British Monarchy Quotes

• I respect the British a lot - their history, their past, their culture. I think it's beautiful, what they have with the monarchy.

  Jean-Marc Vallee

  Beautiful, Past, Thinking

  7 Copy quote

• I'd like to see a much more open Monarchy, myself. I used to think they were completely useless and we should get rid of them. I don't necessarily feel that way anymore. I'm still ambivalent, I still loathe the British class system, and the Royal family are the apex of the British class system.

  Helen Mirren

  Thinking, Class System, Royal

  16 Copy quote

• Of the various forms of government which have prevailed in the world, an hereditary monarchy seems to present the fairest scope for ridicule.

  Edward Gibbon

  Government, History, World

  Edward Gibbon (1821). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.197

  18 Copy quote

  Show source

• The monarchy is foremost a business, and it's important to them that the British public continue to finance the excessive luxurious lifestyles of the now quite enormous, wasteful and useless 'royal' family.

  Steven Morrissey

  Important, Useless, Royal

  "Morrissey Slams Kate Middleton, Prince Harry & ‘Useless’ Royal Family" by Rebecca Adams, www.huffingtonpost.com. October 3, 2012.

  18 Copy quote

  Show source

• No. I am not a royalist. Not at all. I am definitely a republican in the British sense of the word. I just don't see the use of the monarchy though I'm fierce patriot. I'm proud proud proud of being English, but I think the monarchy symbolizes a lot of what was wrong with the country.

  Daniel Radcliffe

  Country, Thinking, Use

  9 Copy quote

• Scandal, it bears repeating, undermines monarchies, but rarely ends them. It may be true that, according to a recent editorial in the New York Times, the British monarchy now exists primarily 'for our amusement'. But as long as people find it amusing, and want to be amused by it, they will be happy to see it undermined but uneager to kill it off.

  David Cannadine

  New York, Long, People

  David Cannadine (1998). “History in Our Time”, Penguin Group USA

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Americans also seem to believe that the monarchy is a kind of mediaeval hangover, encumbered by premodern notions of decorum; the reality is that the British monarchy, for good or ill, is a modern political institution - perhaps the first modern political institution.

  Adam Gopnik

  Hangover, Believe, Reality

  The New Yorker, September 29, 1997.

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• In the 20th century, the position of the monarch as head of the Church of England was given a meaning which it never had before. You took the fact that the monarch was head of the Church of England to mean that the British monarchy was itself a religious or moral institution and the monarchy became a symbol of national public morality.

  David Starkey

  Religious, Mean, Church

  "What do the cards hold for British royalty?". www.cnn.com. August 19, 1996.

  14 Copy quote

  Show source

• There is not a power in Europe, no not even Bonaparte's that is so unlimited [as the British monarchy].

  Charles James Fox

  Europe, Unlimited, Bonaparte

  "Charles James Fox" by L. G. Mitchell, London: Penguin, (p. 194), 1997.

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• When it comes to the British monarchy, I prefer to be seduced by an image than presented with a real person. It's kind of a Warhol thing.

  Damien Hirst

  Real, Kind, Warhol

  7 Copy quote

• I believe that the visit of the Queen to the United States is an admirable occasion to produce an historical, truthful, sincere, genuine analysis of how the British Monarchy evolved into its present situation.

  Malcolm Muggeridge

  Queens, Believe, Historical

  Source: www.hrc.utexas.edu

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• There are important arguments to be made about the relative merits of an hereditary or an elected head of state: but not at the level of the human frailties of particular monarchs or presidents. No one seriously contends that the American presidency should be abolished because Bill Clinton is a self-confessed adulterer. So why should the abolition of the British monarchy be contemplated because the same is true of Prince Charles?

  David Cannadine

  Self, Important, President

  David Cannadine (1998). “History in Our Time”, Penguin Group USA

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The Billy Carter of the British monarchy.

  Robert Lacey

  Government, Carter, British

  4 Copy quote