Englishmen Quotes - Page 13

• I know no place at which an Englishman may drop down suddenly among a pleasanter circle of acquaintance, or find himself with a more clever set of men, than he can do at Boston.

  Anthony Trollope

  Clever, Men, Boston

  Anthony Trollope (1862). “North America”, p.16

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• The characteristic virtue of Englishmen is power of sustained practical activity and their characteristic vice a reluctance to test the quality of that activity by reference to principles.

  R. H. Tawney

  Quality, Vices, Principles

  'The Acquisitive Society' (1921)

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• I can be described as many things, but no description of me is complete without saying 'Englishman.' My parents were from Liverpool and emigrated to Canada before I was born.

  Mike Myers

  Parent, Canada, Born

  "Mike Myers: My Family Values". Interview with Elaine Lipworth, www.theguardian.com. July 03, 2010.

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• I built the ideal house down in the Caribbean. All Englishmen dream of leaving the rain of England and getting a place in the sun - out in the grounds with separate guest houses; that is the ideal scenario.

  Robin Leach

  Dream, Rain, House

  "Interview: Robin Leach interview". www.askmen.com.

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• Sometimes, however, the Gaelic blood asserts itself. The Frenchmen will then attack. But the French attacking spirit is like bottled lemonade. It lacks tenacity. The Englishmen, on the other hand, one notices that they are of Germanic blood. Sportsmen easily take to flying, and Englishmen see in flying nothing but a sport.

  Manfred von Richthofen

  Sports, Blood, Hands

  Manfred von Richthofen (2009). “The Red Baron”, p.128, BoD – Books on Demand

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• Most Englishmen are convinced that God is an Englishman, probably educated at Eton.

  E. M. Delafield

  Eton, Language, Educated

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• An Englishman is content to say nothing when he has nothing to say.

  Samuel Johnson

  Language, English Language

  In James Boswell 'The Life of Samuel Johnson' (1791) vol. 4, p. 15 (1780) Sir, your wife, under pretence of keeping a bawdy-house, is a receiver of stolen goods. During an exchange of coarse raillery customary among people travelling upon the Thames, in James Boswell 'The Life of Samuel Johnson' (1791) vol. 4, p. 26 (1780)

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• The Englishman is under no constitutional obligation to believe that all men are created equal. The American agony is therefore scarcely intelligible, like a saint's self-flagellation viewed by an atheist.

  John Updike

  Atheist, Believe, Men

  John Updike (1977). “Picked-up Pieces”, Fawcett

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• New York cops are very specific in terms of the way they talk and the way they handle themselves. All these cliches that, as an Englishman, I thought were from a bygone era or were a bit of poetic license with cop shows - the more you hang out with them, the more you realize how real that jargon is.

  Theo James

  New York, Real, Poetic License

  "From Turkish Corpse to New York Cop" by Jeremy Egner, www.nytimes.com. February 15, 2013.

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• We have a shotgun we inherited from my father-in-law, a paranoid Englishman living in Texas. I have a .22 Marlin rifle, similar to the one Annie Oakley had, and my husband has a .357 Magnum pistol. All those are locked up tight, of course. We have a couple of pellet guns that get more use than the real guns.

  Bonnie Jo Campbell

  Husband, Couple, Father

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• The proverbial Englishman, we know from old chronicler Froissart, takes his pleasures sadly, and the Englishwoman goes a step further and takes her pleasures in sadness itself.

  Jerome K. Jerome

  Funny, Humorous, Sadness

  Jerome K. Jerome (2016). “The Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow”, p.26, Jerome K. Jerome

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• When mighty roast beef was the Englishman's food It ennobled our hearts and enriched our blood-- Our soldiers were brave and our courtiers were good. Oh! the roast beef of England. And Old England's roast beef.

  Henry Fielding

  Heart, Blood, Brave

  'The Grub Street Opera' (1731) act 3, sc. 3

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• The Englishman walks before the law like a trained horse in the circus. He has the sense of legality in his bones, in his muscles.

