Best British History Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings Page 2

“A British imperium enabled Scots to feel themselves peers of the Ebglish in a way still denied them in an island kingdom. The language bears that out very clearly. The English and the foreign are still all too inclined to refer to the island of Great Britain as 'England'. But at no time have they ever customarily referred to an English empire.”

Way Feels Stills Language Bears England British Kingdoms Islands Britain Empires Denied Peers Great Britain British History Scots

Author:Linda Colley

“Can it be entirely accidental that the most famous fictional spy of them all, James Bond, Number 007, deadly marksman, intriguer, the ultimate man behind the curtain, sexual athlete and ruthless patriot, is also a Scot, as was the author, whose wish-fulfilment he was?”

Men Wish Numbers Behinds Ultimate Athlete Patriot Curtains Spy Ruthless Fulfilment British History Scots Marksman

Book:Britons: Forging the Nation, 1707-1837

Source: Britons: Forging the Nation, 1707-1837

“In the past, the British had signally failed to build an effective structure of royal authority and administration in their American colonies. As a result, no possibility existed of soothing and winning over influential and talented Americans, in the way that influential and talented Scotsmen were increasingly being won over, by giving them increased access to state employment.”

Source: Britons: Forging the Nation, 1707-1837

“Chilvalry's essential function, Maurice Keen has written, is always to hold up an idealised image of armed conflict in defiance of the harsh realities of actual warfare. By definition, chivalry also reaffirms the paramount importance of custom, hierarchy and inherited rank.”

Reality Written Conflict Essentials Function Importance Definitions Customs Warfare Harsh Hierarchy Defiance Chivalry Paramount British History Harsh Reality Armed Conflict

Author:Linda Colley

“Virtually every war fought since the Act of Union had gone badly at some stage, but before 1783 none had ended in defeat. Nor would any major war in which Britain was involved after this date end in defeat. Those who are curious about this country's peculiar social and political stability probably need look no further than this for essential cause.”

Needs Looks War Ends Country Political Social Causes Gone Stage Involved Essentials Majors Unions Defeat Curious Britain Stability Peculiar British History

Author:Linda Colley

“The strength and vitality of an empire is frequently due to the new aristocracy from the periphery.”

Dues Empires Vitality Aristocracy British History Periphery

Author:Ronald Syme

“These developments - a massive transfer of land by way of inheritance and purchase, an unprecedented rise in the profitability of land and increasing intermarriage between Celtic and English dynasties - helped to consolidate a new unitary ruling class in place of the more separate and specific landed establishments that had characterised England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland in the Tudor and Stuart eras.”

Source: Britons: Forging the Nation, 1707-1837

“Human beings are many-layered creatures, and do not succumb to the hegemony of others as easily as historians and politicians sometimes imply. Those Welsh, Scottish and Anglo-Irish individuals who became part of the British Establishment in this period did not in the main sell out in the sense of becoming Anglicised look-alikes. Instead, they became British in a new and intensely profitable fashion, while remaining in their own minds and behavior Welsh, or Scottish, or Irish aswell.”

“Today a Scot is leading a British army in France [Field Marshall Douglas Haig], another is commanding the British Grand Fleet at sea [Admiral David Beatty], while a third directs the Imperial General Staff at home [Sir William Roberton]. The Lord Chancellor is a Scot [Viscount Finlay]; so are the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Foreign Secretary [Bonar Law and Arthur Balfour]. The Prime Minister is a Welshman [David Lloyd George], and the First Lord of the Admiralty is an Irishman [Lord Carson]. Yet no one has ever brought in a bill to give home rule to England!”

“In virtually every Continental state at this time, aristocracies had to live with the risk that their property might be pillaged or confiscated. Only in Great Britain did it prove possible to float the idea that aristocratic property was in some magical and strictly intangible way the people's property also. The fact that hundreds of thousands of men and women today are willing to accept that privately owned country houses and their contents are part of Britain's national heritage is one more proof of how successfully the British elite reconstructed its cultural image in an age of revolution.”

Source: Britons: Forging the Nation, 1707-1837

“Recognising that an ostentatious cult of heroism and state service served an important propaganda function for the British elite does not mean, of course, that we should dismiss it as artificial or insincere. All aristocracies have a strong military tradition, and for many British patricians the protracted warfare of the period was a godsend. It gave them a job, and, more important, a purpose, an opportunity to carry out what they had been trained to do since childhood: ride horses, fire guns, exercise their undoubted physical courage and tell other people what to do.”

“Girls must be thwarted early in life.”

Girl British History

Author:Jean-Jacques Rousseau

“In Great Britain, woman was subordinate and confined. But at least she was also safe.”

Safe Britain Confined Subordinates Great Britain British History

Author:Linda Colley

“An unprecedented number of uniformed males, marching, parading and engaging in mock battles in every region of Great Britain brought a pleasant frisson of excitement into many normally quiet and deeply repetitive female lives.”

