George Mikes Short Quotes

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The English have no soul; they have the understatement instead.

George Mikes
An Englishman, even if he is alone, forms an orderly queue of one.

George Mikes
Japan is, you often feel, an improved version of the United States.

George Mikes
Humility is one of the most repulsive virtues, nearly always false.

George Mikes
Continental people have sex life; the English have hot-water bottles.

George Mikes
To be extravagant you need money. True. But you do not need your own money.

George Mikes
You are my darling little fiancée and you will remain my fiancée forever.

George Mikes
Many Continentals think life is a game; the English think cricket is a game.

George Mikes
On the Continent people have good food; in England people have good table manners.

George Mikes
'I don't say a Zionist must be insane,' said President Weizmann, 'but it helps if he is.'

George Mikes
The Japanese are human beings like the rest of us, but they will strongly resent this insinuation.

George Mikes
Tel-Aviv airport is still the only airport in the world where each passenger is met by ten relatives.

George Mikes
Bad English was the second language of Israel and bad Hebrew, of course, remained the national language.

George Mikes
As a motto, I shall keep to Francis Bacon's advice: "Praise yourself daringly, something always sticks."

George Mikes
You can keep a dog: but it is the cat who keeps people, because cats find humans useful domestic animals.

George Mikes
Going to bed with women is almost a national hobby with Brazilians; it is rather like cricket in England.

George Mikes
Israelis keep teaching you your own business. God knows everything but the Israelis know everything better.

George Mikes
Nobody uses his car in New York, because so many people use it that traffic is congested and unbearably slow.

George Mikes
Our society is a free society. In a free society you are allowed to say what you think. But you are not allowed to think.

George Mikes
Three Italians engaged in a friendly chat can make more noise than the average English mass-demonstration in Trafalgar Square.

George Mikes
I firmly believe that humanity consists of three main groups: (1) BBC employees; (2) former BBC employees; (3) future BBC employees.

George Mikes
We are much more modest. Only the rich are insatiable. No rich man considers himself rich enough; but I consider myself poor enough.

George Mikes
An average English motorcar could be placed, I believe, without much difficulty, in the luggage-rack of an average American automobile.

George Mikes
The English take everything with an exquisite sense of humour. They are only offended if you tell them that they have no sense of humour.

George Mikes
When people say England, they sometimes mean Great Britain, sometimes the United Kingdom, sometimes the British Isles, - but never England.

George Mikes
According to Victorian novels these girls ought to be desperately unhappy; but they do not read Victorian novels and they are quite content.

George Mikes
People on the Continent either tell you the truth or lie; in England they hardly ever lie, but they would not dream of telling you the truth.

George Mikes
I said in my earlier book, and find no reason for retracting my statement, that the famous Jewish sense of humour got lost in transit to Israel.

George Mikes
Table manners are usually quite senseless all the world over. The rules are created by a small class of people who ridicule others for eating differently.

George Mikes
The country has always been governed by a coalition but today it is governed by a so-called Grand Coalition which is a more polite word for all and sundry.

George Mikes