Quotes Archive

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

Statistics show that the nature of English crime is reverting to its oldest habits. In a country where so many desire status and wealth, petty annoyances can spark disproportionately violent behaviour. We become frustrated because we feel powerless, invisible, unheard. We crave celebrity, but that’s not easy to come by, so we

As I railed on and on, I became increasingly energied and excited by my own misery and misanthropy until I reached a kind of orgasm of negativity… The Brits don’t merely enjoy misery, they get off on it. Eric Weiner, The Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in

The British are the only people in history crass enough to have made revolutionaries out of Americans. Shashi Tharoor Favorite0

It is sometimes said that butlers only truly exist in England. Other countries, whatever title is actually used, have only manservants. I tend to believe this is true. Continentals are unable to be butlers because they are as a breed incapable of the emotional restraint which only the English race are capable

Britain is no longer totally a white place where people ride horses, wear long frocks, and drink tea. The national dish is no longer fish and chips, it’s curry. Marianne Jean-Baptiste Favorite0

Britain: America’s Trojan poodle in Europe The Economist Favorite0