Quotations Britain, England, British, English culture, quotes

She is unable to sustain relationships and prizes her freedom above the collective good of the class. We encourage self-sufficiency, but your daughter [Britain] seems totally self-absorbed. Lesley White, “Riot Acts”, The Sunday Times Magazine, 21 July 1996, p. 44 Favorite0

The fact remains that England may be a copulating country but it is not an erotic country… Girls are being taken to bed, to be sure, but they are not courted; they are being made love to but they are not pursued. Women are quite willing to go to bed but they

This soul’s prison we call England. George Bernard Shaw, Heartbreak House (Hector in Act III) Favorite0

The English have no soul, they have the understatement instead. George Mikes, How to be an Alien, p.24 Favorite0

Do you know what “le vice anglais”—the English vice—really is? Not flagellation, not pederasty—whatever the French believe it to be: it’s our refusal to admit our emotions. We think they demean us, I suppose. Terence Rattigan, In Praise of Love, (1973) Act II, p.537 Favorite0

Englishwomen conceal their feelings until after they are married. They show them then. Oscar Wilde, A Woman of no Importance Favorite0

I am due to appear in court next week Charged with emotion. Roger McGough, Vandal Favorite0

Cleese: (In bowler hat, black jacket and pinstriped trousers) I look down on him (Indicates Barker) because I am upper-class. Barker: (Pork-pie hat and raincoat) I look up to him (Cleese) because he is upper-class; but I look down on him (Corbett) because he is lower-class. I am middle-class Corbett: (Cloth cap

The United States and Great Britain are two countries separated by a common language. George Bernard Shaw, widely attributed beginning in the 1940s, e.g. Reader’s Digest (November 1942). Not found in his published works. Variant: The English and the Americans are two peoples divided by a common language Favorite0

Bad people? What kind of bad people? Members of the Church of Satan? Insurance salesmen? People who don’t speak English?” Wayne Gerard Trotman, Ashes to Ashes Favorite0