their language, and will not teach their children to speak it. They spell it so abominably that no man can teach himself what it soundslike.It isimpossible foran Englishmanto openhis mouth without making some other Englishman hate or despise him.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Children, Hate, Men

  'Pygmalion' (1916) preface

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• The Invitation, To Tom Highes What we can we will be, Honest Englishmen. Do the work that's nearest, Though it's dull at whiles, Helping, when we meet them, Lame dogs over stiles.

  Charles Kingsley

  Dog, Lame, Dull

  'Letter to Thomas Hughes'

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• There is nothing so bad or so good that you will not find Englishmen doing it; but you will never find an Englishman in the wrong. He does everything on principle.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Principles, Doe

  The Man of Destiny (1898)

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• Englishmen are babes in philosophy and so prefer faction-fighting to the labour of its unfamiliar thought.

  William Butler Yeats

  Philosophy, Fighting, Philosopher

  "The Letters of W.B. Yeats".

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• One has often wondered whether upon the whole earth there is anything so unintelligent, so unapt to perceive how the world is really going, as an ordinary young Englishman of our upper class.

  Matthew Arnold

  Class, Ordinary, World

  Matthew Arnold, Stefan Collini (1993). “Arnold: 'Culture and Anarchy' and Other Writings”, p.91, Cambridge University Press

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• How can what an Englishman believes be hearsay? It is a contradiction in terms.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Believe, Rebellious, Contradiction

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• Silence can be defined as conversation with an Englishman

  Heinrich Heine

  Inspiration, Silence, Conversation

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• Englishmen have a genius for looking uncomfortable. Their feelings are terribly mixed up with their personal appearance.

  Sara Jeannette Duncan

  Feelings, England, Genius

  Sara Jeannette Duncan (2012). “A Voyage of Consolation (being in the nature of a sequel to the experiences of 'An American girl in London')”, p.165, tredition

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• I'm an Englishman. What more can I say?

  Alan Sugar

  Source: www.mirror.co.uk

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• We are told that Sin consists in acting contrary to God's commands, but we are also told that God is omnipotent. . . . This leads to frightful results. . . . The British State considers it the duty of an Englishman to kill people who are not English whenever a collection of elderly gentlemen in Westminster tells him to do so. . . . Church and State are placable enemies of both intelligence and virtue.

  Bertrand Russell

  Elderly, People, Gentleman

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• It was all very well for an Englishman like Mr. Fogg to make the tour of the world with a carpet-bag; a lady could not be expected to travel comfortably under such conditions.

  Jules Verne

  Travel, Bags, World

  Jules Verne, Jules VERNE (2016). “Around The World in 80 Days”, p.98, Jules Verne

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• No Englishman is ever fairly beaten

  George Bernard Shaw

  Inspiration, Beaten

  'Saint Joan' (1924) sc. 4

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• Propose to an Englishman any principle, or any instrument, however admirable, and you will observe that the whole effort of the English mind is directed to find a difficulty, a defect, or an impossibility in it. If you speak to him of a machine for peeling a potato, he will pronounce it impossible: if you peel a potato with it before his eyes, he will declare it useless, because it will not slice a pineapple.

  Charles Babbage

  Eye, Effort, Mind

  Charles Babbage (1989). “Scientific and Miscellaneous Papers”

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• If you eliminate smoking and gambling, you will be amazed to find that almost all an Englishman's pleasures can be, and mostly are, shared by his dog.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Dog, Silly, Gambling

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

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• The English as a race are not worth saving!

  Jack Straw

  Race, Saving, Politician

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• An Englishman does everything on principle: he fights you on patriotic principles; he robs you on business principles; he enslaves you on imperial principles.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Patriotic, Fighting, Insulting

  The Man of Destiny (1898)

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• An Englishman will fairly drink as much As will maintain two families of Dutch.

  Daniel Defoe

  Two, Literature, Dutch

  Daniel Defoe (1788). “The True Born Englishman. A Satire. A New Edition”, p.14

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• England is perhaps the only great country whose intellectuals are ashamed of their own nationality. In left-wing circles it is always felt that there is something slightly disgraceful in being an Englishman and that it is a duty to snigger at every English institution, from horse racing to suet puddings. It is a strange fact, but it is unquestionably true that almost any English intellectual would feel more ashamed of standing to attention during God save the King than of stealing from a poor box.

  George Orwell

  Country, Horse, Kings

  George Orwell (1970). “A Collection of Essays”, p.275, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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