  Maxim Gorky

  Horse, Law, Circus

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• But Lord! To see the absurd nature of Englishmen that cannot forbear laughing and jeering at everything that looks strange.

  Samuel Pepys

  Laughing, Looks, Jeering

  'Diary' 27 November 1662

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• An Englishman never takes his collar off when he is writing. How can you expect him to show you his soul?

  William McFee

  Writing, Soul, Shows

  William McFee (1921). “Harbours of Memory”

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• It is good to be on your guard against an Englishman who speaks French perfectly; he is very likely to be a card-sharper or an attache in the diplomatic service.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Speaks French, Cards, Diplomatic

  W. Somerset Maugham (1954). “Mr. Maugham Himself”

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• [V]ariety of climate should always go with stability of abode.... an Englishman’s house is not only his castle; it is his fairy castle. Clouds and colours of every varied dawn and eve are perpetually touching and turning it from clay to gold, or from gold to ivory. There is a line of woodland beyond a corner of my garden which is literally different on every one of the three hundred and sixty-five days. Sometimes it seems as near as a hedge, and sometimes as far as a faint and fiery evening cloud.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Garden, Weather, Ivory

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• They were adored by the Germans, who thought they were exactly what Englishmen ought to be. They made war look stylish and reasonable, and fun... They were dressed half for battle, half for tennis or croquet.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Fun, War, Tennis

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• Bottled, was he?" Said Colonel Bantry, with an Englishman's sympathy for alcoholic excess. "Oh, well, can't judge a fellow by what he does when he's drunk? When I was at Cambridge, I remember I put a certain utensil - well - well, nevermind.

  Agatha Christie

  Sympathy, Drunk, Judging

  Agatha Christie (1977). “Starring Miss Marple”, Dodd Mead

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• sometimes i wish i'd been an englishman; american life is so damned dumb and stupid and healthy

  F. Scott Fitzgerald

  Stupid, Dumb, Healthy

  F. Scott Fitzgerald (2015). “The Complete Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald: Novels, Short Stories, Poetry, Articles, Letters, Plays & Screenplays: From the author of The Great Gatsby, The Side of Paradise, Tender Is the Night, The Beautiful and Damned, The Love of the Last Tycoon, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and many other notable works”, p.220, e-artnow

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• But Shakespeare one gets acquainted with without knowing how. It is a part of an Englishman's constitution. His thoughts and beauties are so spread abroad that one touches them everywhere; one is intimate with him by instinct. No man of any brain can open at a good part of one of his plays without falling into the flow of his meaning immediately.

  Jane Austen

  Fall, Men, Play

  'Mansfield Park' (1814) ch. 34 (Henry Crawford)

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• A true Englishman doesn't joke when he is talking about so serious a thing as a wager.

  Jules Verne

  Talking, Wagers, Serious

  Jules Verne, Jules VERNE (2016). “Around the World in Eighty Days”, p.16, Jules Verne

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• Shrapnel was invented by an Englishman of the same name. Don't you wish you could have something named after you?

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Names, Wish, Wish You

  Kurt Vonnegut (2011). “A Man Without a Country”, p.88, Seven Stories Press

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• In the heart of any pious Jew, God is a Jew. Is your God an Englishman or an American?

  Maurice Samuel

  Heart, Jew, Gentiles

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• American gentlemen are a cross between English and French men, and yet really altogether like neither. They are more refined and modest than Frenchmen, and less manly, shy, and rough, than Englishmen. Their brains are finer and flimsier, their bodies less robust and vigorous than ours. We are the finer animals, and they the subtler spirits. Their intellectual tendency is to excitement and insanity, and ours to stagnation and stupidity.

  Fanny Kemble

  Animal, Men, Stupidity

  Fanny Kemble (1890). “Further Records, 1848-1883: A Series of Letters”

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