Englishmen Quotes - Page 14

• Old England is our home, and Englishmen are we; Our tongue is known in every clime, our flag in every sea.

  Mary Howitt

  Home, Sea, Flags

  "Old England is our Home". Poem by Mary Howitt; later quoted in John Bartlett "Bartlett's Familiar Quotations", 10th edition, 1919.

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• It is commonly observed, that when two Englishmen meet, their first talk is of the weather; they are in haste to tell each other, what each must already know, that it is hot or cold, bright or cloudy, windy or calm.

  Samuel Johnson

  Weather, Two, Haste

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy, Francis Pearson Walesby (1825). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D..: The Adventurer and Idler”, p.182

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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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• Every Englishman is an average Englishman: it is a national characteristic.

  E. M. Delafield

  Average, Language, Characteristics

  E. M. Delafield (2015). “The Collected Works of E. M. Delafield (Illustrated): The Provincial Lady Series, Zella Sees Herself, The War-Workers, Consequences, Gay Life, The Heel of Achilles, Humbug, Messalina of the Suburbs (Including Short Stories and Plays)”, p.2680, e-artnow

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

  E. M. Delafield

  Eton, Language, Educated

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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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• 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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• 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 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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• 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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• I am the last Englishman to rule in India.

  Jawaharlal Nehru

  India, Lasts

  Quoted in John Kenneth Galbraith, A Life in Our Times (1981)

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• By the early seventies I had become an Englishman - that is to say, I hated England just as much as half my compatriots seemed to do.

  Nick Hornby

  Half, England, Hated

  "Fever Pitch". Book by Nick Hornby, 1992.

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• 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 great works belong to no one nation, no one cultural tradition even. They are universal.I want an Australian vision of arts policy that is expansive, is embracing, is not narrow, is not parochial. For example, that Australians can do Shakespeare just as well as Englishmen can because we, like every civilised nation, partake of the great canonical works. It's not about Australian nationalism; it's about our identity as a culturally ambitious, culturally sophisticated nation.

  George Brandis

  Art, Vision, Ambitious

  Source: www.abc.net.au

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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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• An Englishman, methinks,--not to speak of other European nations,--habitually regards himself merely as a constituent part of theEnglish nation; he is a member of the royal regiment of Englishmen, and is proud of his company, as he has reason to be proud of it. But an American--one who has made tolerable use of his opportunities--cares, comparatively, little about such things, and is advantageously nearer to the primitive and the ultimate condition of man in these respects.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Men, Opportunity, Royal

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.915, Delphi Classics

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• My favourite novel is Frederick Forsythe's Day Of The Jackal, the story about the unproven case of this apparent Englishman who was hired to assassinate De Gaulle….

  Charles Kennedy

  Stories, Favourite, Cases

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