Westminster Quotes

• On a very gloomy dismal day, just such a one as it ought to be, I went to see Westminster Abbey.

  Karl Philipp Moritz

  Gloomy, Westminster Abbey, Ought

  Karl Philipp Moritz (2010). “Travels in England in 1782”, p.54, BoD – Books on Demand

  56 Copy quote

  Show source

• As I passed along the side walls of Westminster Abbey, I hardly saw any thing but marble monuments of great admirals, but which were all too much loaded with finery and ornaments, to make on me at least, the intended impression.

  Karl Philipp Moritz

  Wall, Ornaments, Literature

  Karl Philipp Moritz (2010). “Travels in England in 1782”, p.55, BoD – Books on Demand

  68 Copy quote

  Show source

• He who is faithful over a few things is a lord of cities. It does not matter whether you preach in Westminster Abbey or teach a ragged class, so you be faithful. The faithfulness is all.

  George MacDonald

  Class, Cities, Faithful

  George MacDonald (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of George MacDonald (Illustrated)”, p.2730, Delphi Classics

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Darwin was one of our finest specimens. He did superbly what human beings are designed to do: manipulate social information to personal advantage. The information in question was the prevailing account of how human beings, and all organisms, came to exist; Darwin reshaped it in a way that radically raised his social status. When he died in 1882, his greatness was acclaimed in newspapers around the world, and he was buried in Westminster Abbey, not far from the body of Isaac Newton. Alpha-male territory.

  Robert Wright

  Greatness, Territory, Information

  Robert Wright (2010). “The Moral Animal: Why We Are, the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology”, p.377, Vintage

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• Westminster Abbey, the Tower, a steeple, one church, and then another, presented themselves to our view; and we could now plainly distinguish the high round chimneys on the tops of the houses, which yet seemed to us to form an innumerable number of smaller spires, or steeples.

  Karl Philipp Moritz

  Views, Numbers, House

  Karl Philipp Moritz (2010). “Travels in England in 1782”, p.7, BoD – Books on Demand

  57 Copy quote

  Show source

• I remember confuting one of Westminster's favourite maxims, "better the devil you know than the devil you don't". In the annals of popular wisdom, this is one of the most cretinous sayings I have come across.

  Coco Chanel

  Devil, Remember, Favourite

  Source: www.chanel-muggeridge.com

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• There have been several Duchesses of Westminster but there is only one Chanel!

  Coco Chanel

  Duchess, Westminster Abbey, Has Beens

  10 Copy quote

• Finally, there's a sense in which I look at this Westminster village and London intelligentsia as an outsider.

  Diane Abbott

  Looks, Village, London

  "Politicians interview pundits: Diane Abbott and Nick Robinson". Interview with Nick Robinson, www.theguardian.com. September 25, 2009.

  20 Copy quote

  Show source

• Much have I travelled in the realms of gold for which I thank the Paddington and Westminster Public Libraries.

  Peter Porter

  Library, Gold, Realms

  Peter Porter (2010). “The Rest on the Flight: Selected Poems”, p.15, Pan Macmillan

  3 Copy quote

  Show source

• I mean, you can't walk down the aisle in Westminster Abbey in a strapless dress, it just won't happen - it has to suit the grandeur of that aisle, it's enormous.

  Bruce Oldfield

  Mean, Suits, Dresses

  3 Copy quote

• PRIMATE, n. The head of a church, especially a State church supported by involuntary contributions. The Primate of England is the Archbishop of Canterbury, an amiable old gentleman, who occupies Lambeth Palace when living and Westminster Abbey when dead. He is commonly dead.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Gentleman, Church, Palaces

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.171, 谷月社

  3 Copy quote

  Show source

• If animals had a Pope," Major Thompson said to me, "their Vatican would be in London. And if by some dire submarine cataclysm that noble vessel, Great Britain, were to be shipwrecked and start to founder, believe me, there would surely be somebody in Westminster to cry from the top of the Tower: "Dogs first!

  Pierre Daninos

  Dog, Believe, Animal

  3 Copy quote

• The problem is that many MPs never see the London that exists beyond the wine bars and brothels of Westminster.

