Author Archive

Of the general inadequacy of intellect in the conduct of life Britain is the most majestic exponent. She is instinctively disliked by such people as French, Persians, Hindus, who are clever by nature, and think that intellect can rule. The Italians strayed down this path and disliked us too. But they, and

What two ideas are more inseparable than beer and Britannia? Sydney Smith (1771-1845), English clergyman, writer. Quoted in: Hesketh Pearson, The Smith of Smiths, ch. 1 1 (1934). Favorite0

The British tourist is always happy abroad as long as the natives are waiters. Robert Morley (b. 1908), British actor. Quoted in: Observer (London, 20 April 1958). Favorite0

Here we have the beautiful British compromise: a man can say anything, he mustn’t do anything; a man can listen to anything, but he mustn’t be roused to do anything. By freedom of speech is meant freedom to talk about; speech is not saying-as-an-action. Paul Goodman (191 1-72), U.S. literary author, critic.

There is a marvellous turn and trick to British arrogance; its apparent unconsciousness makes it twice as effectual. Catherine Drinker Bowen (1897-1973), U.S. author. Adventures of a Biographer, ch. 14 (1946). Favorite0

His face was the sort of British face from which emotion has been so carefully banished that a foreigner is apt to think the wearer of the face incapable of any sort of feeling; the kind of face which, if it has any expression at all, expresses principally the resolution to go

Henry Denton: You Brits really don’t have a sense of humor do you? Elsie: We do if something’s funny, sir. Julian Fellowes, Gosford Park: The Shooting Script Favorite0

Yet in the most mean, cowardly, hypocritical way the British ruling class did all they could to hand Spain over to Franco and the Nazis. Why? Because they were pro-Fascist, was the obvious answer. George Orwell, Fighting in Spain Favorite0

I really knew nothing about the dancing habits of the Scottish. But I wanted to help. “I could teach them Indian folk dances,” I offered, scrounging my mind for school dances in gaudy garments. “Well, I’m not sure that they would be complex enough for competitions,” she said. Pursing her lips, she

Guilt and misery shrink, by a natural instinct, from public notice: they court privacy and solitude: and even in their choice of a grave will sometimes sequester themselves from the general population of the churchyard, as if declining to claim fellowship with the great family of man; thus, in a symbolic language