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British Empire Quotes

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British Empire Quotes

“Classic nineteenth century European imperialists believed they were literally on a mission. I don't believe that the imperialists these days have that same sense of public service. They are simply pirates. Yes, there are fundamentalists, Christian fundamentalists, who appear to be in charge of the White House at the moment, but they are very different from the Christian gentlemen who ran the British Empire and believed they were doing good works around the world. These days it's about naked power.”

WorldBelieveDifferentMomentsChristianHouseWhiteCenturyDon't BelieveMissionsBritishNakedAround The WorldThese DaysRanGentlemanClassicEmpiresWhite HouseGood WorkDoing GoodPublic ServicePirateNineteenth CenturyBritish Empire
Author:John Pilger
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“You can't anticipate history. It's only when you look back you see what the Romans did, and what various other empires did, what the British Empire did. We're now beginning to see the long shadow that it created, so one must be hopeful and say that what's going on in Asia, that what's going on in the Middle East, that all these various areas of conflict, that they will pass and move onto another area. But it would seem that the natural order of things is there is this cyclic behavior of destruction followed by a calm period.”

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Author:Roma Tearne
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“Savagery was a word that Westerners used to, again, to consciously differentiate them from non-Westerners, to assert that superiority, that cultural superiority. It goes back to the British Empire, and again, you know, what was the purpose of the British Empire? To bring civilization to the savage no matter where they were, whether it was India or Asia or Australia or whatever. It's that civilizing mission that characterizes so much of the history of Western colonialism.”

PurposeWesternSuperiorityBritish EmpireSavagery
Author:Robert A. Williams, Jr.
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“Nothing lasts forever, whether it's Greece, Rome or the British Empire. It doesn't mean that America has to end. The country could be reshaped and reimagined in a way that is even more democratic and less imperial in nature. We're trying to radically reshape the nation in ways that are more just and fairer. That's what I mean when I say that empires eventually fall. I'm not calling for the end of America. I'm just calling for a reimagination of its democratic possibilities.”

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Author:Marc Lamont Hill
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“I believe that all novels, ... deal with character, and that it is to express character – not to preach doctrines, sing songs, or celebrate the glories of the British Empire, that the form of the novel, so clumsy, verbose, and undramatic, so rich, elastic, and alive, has been evolved ... The great novelists have brought us to see whatever they wish us to see through some character. Otherwise they would not be novelists, but poet, historians, or pamphleteers.”

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Book:The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction
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“What if all those strange and unexplainable bends in history were the result of supernatural interference? At which point I asked myself, what's the weirdest most eccentric historical phenomenon of them all? Answer:the Great British Empire. Clearly, one tiny little island could only conquer half the known world with supernatural aid. Those absurd Victorian manners and ridiculous fashions were obviously dictated by vampires. And, without a doubt, the British army regimental system functions on werewolf pack dynamics.”

IfsWorldLittlesAnswersResultsHalfKnownDoubtFashionStrangeFunctionArmyHistoricalBritishAidsTinyRidiculousAbsurdVampireConquerMannersIslandsEmpiresWhat IfPhenomenonPacksEccentricWerewolfInterferenceDynamicsVictorianBritish EmpireUnexplainableBritish Army
Author:Gail Carriger
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“Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, 'This was their finest hour.'”

IfsMenYearsStillsWarLastsHoursHistoryDutyBearsThousandBritishEmpiresHistorianWorld War IiWorld War IHeroismThousand YearsFinestGreat WarCommonwealthBritish EmpireBritish HistoryBracesWorld War 1Never Give InEnglish HistoryFinest HourPearl Harbor DayPower Of SpeechBattle Of Britain
Author:Winston Churchill
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“Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free, and life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fall, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age... Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, 'This was their finest hour.'”

IfsKnowsMenWorldYearsMayStillsWarStatesWholeAgeLastsMovingFallHoursLosesDarkUnitedKnownLibertyBreakUnited StatesDutyBearsThousandEuropeIncludingBritishTyrannyWhole WorldMoving ForwardIslandsEmpiresBroadsWorld War IiThousand YearsFinestAbyssDark AgesWorld War 2CommonwealthBritish EmpireBracesFinest HourBattle Of Britain
Author:Winston Churchill
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“When Marcus Garvey died in 1940, the role of the British Empire was already being challenged by India and the rising expectations of her African colonies. Marcus Garvey's avocation of African redemption and the restoration of the African state's sovereign political entity in world affairs was still a dream without fulfillment.”

