England Quotes

• So, Blair keep your England, and let me keep my Zimbabwe.

  Robert Mugabe

  Zimbabwe, Blair, Let Me

  "Hands off Zimbabwe, Mugabe tells Blair", www.theguardian.com. September 2, 2002.

  108 Copy quote

  Show source

• And what should they know of England who only England know?

  Rudyard Kipling

  Should, Knows

  "The English Flag" st. 1 (1892)

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• A family with the wrong members in control; that, perhaps, is as near as one can come to describing England in a phrase.

  George Orwell

  Family, Insulting, Phrases

  The Lion and the Unicorn (1941) pt. 1 "England Your England"

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• Set in this stormy Northern sea, Queen of these restless fields of tide, England! what shall men say of thee, Before whose feet the worlds divide?

  Oscar Wilde

  Queens, Men, Sea

  Oscar Wilde, Russell Jackson, Ian Small (2000). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Poems and poems in prose”, p.136, Oxford University Press on Demand

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• If I could create an ideal world, it would be an England with the fire of the Elizabethans, the correct taste of the Georgians, and the refinement and pure ideals of the Victorians.

  H. P. Lovecraft

  Fire, Would Be, World

  76 Copy quote

• Those comfortably padded lunatic asylums which are known, euphemistically, as the stately homes of England.

  Virginia Woolf

  Women, Home, House

  The Common Reader "Lady Dorothy Nevill" (1925) See Crisp 2; Hemans 3

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• I will not cease from mental fight Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand.

  William Blake

  Sleep, Fighting, Hands

  'Milton' (1804-10) Preface 'And did those feet in ancient time'

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• If the Church of England were to fail, it would be found in my parish

  John Keble

  Church, Would Be, Failing

  In D. Newsome 'The Parting of Friends' (1966) p. 395

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• If I should die, think only this of me: that there's some corner of a foreign field that is for ever England.

  Rupert Brooke

  Army, Thinking, Navy

  "The Soldier" l. 1 (1914)

  24 Copy quote

  Show source

• England is a nation of shopkeepers.

  Napoleon Bonaparte

  Business, Insulting, Shopkeepers

  Quoted in Barry E. O'Meara, Napoleon in Exile (1822). The Pennsylvania Gazette, 20 Aug. 1794, prints "Barrere's Report of the Naval Action of the 1st of June" to the National Convention of France, 16 June. Included in this report is the sentence: "Let Pitt then boast of this victory of his nation of shop-keepers (national boutiquiere.)" The author was revolutionary and legislator Bertrand Barrere. See Adam Smith 7; Josiah Tucker 1

  84 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  George Mikes

  Food, People, Cooking

  How to Be an Alien (1946)

  63 Copy quote

  Show source

• This royal throne of kings, this sceptered isle, This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, This other Eden, demi-paradise, This fortress built by Nature for herself Against infection and the hand of war, This happy breed of men, this little world, This precious stone set in the silver sea, Which serves it in the office of a wall Or as a moat defensive to a house, Against the envy of less happier lands,--This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.

  William Shakespeare

  Kings, Wall, War

  'Richard II' (1595) act 2, sc. 1, l. 40

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• Be England what she will, With all her faults she is my country still.

  Charles Churchill

  Country, Faults, Stills

  The Farewell l. 27 (1764)

  3 Copy quote

  Show source

• Without one friend, above all foes, Britannia gives the world repose.

  William Cowper

  Giving, World, Foe

  William Cowper (1855). “The Complete Poetical Works of William Cowper: With Life, and Critical Notice of His Writings. Eight Engravings on Steel”, p.370

  3 Copy quote

  Show source

• In spite of their hats being very ugly, Goddam! I love the English.

  Bertrand Barere

  Ugly, Hats, Spite

  3 Copy quote

• We are indeed a nation of shopkeepers.

  Benjamin Disraeli

  Shopkeepers, Nations

  Benjamin Disraeli (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of Benjamin Disraeli (Illustrated)”, p.611, Delphi Classics

  19 Copy quote

  Show source

• Where are the rough brave Britons to be found With Hearts of Oak, so much of old renowned?

  Bill Vaughan

  Heart, Brave, Found

  3 Copy quote

• England! my country, great and free! Heart of the world, I leap to thee!

  Philip James Bailey

  Country, Heart, World

  3 Copy quote

• The people of England are the most enthusiastic in the world.

  Benjamin Disraeli

  People, World, Enthusiasm

  Benjamin Disraeli, Edmund Gosse, Robert Arnot (1904). “The works of Benjamin Disraeli, earl of Beaconsfield: embracing novels, romances, plays, poems, biography, short stories and great speeches”

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• And gentlemen in England now-a-bed Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here, And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

  William Shakespeare

  Military, Army, Thinking

  'Henry V' (1599) act 4, sc. 3, l. 35

  3 Copy quote

  Show source

• And they that rule in England, in stately conclaves met, alas, alas for England they have no graves as yet.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Graves, Mets, Alas

  Gilbert Keith Chesterton, “Elegy In A Country Churchyard”

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Oh, to be in England now that April's there.

  Robert Browning

  April And Spring, April

  "Home-Thoughts, from Abroad" l. 1 (1845)

  3 Copy quote

  Show source

• This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.

  William Shakespeare

  Blessed, Precious Stones, Paradise On Earth

  1595 John of Gaunt. Richard II, act 2, sc.1, l.40-50.

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle, This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, This other Eden, demi-Paradise.

  William Shakespeare

  Kings, Precious Stones, Paradise On Earth

  'Richard II' (1595) act 2, sc. 1, l. 40

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• Oh, to be in England Now that April's there, And whoever wakes in England Sees, some morning, unaware.

  Robert Browning

  Morning, April

  'Home-Thoughts, from the Sea' (1845)

  3 Copy quote

  Show source