Authors
Topics
Lists
Pictures
Resources
Britain Quotes
400+ Sourced quotes
Source
Report...
When people say England, they sometimes mean Great Britain, sometimes the United Kingdom, sometimes the British Isles, - but never England.
George Mikes
Source
Report...
When Britain first, at heaven's command,
Arose from out the azure main,
This was the charter of the land,
And guardian angels sung this strain:
'Rule, Britannia, rule the waves;
Britons never will be slaves.'
James Thomson (poet)
Source
Report...
Mr Churchill is proud of Britain's stand alone, after France had fallen, and before America had entered the war. Could he not find in his heart the generosity to acknowledge that there is a small nation that stood alone, not for one year or two, but for several hundred years, against aggression...a small nation that could never be got to accept defeat and has never surrendered her soul?
Éamon de Valera
Source
Report...
What is our task? To make Britain a fit country for heroes to live in.
David Lloyd George
Source
Report...
In America journalism is apt to be regarded as an extension of history: in Britain, as an extension of conversation.
Anthony Sampson
Source
Report...
The honorable William Penn, late governor of Pennsylvania, was chosen agent to the Court of Britain, and directed to deliver the petition to the King himself and to endeavor by his personal influence to procure a favorable reception to this last address.
Mercy Otis Warren
Source
Report...
We are really doing our very best. There are no doubt many mistakes and shortcomings. A lot of things are done none too well. Some things that ought to be done have not yet been done...[But Britain's effort has] justly commanded the wonder and admiration of every friendly nation in the world.
Winston Churchill
Source
Report...
At this point the march of invention brought a new factor upon the scene. Iron was dug and forged. Men armed with iron entered Britain from the Continent and killed the men of bronze. At this point we can plainly recognise across the vanished millenniums a fellow-being. A biped capable of slaying another with iron is evidently to modern eyes a man and a brother.
Winston Churchill
Source
Report...
In the beginning of the contest with Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayers in this room for Divine protection," he stated. "Our prayers, Sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered.... Do we imagine we no longer need His assistance?
Benjamin Franklin
Source
Report...
During the late war I had an infallible rule for deciding what Great Britain would do on every occasion. It was, to consider what they ought to do, and to take the reverse of that as what they would assuredly do, and I can say with truth that I was never deceived.
Thomas Jefferson
Source
Report...
Who the first inhabitants of Britain were, whether natives or immigrants, remains obscure; one must remember we are dealing with barbarians.
Tacitus
Source
Report...
During part of 1941 and 1942, when the Luftwaffe was busy in Russia, the German radio regaled its home audience with stories of devastating air raids on London. Now, we are aware that those raids did not happen. But what use would our knowledge be if the Germans conquered Britain? For the purpose of a future historian, did those raids happen, or didn't they? The answer is: If Hitler survives, they happened, and if he falls they didn't happen.
George Orwell
Source
Report...
If you lead a country like Britain... you have to have a touch of iron about you.
Margaret Thatcher
Source
Report...
We have to see that the spirit of the South Atlantic—the real spirit of Britain—is kindled not only by war but can now be fired by peace. We have the first prerequisite. We know that we can do it—we haven't lost the ability. That is the Falklands Factor.
Margaret Thatcher
Source
Report...
In order to persuade Britain to pack up, to compel her to make peace, it was essential to rob her of her hope of being able still to confront us, on the continent itself, with an adversary of a stature equal to our own.
Adolf Hitler
Source
Report...
I am sure you will agree that, in Britain with our democratic institutions and the need for a high degree of consent, some of the measures adopted in Chile are quite unacceptable. Our reform must be in line with our traditions and our Constitution. At times the process may seem painfully slow. But I am certain we shall achieve our reforms in our own way and in our own time. Then they will endure.
Margaret Thatcher
Source
Report...
In Great Britain, governments often change their policies without changing their men. In France, they usually change their men without changing their policy.
Winston Churchill
Source
Report...
When I warned them [the French Government] 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!
Winston Churchill
Source
Report...
For myself I would say that more than the interest and uses of the study of Welsh as an adminicle of English philology, more than the practical linguist's desire to acquire a knowledge of Welsh for the enlargement of his experience, more even than the interest and worth of the literature, older and newer, that is preserved in it, these two things seem important: Welsh is of this soil, this island, the senior language of the men of Britain; and Welsh is beautiful.
J. R. R. Tolkien
Source
Report...
The Battle of France is over. The Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the future of Christian civilization.
Winston Churchill
Source
Report...
If the new Universal History were also read, it would give a connected idea of human affairs, so far as it goes, which should be followed by the best modern histories, particularly of our mother country; then of these colonies; which should be accompanied with observations on their rise, increase, use to Great Britain, encouragements and discouragements, the means to make them flourish, and secure their liberties.
Benjamin Franklin
Source
Report...
If Britain wins wholly, Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and perhaps even Bolshevik Russia will disappear.
Mahatma Gandhi
Source
Report...
Whatever is unknown is taken for marvelous; but now the limits of Britain are laid bare.
Tacitus
Source
Report...
The government of the world I live in was not framed, like that of Britain, in after-dinner conversations over the wine.
Henry David Thoreau
Source
Report...
No theory of government was ever given a fairer test or a more prolonged experiment in a democratic country than democratic socialism received in Britain. Yet it was a miserable failure in every respect. Far from reversing the slow relative decline of Britain vis-à-vis its main industrial competitors, it accelerated it. We fell further behind them, until by 1979 we were widely dismissed as 'the sick man of Europe'... To cure the British disease with socialism was like trying to cure leukaemia with leeches.
Margaret Thatcher
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
...
16
Quote of the day
He who has no taste for order, will be often wrong in his judgment, and seldom considerate or conscientious in his actions.
Johann Kaspar Lavater
Featured Authors
Lists
Predictions that didn't happen
If it's on the Internet it must be true
Remarkable Last Words (or Near-Last Words)
Picture Quotes
Confucius
Philip James Bailey
Eleanor Roosevelt
Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Popular Topics
life
love
nature
time
god
power
human
mind
work
art
heart
thought
men
day
×
Lib Quotes