British Quotes

“If the history of British rule in India were to be condensed into a single fact, it is this: there was no increase in India’s per capita income from 1757 to 1947.”
― Mike Davis, Late Victorian Holocausts: El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third World

“We're a nation of hypocrites pretending to be prudes, that's what we are.”
― Panayotis Cacoyannis, The Madness of Grief

“The wounds will take decades to heal, centuries to overcome the trauma.”
― Gulzar, Two

“The British definitely like their tea. It’s their solution to everything, all problems and concerns. If there’s ever a major crisis, a cup of tea will help.”
― C.R. Stewart

“Cultivate an environment fertile for good habits to flourish”
― Money Tree Man

“if a colonizer replaces language, clothes and names of a nation then what remains is a mere shadow of the colonizer.”
― Hassan Zia Ahmed

“In Wales, they love with abandon.
When a Welsh person loves you,
you'll finally know your potential.
They are different from the Americans,
who are precarious with their love.
They are different from the English,
who are reserved even when you stand
in front of them, naked,
handing them your heart.
The English give you their love in cups:
here, you’ve been good. drink another glass.
But the Welsh, they drown you
in an ocean of love.
You have their attention, their
consideration. You have all of them.
They aren’t even careful to keep any
for themselves. It seems to me
that only the Welsh know how to love,
how to make someone feel loved.
Because when a Welsh person loves you,
you’ll finally know how it feels
to belong to poetry.”
― Kamand Kojouri

“As a measure of our consternation, one or two people nearly put down their cups of tea.”
― Jodi Taylor, And the Rest Is History

“A personal budget is a manifestation of your decision to grab your finances by the balls”
― Money Tree Man

“So you’re British?’ said Billy.
‘I think of myself as English first, British second. It’s a way of keeping the Scots and Welsh at a distance, never mind the Irish.”
― John Connolly, The Woman in the Woods

“Boasting about modesty is typical of the English.”
― George Bernard Shaw

“As a British person living in the USA, I keep a low profile on Independence Day, July 4th.”
― Steven Magee

“Would you let a TV period drama series be filmed at your estate? Dying to know :)”
― Veronica Cline Barton, The Crown for Castlewood Manor

“It sounded like something you Brits would say."
"Someday, I'd love to hear what you imagine my people are like."
"Stiff. Formal. Everyone's a time traveler, a wizard, or works for MI6." She placed her plate on the table, pretending not to notice the legs wobbling a little at the weight.
"That's not quite right. Only some of us are wizards. The rest are Muggles.”
― Alisha Rai, Serving Pleasure

“Please go on,” I said in the sympathetic, gruff-hearty tones of an inspector at Scotland Yard—all I needed was long underwear, a tweed suit, a walrus mustache, a British accent, a right-hand drive, socialized medicine, and a disarming manner.”
― Henry Kane, Death of a Flack

“Britain: A nation that keeps a stiff upper lip, takes it on the chin without complaining, plays fair at all times and is by and large: “the gentleman of the world.” Anything else old boy, just wouldn’t be cricket …
This is the image of itself that Britain likes to promote, at home and abroad. However, the idea that the ‘United Kingdom’ plays fair or by the rules is just as mythical as its status as an imaginary fifth nation that replaced four real sovereign countries. This booklet aims to burst that myth and also aims to provide solid proof that the United Kingdom is anything but ‘united.”
― Seán Gearárd McCloskey, Citizens Not Slaves : Blood On The Butcher's Apron

“There’s a heat wave coming
The wireless claims, a British summer,
Of wants and expectations
That never seem to materialise.”
― Phen Weston, Nothing But The Rain: A Collection of Poems

“Americans had endured centuries of patronization by the British. One became inured to it after a while.”
― John Connolly, The Woman in the Woods

“Kuna tetesi kuwa Julius Nyerere alipewa tuzo ya MBE na malkia wa Uingereza akiwa rais wa Tanzania! Lakini aliikataa! Kwa nini? Kwa sababu angeonekana Mwingereza zaidi kuliko Mtanzania! Januari 26, 1996 akapewa Tuzo ya Kimataifa ya Amani ya Mahatma Gandhi ya mwaka 1995, ya kwanza kabisa, iliyotolewa na Serikali ya India. Lakini hiyo pia akaikataa! Kwa sababu Mahatma Gandhi alimwaga damu katika harakati zake za kuwang'oa wakoloni barani Afrika! Kama ni kweli, hakuna kujitolea kuliko huko.”
― Enock Maregesi

“My mother used euphemisms about everything. She used to announce her visits to the gynaecologist by saying she was seeing someone about her problems with the down belows. Made her sound a bit like a cruise ship that had been beached.”
― Lily Morton, Risk Taker

“It almost boosts your self-esteem being screamed at by someone with an English accent.”
― Andrew Smith

“It seems that being a woman is very expensive and time-consuming. My innocence about this is incongruous, given my age, but total. I come from grunge, and then Britpop--scenes where you boast about how little you spend on an outfit ("Three quid! From a jumble sale!" "Ooooh, pricey--I found this jacket in a Dumpster. On a dead man. Under a fox carcass"), and taking pride in "getting ready to go out" consists of little more than washing your face, putting on your Doc Martens/snaeakers, and applying black Barry M nail polish, £1, on the bus into town.”
― Caitlin Moran, How to Be a Woman

“The others, however, told their anecdotes with no moral comment whatsoever, even though they had to recount some hair-raising events. And not only did they keep completely cool, but they even had that little smile of tolerance, of affection, even enjoyment that Olivia was beginning to know well: like good parents, they all loved India whatever mischief she might be up to.”
― Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Heat and Dust

“Independence Day, July 4th, or as I know it: Out with the British day!”
― Steven Magee

“Independence Day, July 4th, or as I know it: Out with the redcoats day!”
― Steven Magee

“Independence Day, July 4th, or as I know it: The end of the USA cricket league!”
― Steven Magee

“Independence Day, July 4th, or as I know it: The end of tea parties!”
― Steven Magee

“The British are leading the way in researching High Altitude Observatory Disease (HAOD), as the Americans are making it clear that it is an ‘Inconvenient Truth’.”
― Steven Magee

“The British are the world leading experts in High Altitude Observatory Disease (HAOD).”
― Steven Magee

“I do like the sound of the name, 'Big Ben'... it has a certain ring to it.”
― Martin H. Samuel