Britain Quotes - Page 30

• Sweden is still a very peaceful country to live in. I think that people in Britain have created this mythology about Sweden, that it's a perfect democratic society full of erotically charged girls.

  Henning Mankell

  Girl, Country, Thinking

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• We have to challenge the whole idea that it's acceptable for a society like Britain to have such a significant number of people who do not work one day of the week and don't have any possibility of improving the quality of their lives.

  Iain Duncan Smith

  Ideas, Numbers, People

  "Work or lose your benefits: Iain Duncan Smith heralds biggest shake-up of welfare state since the war". www.dailymail.co.uk. May 28, 2010.

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• 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... To cure the British disease with socialism was like trying to cure leukemia with leeches.

  Margaret Thatcher

  Country, Democratic Socialism, Government

  "The Downing Street Years". Book by Margaret Thatcher, October 18, 1993.

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• As ever with modern Britain, we are let down by a vast, over-manned, over-funded, hidebound, obstructive, box-ticking and incompetent bureaucracy.

  Frederick Forsyth

  Let Down, Modern, Boxes

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• The actors in Britain are incredible, and I didn't appreciate that until I got there. They interpret your words and you realize how deliberate and thoughtful they are. There are great American actors, too, don't get me wrong, but the technique that British actors have is something really special.

  Frank Spotnitz

  Thoughtful, Appreciate, Special

  Source: collider.com

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• If we took over Britain, then we'd have the job of cleaning up the bourgeoisie and keeping people in a revolutionary state of mind.

  John Lennon

  Jobs, People, Mind

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

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• Sir Oswald Mosley thought his job is not just keep Britain from going to war with his beloved Germany, he saw it as his job to organize a complementary fascist movement inside the U.K. So, he formed this organization as the British Union of Fascists in `32. In 1936, they changed their name to the British Union of Fascists and National Socialists

  Rachel Maddow

  Jobs, War, Names

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• Oswald Mosley`s movement, it was a big movement. It was obviously anti-immigrant, anti-Semitic, it was populist. Mosley wanted to replace the parliamentary system of government in Britain with a government that was based on business interests, that was based on the idea that business interests were the real interests of that country and business interests.
  and reorganizing the government to serve business interests, that would be a way to get stuff done faster and more efficiently.

  Rachel Maddow

  Country, Real, Ideas

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• The British Union of Fascists, Oswald Mosley`s group, the black shirts, they were banned in Britain in 1940. And Max Mosley`s dad, Sir Oswald Mosley, ended up spending three years in World War II, 1940 to 1943, interned in the U.K. as basically an enemy of the state. He spent that time in prison, as did Max Mosley`s mother.

  Rachel Maddow

  Mother, Dad, War

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• Britons still commemorate the Battle of Cable Street in London. There are still pop songs in Britain that reference Sir Oswald Mosley and his black shirts.

  Rachel Maddow

  Song, Black, Battle

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• Britain kept its position as the dominant world power well into the 20th century despite steady decline. By the end of World War II, dominance had shifted decisively into the hands of the upstart across the sea, the United States, by far the most powerful and wealthy society in world history.

  Noam Chomsky

  Powerful, War, Hands

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• In the ninth and tenth centuries the Vikings invaded Britain from Scandinavia and settled in large numbers. Their language, which we call Old Norse, was at least partly comprehensible to the English, who did not hesitate to take over hundreds of words from it: skirt, window, scrub, sky, give, hit, kick, scatter, scrape, skill, scowl, score, fellow, want, skin, knife, law, happy, ugly, wrong and even the pronouns they and them.

  Larry Trask

  Law, Knives, Sky

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• The monarchy is so extraordinarily useful. When Britain wins a battle she shouts, God save the Queen; when she loses, she votes down the prime minister.

  Winston Churchill

  Queens, Winning, Battle

  "Churchill v Toynbee" by Patrick Barkham, www.theguardian.com. November 23, 2006.

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• The spirit of the South Atlantic was the spirit of Britain at her best. It has been said that we surprised the world, that British patriotism was rediscovered in those spring days. It was never really lost. But it would be no bad thing if the feeling that swept the country then were to continue to inspire us. For if there was any doubt about the determination of the British people it was removed by the men and women who, a few months ago, brought a renewed sense of pride and self-respect to our country.

  Margaret Thatcher

  Country, Determination, Spring

  Margaret Thatcher, Iain Dale (1997). “As I said to Denis--: the Margaret Thatcher book of quotations”, Robson Book Ltd

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• What is right for the family is right for Britain.

  Margaret Thatcher

  Family

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• My first guiding principle is this: willing and active co-operation between independent sovereign states. Europe will be stronger precisely because it has France as France, Spain as Spain, Britain as Britain, each with its own customs, traditions and identity. It would be folly to try to fit them into some sort of identikit European personality.

  Margaret Thatcher

  Independent, Guiding Principles, Europe

  Margaret Thatcher, Conservative Political Centre (Great Britain) (1988). “CPC [publications].”

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• While the Soviet Union has imposed its rule on its neighbours and drawn an iron curtain between east and west, we in Great Britain have given freedom and independence to more than forty-eight countries whose populations now number more than a thousand million - a quarter of the world's total.

  Margaret Thatcher

  Country, Eight, Iron

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• It would have been very much better for the world if Britain had remained neutral and the Germans had won a quick victory. We should not have had either the Nazis or the Communists if that had happened.

  Bertrand Russell

  War, Victory, World

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• The president boasted at the top of his press conference that we have the support now of Britain and Spain for our attack on Iraq. You know, when you want to make it perfectly clear to the world that you're not an imperialist, the people you want in your corner are Britain and Spain.

  Bill Maher

  Iraq, People, Support

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• Britannia's shame! There took her gloomy flight, On wing impetuous, a black sullen soul . Less base the fear of death than fear of life. O Britain! infamous for suicide.

  Edward Young

  Suicide, Wings, Soul

  Edward Young, Charles Edward DE COETLOGON (1793). “Night thoughts on life death and immortality ... to which are added the life of the author and a paraphrase on part of the Book of Job”, p.103

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• The question Tony Blair should be reflecting on this weekend is having achieved this, having secured his place in the history of the Labour Party and the history of Britain, whether now might be a better time to let a new leader in who could then achieve the unity we need if we are going to go forward.

  Robin Cook

  Party, Weekend, Leader

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• Tony Blair has to consider very carefully to what extent he can leave Britain, the party and the nation guessing as to when exactly he might go.

  Robin Cook

  Party, Guessing, Might

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• They have it wrong in asking if Schroeder favors Britain over France, or France over Britain. Schroeder favors Germany. That is what we all have to understand.

  Gerhard Schroder

  Understanding, Germany, Asking

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• To expect, indeed, that the freedom of trade should ever be entirely restored in Great Britain, is as absurd as to expect that an Oceana or Utopia should never be established in it.

  Adam Smith

  Utopia, Absurd, Should

  Adam Smith, David Buchanan (1817). “An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations: With Notes, and an Additional Volume”, p.213

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• This regard for the liberties of Europe, this care at one time for the protestant interest, this excessive love for the balance of power, is neither more nor less than a gigantic system of outdoor relief for the aristocracy of Great Britain.

  John Bright

  Europe, Liberty, Balance

  1858 Speech, Birmingham, 29 Oct.

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