  Ken Livingstone

  Wine, Mps, Bars

  5 Copy quote

• There is laughter that goes so far as to lose all touch with its motive, and to exist only, grossly, in itself. This is laughter at its best. A man to whom such laughter has often been granted may happen to die in a work-house. No matter. I will not admit that he has failed in life. Another man, who has never laughed thus, may be buried in Westminster Abbey, leaving more than a million pounds overhead. What then? I regard him as a failure.

  Max Beerbohm

  Laughter, Men, House

  Sir Max Beerbohm (1960). “And Even Now: And, A Christmas Garland”

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• It was Reagan who began the realignment of American politics, making the Republicans into internationalist Jeffersonians with his speech in London at the Palace of Westminster in 1982, which led to the creation of the National Endowment for Democracy and the emergence of democracy promotion as a central goal of United States foreign policy.

  Michael Ignatieff

  Goal, Democracy, Speech

  "Who Are Americans to Think That Freedom Is Theirs to Spread?". www.nytimes.com. June 26, 2005.

  3 Copy quote

  Show source

• I grew up in New Jersey in the '80s. That means one thing: Big hair. ... I had big hair, my boyfriends had big hair, we all had big hair. Our prom looked like the poodle division of the Westminster dog show.

  Jancee Dunn

  Dog, Mean, Hair

  3 Copy quote

• In the firm expectation that when London shall be a habitation of bitterns, when St. Paul and Westminster Abbey shall stand shapeless and nameless ruins in the midst of an unpeopled marsh, when the piers of Waterloo Bridge shall become the nuclei of islets of reeds and osiers, and cast the jagged shadows of their broken arches on the solitary stream, some Transatlantic commentator will be weighing in the scales of some new and now unimagined system of criticism the respective merits of the Bells and the Fudges and their historians.

  Percy Bysshe Shelley

  Bridges, Broken, Expectations

  Percy Bysshe Shelley (2008). “The Narrative Poems of Percy Bysshe Shelley”, p.136, Wildside Press LLC

  51 Copy quote

  Show source

• There are more speculators about New Westminster and Victoria than there were in Winnipeg during the boom and they are a much sharper lot. Nearly every person is more or less interested and you will have to be on your guard against all of them.

  William Cornelius Van Horne

  Persons, Victoria, Winnipeg

  Canadian Pacific Railway Company, William Cornelius Van Horne “Van Horne Letter Book: Dec. 3rd, 1884-Feb. 3rd, 1885”

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Commemorative stone in the floor of the Chapel of St. George in Westminster Abbey, London, dedicated in 1947: TO THE MEMORY OF ROBERT Baden-Powell CHIEF SCOUT OF THE WORLD 1857-1941 Upon one side of the stone was the badge of the Boy Scouts, the arrow-head to point the true way as it had pointed the way for sailors and navigators from the time of the earliest maps; and on the other the badge of the Girl Guides-the three-leafed clover.

  Robert Baden-Powell

  Girl, Time, Memories

  13 Copy quote

• In Scotland, the indication is that for the Westminster elections at least, Labour voters are satisfied with their government.

  Lucy Powell

  Government, Scotland, Voters

  "A good night for Labour - phew!" by Lucy Powell, www.theguardian.com. November 7, 2008.

  3 Copy quote

  Show source

• Thankfully, due to the United Kingdom and the commitment of the Westminster government we are able to ensure that money brought in, whether it be from the City of London or from North Sea oil, can be pooled and directed to wherever it is needed most.

  Iain Duncan Smith

  Commitment, Sea, Cities

  "An independent Scotland could not pay welfare bill, says Iain Duncan Smith". www.theguardian.com. September 18, 2012.

  3 Copy quote

  Show source

• What happens when there is a conflict between the Scottish parliament, if it was established, and the Westminster parliament? Who is supreme?

  John Major

  Conflict, Scottish, Parliament

  3 Copy quote

• It is eerie being all but alone in Westminster Abbey. Without the tourists, there are only the dead, many of them kings and queens. They speak powerfully and put my thoughts into vivid perspective.

  A. N. Wilson

  Kings, Queens, Eerie

  51 Copy quote

• Everyone marries the Duke of Westminster. There are a lot of duchesses, but only one Coco Chanel.

  Coco Chanel

  Dukes, Duchess

  11 Copy quote

• My petal. Westminster’s toy had tea issues. Thank Biffy and Lyall. Toodle pip. A.

  Gail Carriger

  Issues, Tea, Toys

  3 Copy quote