Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh Quotes

31 Sourced Quotes

The man who invented the red carpet needed his head examined.

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Everybody was saying we must have more leisure. Now they are complaining they are unemployed.

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
When a man opens the car door for his wife, it's either a new car or a new wife.

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
I don't think a prostitute is more moral than a wife, but they are doing the same thing.

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
A gun is no more dangerous than a cricket bat in the hands of a madman.

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
All money nowadays seems to be produced with a natural homing instinct for the Treasury.

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Anyone who is concerned about his dignity would be well advised to keep away from horses.

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
We live in what virtually amounts to a museum – which does not happen to a lot of people.

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
For conservation to be successful it is necessary to take into consideration that it is a characteristic of man that he can only be relied upon to do anything consistently which is in his own interest. He may have occasional fits of conscience and moral rectitude but otherwise his actions are governed by self-interest. It follows then that whatever the moral reasons for conservation it will only be achieved by the inducement of profit or pleasure.

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
You can't have been here that long — you haven't got a pot belly.

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
There is nothing like it for morale to be reminded that the years are passing—ever more quickly—and that bits are dropping off the ancient frame. But it is nice to be remembered at all.

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Gentlemen, I think it is about time we 'pulled our fingers out'…If we want to be more prosperous we've simply got to get down to it and work for it. The rest of the world does not owe us a living.

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
People usually say that after a fire it is water damage that is the worst. We are still trying to dry out Windsor Castle.

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Deaf? If you are near there, no wonder you are deaf.

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
If you stay here much longer, you'll all be slitty-eyed.

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
If we are to exercise our responsibilities so that all life can continue on earth, they must have a moral and philosophical basis. Simple self-interest, economic profit and absolute materialism are no longer enough... It has been made perfectly clear that a concern for any part of life on this planet — human, plant or animal, wild or tame — is a concern for all life. A threat to any part of the environment is a threat to the whole environment, but we must have a basis of assessment of these threats, not so that we can establish a priority of fears, but so that we can make a positive contribution to improvement and ultimate survival.

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Just at this moment we are suffering a national defeat comparable to any lost military campaign, and what is more it is self-inflicted…I think it is about time we pulled our finger out.

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Do you know they're now producing eating dogs for the anorexics?

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
It is an old cliche to say that the future is in the hands of the young. This is no longer true. The quality of life to be enjoyed or the existence to be survived by our children and future generations is in our hands now.

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
I can only assume that it is largely due to the accumulation of toasts to my health over the years that I am still enjoying a fairly satisfactory state of health and have reached such an unexpectedly great age.

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
On too long church sermons:
The mind cannot absorb what the backside cannot endure.

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
On the U.S. Apollo program:
It seems to me that it's the best way of wasting money that I know of. I don't think investments on the moon pay a very high dividend.

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Dentopedalogy is the science of opening your mouth and putting your foot in it. I've been practising it for years.

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Well, you'll never fly in it, you're too fat to be an astronaut.

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
If it has four legs and is not a chair, has wings and is not an aeroplane, or swims and is not a submarine, the Cantonese will eat it.

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
How do you keep the natives off the booze long enough to get them through the test?

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
The conservation of nature, the proper care for the human environment and a general concern for the long-term future of the whole of our planet are absolutely vital if future generations are to have a chance to enjoy their existence on this earth

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
A horse which stops dead just before a jump and thus propels its rider into a graceful arc provides a splendid excuse for general merriment.

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
I just wonder what it would be like to be reincarnated in an animal whose species had been so reduced in numbers than it was in danger of extinction. What would be its feelings toward the human species whose population explosion had denied it somewhere to exist... I must confess that I am tempted to ask for reincarnation as a particularly deadly virus.

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
It is frequently more rewarding merely to ask pertinent questions. It may get someone to go and look for an answer. If you get a silly answer, which can easily happen, you can return to the charge with even more telling effect. Whatever happens, don't give up and don't despair. Results may not be immediately apparent, but you may have touched a receptive chord without knowing it. Even the most unsympathetic and unenlightened politician, industrialist or bureaucrat begins to take notice when a lot of people write about the same subject.

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh