Neither my father or mother, grandfather or grandmother, great grandfather or great grandmother, nor any other relation that I know of, or care a farthing for, has been in England these one hundred and fifty years; so that you see I have not one drop of blood in my veins but what is American.
An Englishman's home is his castle.
The characteristic danger of great nations, like the Romans or the English which have a long history of continuous creation, is that they may at last fail from not comprehending the great institutions which they have created...
England! my country, great and free!Heart of the world, I leap to thee!
The south-west wind roaring in from the Atlantic.... is, I think the presiding genius of England.
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 factory chimneys, with crowds of women muffled up in waterproofs slipping in the puddles in their galoshes, with red noses peering out of heavy mufflers.
I will not cease from mental fight, not shall my sword sleep in my hand. Till we have built Jerusalem, in England's green and pleasant land.
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.
Oh, to be in EnglandNow that April's there.
The men of England—the men, I mean of light and leading in England.
England is a paradise for women, and hell for horses: Italy is a paradise for horses, hell for women.
I know an Englishman. Being flattered, is a lamb; threatened, a lion.
The strangest country I ever visited was England; but I visited it at a very early age, and so became a little queer myself. England is extremely subtle; and about the best of it there is something almost secretive; it is an amateur even more than aristocratic in tradition; it is never official.
When I warned them that Britain would fight on alone whatever they did, their generals told their Prime Minister and his divided Cabinet, 'In three weeks England will have her neck wrung like a chicken'. Some chicken! Some neck!
I have not become the King's First Minister in order to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire.
The late M. Venizelos observed that in all her wars England—he should have said Britain, of course—always wins one battle—the last.
Bind her, grind her, burn her with fire,England!
I hope for nothing in this world so ardently as once again to see that paradise called England. I long to embrace again all my old friends there.
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.
God and nature have joined England and Ireland together. It is impossible to separate them.
The common law of England is the common law of Ireland, where the latter is not altered by statute.
England is a prison for men, a paradise for women, a purgatory for servants, a hell for horses.
Go into the length and breadth of the world, ransack the literature of all countries, find, if you can, a single voice, a single book—find, I would almost say, as much as a single newspaper article, unless the product of the day, in which the conduct of England towards Ireland is anywhere treated except with profound and bitter condemnation.
We shall treat England like a beautiful flower, but we shan't water the pot.
Living in England, provincial England, must be like being married to a stupid, but exquisitely beautiful wife.
Hail England, dear England, true Queen of the West. With thy fair swelling bosom and ever-green vest. How nobly thou sittst in thine own steady light, on the left of thee Freedom, and Truth on the right. While the clouds at thy smile, break apart and turn bright! The Muses, full voiced, half encircle the seat, and Ocean comes kissing thy princely white feet. All hail! All hail! All hail to the beauty immortal and free. The only true goddess that rose from the sea.
The pleasantness of the English... comes in great measure from the fact of their each having been dipped into the crucible, which gives them a sort of coating of comely varnish and colour. They have been smoothed and polished by mutual social attrition. You see Englishmen here in Italy to particularly good advantage. In the midst of these false and beautiful Italians they glow with the light of the great fact, that after all they love a bathtub and hate a lie.
We I hope shall be left free to avail ourselves of the advantages of neutrality: and yet much I fear the English, or rather their stupid king, will force us out of it. (...) Common sense dictates therefore that they should let us remain neuter: ergo they will not let us remain neuter. I never yet found any other general rule for foretelling what they will do, but that of examining what they ought not to do.
The acquisition of Canada this year, as far as the neighborhood of Quebec, will be a mere matter of marching, and will give us experience for the attack of Halifax the next, and the final expulsion of England from the American continent.
She discovered the seasons. No other country has such seasons or complexions in a year. And every place is beautiful in its way, from Cornwall to Cumberland. The people are as peculiar as the place, not the Normans, but the silent, staring English. Slaves in their own country. What do they make of it? Perhaps, I'm cooler than the others. There was no heat at my conception. But I love this cool, green country. So old, so deceptively deep.
He spoke of the English, a noble race, rulers of the waves, who sit on thrones of alabaster, silent as deathless gods.
England's innermost truth and at the same time her most valuable contribution to the assets of the human family is the "gentleman", rescued from the dusty chivalry of the early Middle Ages and now penetrating into the remotest corner of modern English life. It is an ultimate principle hat never fails to carry conviction, the shining armour of the perfect knight in soul and body, and the miserable coffin of poor natural feelings.
England is the only country in Europe that can boast of having improved its agriculture and the cultivation of its soil beyond that of any other European nation. The condition of English agriculture, compared with that of our own, is like light contrasted with shade.
English people ... never speak, excepting in cases of fire or murder, unless they are introduced.
The real tragedy of England as I see it, is the tragedy of ugliness. The country is so lovely: the man-made England is so vile.
An Englishman hath three qualities, he can suffer no partner in his love, no stranger to be his friend, nor to be dared by any.
The English take their pleasures sadly after the fashion of their country.
We do not intend to part from the Americans and we do not intend to be satellites. I am sure they do not want us to be so. The stronger we are, the better partners we shall be; and I feel certain that as the months pass we shall draw continually closer together with mutual confidence and respect.
Continental people have sex lives; the English have hot-water bottles.
