Author Archive

Deploring change is the unchangeable habit of an Englishman. Raymond Postgate Favorite0

Deploring change is the unchangeable habit of an Englishman. —Raymond Postgate Another instance of native masochism blatantly manifesting itself is the high-and-low temperature segregation that is religiously followed even in some of the most non-racist and progressive households. This apartheid in water temperature eternalizes itself by means of the separate taps system,

First note. I had better let the cat out of the bag at once and record my opinion that the character of the English is essentially middle class. There is a sound historical reason for this, for, since the end of the eighteenth century, the middle classes have been the dominant force

Do not be misled by memories of your youth when, on the Continent, wanting to describe someone as exceptionally dull, you remarked: ‘He is the type who would discuss the weather with you.’ In England this is an ever-interesting, even thrilling topic, and you must be good at discussing the weather. George

You often hear that the English climate has had a profound effect upon the English temperament. I don’t believe it. I believe they were always like that. Will Cuppy in W.C. Sellar and R.J. Yeatman, Garden Rubbish and Other Country Bumps (New York: Farrar and Rinehart, 1937) Favorite0

England is a paradise for women, and hell for horses: Italy is a paradise for horses, hell for women. Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), Part III, Section III. Memb. 1. Subsect. 2. Favorite0

Good ale, the true and proper drink of Englishmen. He is not deserving of the name of Englishman who speaketh against ale, that is good ale. George Borrow, Lavengro, 1851 Favorite0

Whenever I think of Hell I cannot visualise it as a place of eternal fire, but as one of your English industrial towns on a day when the rain is pattering on the slate roofs and the wind is moaning up the street; a place where the horizon is bounded by dark

We were wrong to believe that the British are our friends. You are obsessed solely with your own selfish interests and treat us as a people beyond the pale. But your attitude is a matter of profound disinterest. Your democratic system has already erupted into chaos. We shall soon overtake you and

When Britain first, at heaven’s command, Arose from out of the azure main, This was the charter of the land, And guardian angels sung this strain: “Rule, Britannia, rule the waves; Britons never will be slaves.” James Thomson, Alfred: a Masque, II, V. Favorite0