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Author:John Henrik Clarke
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“These two great organisations of the English-speaking democracies, the British Empire and the United States, will have to be somewhat mixed up together in some affairs for mutual and general advantage. I do not view the process with any misgivings. I could not stop it if I wished. Let it roll on full flood, inexorable, irresistible, benignant, to broader lands, and better days.”

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Author:Winston Churchill
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“All these mountains of Irish dead, all these corpses mangled beyond recognition, all these arms, legs, eyes, ears, fingers, toes, hands, all these shivering putrefying bodies and portions of bodies once warm living and tender parts of Irish men and youths - all these horrors in Flanders or the Gallipoli Peninsula, are all items in the price Ireland pays for being part of the British Empire.”

MenBodyHandsEyePayYouthArmsRepublicanHorrorMountainEarsFingersLegsWarmBritishRecognitionEmpiresPortionsIrelandToesItemsCorpsesBritish EmpirePeninsulasFlandersGallipoli
Book:Collected Works: Labour and Easter Week
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“All of Western tradition, from the late bloom of the British Empire right through the early doom of Vietnam, dictates that you do something spectacular and irreversible whenever you find yourself in or whenever you impose yourself upon a wholly unfamiliar situation belonging to somebody else. Frequently it's your soul or your honor or your manhood, or democracy itself, at stake.”

SoulSituationHistoryDemocracyHonorLateTraditionWesternBritishAfrican AmericanYour SoulEmpiresFinding YourselfBelongingStakesVietnamAmerican HistoryManhoodDoomSpectacularUnfamiliarBritish EmpireIrreversibleYour Honor
Book:Civil Wars
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“Taxation, the very thing that had triggered the British civil wars, would do so again, this time in America. The taxes may have been different, but the result would once again be disaster. What happened in America was really round two of those wars - the civil war of the British Empire, with the Hanoverians playing the part of the Stuarts, and the Americans the heirs of the revolutionaries, of Cromwell and of William III, the inheritors of a true British liberty, that had somehow got lost in its own motherland.”

MayHas BeensTwoDifferentWarAmericaLostResultsLibertyHistoryHappenedTaxesRoundsBritishDisasterRevolutionaryCivil WarEmpiresTaxationHeirsBritish EmpireBritish HistoryMotherlandCromwell
Author:Simon Schama
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“I shall endeavor to marshal British opinion against a course of action which would bring in my opinion the greatest evils upon the people of India, upon the people of Great Britain and upon the British Empire itself.”

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Book:Churchill speaks: Winston S. Churchill in peace and war : collected speeches, 1897-1963
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“One would have thought that if there was one cause in the world which the Conservative party would have hastened to defend, it would be the cause of the British Empire in India ... Our fight is hard. It will also be long ... But win or lose, we must do our duty. If the British people are to lose their Indian Empire, they shall do so with their eyes open.”

PeopleIfsWorldLongHardWould BeEyeFightingWinningCausesLosesPartyDutyIndiaConservativeBritishIndianEmpiresBritish EmpireWin Or LoseConservative Party
Author:Winston Churchill
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“It's clear that when we're this outnumbered by the creatures, we have to take a page from the British Empire and rule the lesser species through intimidation. That's why the single most important thing you can do as a human is to dominate an animal. Need more proof?Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground. I'd say that about covers it.”

NeedsHumansImportantMovingCan DoAnimalClearAirSeaCreaturesPagesBirdImportant ThingsSpeciesFishesBritishProofEmpiresIntimidationLiving CreaturesBritish Empire
Author:Stephen Colbert
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“I think deep down, this planet yearns for the days of the British Empire again. They long once more to be treated that badly, that politely. We did far worse things than you can possibly dream of, but we did it with that certainly gentlemanly swagger... Dreadfully sorry, but we seem to have crushed your entire continent's infrastructure. Allow me to make it up to you by offering you a job 4,000 miles away. No, no, I insist.”

ThinkingLongDreamSeemsJobsHistoryHumourPlanetsHistoricalSorryBritishMilesTreatedEmpiresOfferingContinentsInfrastructureUp To YouCrushedDeep DownBritish EmpireSwaggerMiles AwayGentlemanly
Author:John Oliver
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“Why should we not form a secret society with but one object, the furtherance of the British Empire and the bringing of the whole world under British rule, for the recovery of the United States, for making the Anglo Saxon race but one Empire? What a dream, but yet it is probable; it is possible.”

WorldShouldStatesWholeDreamFormUnitedSecretRaceUnited StatesObjectsBritishWhole WorldRecoveryEmpiresBritish EmpireSecret SocietyAnglo SaxonBritish Rule
Author:Cecil Rhodes
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