I am American bred; I have seen much to hate here - much to forgive. But in a world where England is finished and dead, I do not wish to live.
Lords and Commons of England, consider what Nation it is whereof ye are, and whereof ye are the governors: a Nation not slow and dull, but of quick, ingenious, and piercing spirit, acute to invent, suttle and sinewy to discours, not beneath the reach of any point the highest that humane capacity can soar to.
England is a nation of shopkeepers.
To be an Englishman is to belong to the most exclusive club there is.
England expects every man to do his duty.
[Britons] would rather take the risk of civilizing communism than being kicked around by the unlettered pot-bellied money magnates of the United States.
Those proud Islanders whom many unduly honour, know no watchword but gain and enjoyment. Their zeal for knowledge is only a sham fight, their worldly wisdom a false jewel, skilfully and deceptively composed, and their sacred freedom itself too often and too easily serves self-interest. They are never in earnest with anything that goes beyond palpable utility. All knowledge they have robbed of life and use only as dead wood to make masts and helms for their life's voyage in pursuit of gain.
O England! model to thy inward greatness,But see thy fault!
This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isleThis blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.
There is nothing so bad or so good that you will not find an Englishman doing it; but you will never find an Englishman in the wrong. He does everything on principle. He fights you on patriotic principles; he robs you on business principles; he enslaves you on imperial principles.
Saint George shalt called bee,Saint George of mery England, the sign of victoree.
I hold that the real policy of England—apart from questions which involve her own particular interests—is to be the champion of justice and right; pursuing that course with moderation and prudence, not becoming the Quixote of the world, but giving the weight of her moral sanction and support wherever she thinks that justice is, and wherever she thinks that wrong has been done.
I think England is the very place for a fluent and fiery writer. The highest hymns of the sun are written in the dark. I like the grey country. A bucket of Greek sun would drown in one colour the crowds of colour I like trying to mix for myself out of grey flat insular mud.
Lord, open the eyes of the king of England.
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way.
To me England means great courage, great standards and great wit. I could move to England in a second.
I travelled among unknown men, in lands beyond the sea; nor, England! did I know till then, what love I bore to thee.
Let Pitt then boast of his victory to his nation of shopkeepers—(Nation Boutiquiere).
If I should die, think only this of me:Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.
Oh, to be in England,In England—now.
Men of England! who inheritRights that cost your sires their blood.
Britannia needs no bulwarksHer home is on the deep.
A certain man has called us, "of all peoples the wisest in action," but he added, "the stupidest in speech."
Where are the rough brave Britons to be foundWith Hearts of Oak, so much of old renowned?
Be England what she will,With all her faults, she is my country still.
'Tis a glorious charter, deny it who can,That's breathed in the words, "I'm an Englishman."
England, with all thy faults, I love thee still—Shall be constrained to love thee.
Without one friend, above all foes,Britannia gives the world repose.
We are indeed a nation of shopkeepers.
Roused by the lash of his own stubborn tail,Our lion now will foreign foes assail.
In these troublesome days when the greatMother Empire stands splendidly isolated in Europe.
Hearts of oak are our ships,We'll fight and will conquer again and again.
Wake up England.
He is an Englishman!That he's an Englishman!
For he might have been a RooshianHe remains an Englisliman.
The land of scholars, and the nurse of arms.
We have stood alone in that which is called isolation—our splendid isolation, as one of our Colonial friends was good enough to call it.
What have I done for you,England, my own?
His home!—the Western giant smiles,'Tis but a freckle,—never mind it.
Old England is our home and Englishmen are we,Our tongue is known in every clime, our flag on every sea.
The whole [English] nation, beyond all other mortal men is most given to banquetting and feasts.
Never was isle so little, never was sea so lone,But over the scud and the palm-trees an English flag was flown.
Winds of the World give answer! They are whimpering to and fro—And what should they know of England who only England know?—
Whether splendidly isolated or dangerously isolated, I will not now debate; but for my part, I think splendidly isolated, because this isolation of England comes from her superiority.
The New World's sons from England's breast we drewThis window we inscribe with Raleigh's fame.
Let us hope that England, having saved herself by her energy, may save Europe by her example.
[King Edward] was careful not to tear England violently from the splendid isolation in which she had wrapped herself.
Oh, when shall Britain, conscious of her claim,And vanquished realms supply recording gold?
The martial airs of EnglandEncircle still the earth.
There is nothing so bad or so good that you will not find Englishmen doing it; but you will never find an Englishman in the wrong. He does everything on principle. He fights you on patriotic principles; he robs you on business principles; he enslaves you on imperial principles.
Oh, Britannia the pride of the oceanNo land can compare unto thee.
To found a great empire for the sole purpose of raising up a nation of customers may at first sight appear a project fit only for a nation of shopkeepers. It is, however, a project altogether unfit for a nation of shopkeepers, but extremely fit for a nation whose government is influenced by shopkeepers.
There is no land like England,Beneath the greenwood tree.
First drink a health, this solemn night,And the great name of England round and round.
When Britain first at Heaven's command,Britons never will be slaves."
A shopkeeper will never get the more custom by beating his customers, and what is true of a shopkeeper is true of a shopkeeping nation.
In every war England wins one battle. The last one.
Froth at the top, dregs at bottom, but the middle excellent.
Set in this stormy Northern sea,Before whose feet the worlds divide?