Numbers Battle Quiet Female Males Excitement Pleasant Britain Regions Engaging Unprecedented Mock Great Britain Repetitive British History

Author:Linda Colley

“For women to be supplying the soldiery with banners, flannel shirts and other material comforts was, superficially, all of a piece with their ministrations to their menfolk at home. Such contributions to the war effort were socially acceptable because they could be seen as an extension into the military sphere of the traditional female virtues of charity, nurture and needlework. Yet in reality what the women were doing represented the thin end of a far more radical wedge. Consciously or not, these female patriots were staking out a civic role for themselves. And many of them relished it.”

“In the wars against Revolutionary and Napoleonic France, as in so many later conflicts, British women seem to have been no more markedly pacifist than men. Instead, and exactly like so many of their male countrymen, some women found ways of combining support for the national interest with a measure of self-promotion. By assisting the war effort, women demonstrated that their concerns were by no means confined to the domestic sphere. Under cover of a patriotism that was often genuine and profound, they carved out for themselves a real if precarious place in the public sphere.”

“Ever since the Reformation, the case of legislation confining Catholics had been constructed primarily to protect a nervously Protestant against what was assumed to be a fifth column in its midst... Ministers believedm with some justice, that Catholics retained an attachment to their exiled co-religionists, the princes of the House of Stuart. After the Battle of Culloden had confirmed Jacobitism's insignificance, however, government attitudes towards Catholicism began perceptibly and logically to relax.”

“Loyal and substansial Catholic service on the battlefield undermined one of the most longstanding objections to emancipation: namely, that since Catholics owed religious allegiance to a foreign authority in the person of the Pope, their political and patriotic allegiance must necessarily be suspect.”

Persons Political Religious Authority Catholic Suspects Patriotic Loyal Pope Allegiance Battlefields Objections Emancipation British History

Author:Linda Colley

“Most Britons still lived and died without encountering anyone whose skin colour was different from their own. Slaves, in short, did not threaten, at least as far as the British at home were concerned. Bestowing freedom upon them seemed therefore purely an act of humanity and will, an achievement that would be to Great Britain's economic detriment, perhaps, but would have few other domestic consequences.”

Stills Different Home Would Be Humanity Economic Achievement Consequence Concerned Skins Died Slave British Colour Britain Great Britain British History Britons

Author:Linda Colley

“It would be wrong to interpret the growth of British national consciousness in this period in terms of a new cultural and political uniformity being resolutely imposed on the peripheries of the island by its centre. For many poorer and less literate Britons, Scotland, Wales and England remained more potent rallying calls than Great Britain, except in times of danger from abroad. And even among the politically educated, it was common to think in terms of dual nationalities, not a single national identity.”

“In the early 21st century, it is easy to condemn the Bond books for being racist and imperialist, sexist and misogynist, elitist and sadistic. But this is merely another way of saying that we cannot understand the Bond books without reference to the personality, the outlook and the 'Tory imagination' of the man who wrote them, and to the time in which he wrote them; and that we cannot understand the 1950s and 1960s without some reference to them, and to him.”

Men Way Book Easy Imagination Century He Man Personality Racist 21st Century Outlook Another Way 1960s Sexist British History Elitist Sadistic

Author:David Cannadine

“Royal relationships across the generations have often been strained and distant, rather than close and affectionate. Most eldest sons, interminably waiting to become king, have not been on the best of terms with the sovereign to whose death they look forward with a debilitating combination of guilt-ridden anxiety and eager anticipation. And younger sons (and daughters, too) have often found their lives empty of purpose: cut off by their royal statius, but unable to find anything rewarding with which to fill the time.”

“There are important arguments to be made about the relative merits of an hereditary or an elected head of state: but not at the level of the human frailties of particular monarchs or presidents. No one seriously contends that the American presidency should be abolished because Bill Clinton is a self-confessed adulterer. So why should the abolition of the British monarchy be contemplated because the same is true of Prince Charles?”

Source: History in Our Time

“Scandal, it bears repeating, undermines monarchies, but rarely ends them. It may be true that, according to a recent editorial in the New York Times, the British monarchy now exists primarily 'for our amusement'. But as long as people find it amusing, and want to be amused by it, they will be happy to see it undermined but uneager to kill it off.”

People Want May Long Ends New York Bears British Being True Scandal Amusement Monarchy Amusing New York Times Amused Editorials British History British Monarchy

Book:History in Our Time

Source: History in Our Time

“Of all the memorable phrases that have been minted and mobilised to describe modern British royalty, 'constitutional monarchy' is virtually the only one which seemes to have neither been anticipated nor invented by Walter Bagehot. It was he who insisted that 'a princely marriage is the brilliant edition of a universal fact, and as such it rivets mankind'; and he who warned that the monarchy's 'mystery is its life. We must not let in daylight upon magic'.”

Has Beens Facts Magic Mystery Modern Mankind Universal British Brilliant Phrases Memorable Royalty Monarchy Daylight British History Constitutional Monarchy

Author:David Cannadine

“Vernon Bogdanor's account The Monarchy and the Constitution is written as much in the shadow of Edmund Burke as it is of Walter Bagehot. He stresses the organic development of the British constitution, prefers evolution to revolution, and thinks stability is better than strife.”

Thinking Written Revolution Development Evolution Shadow Accounts Constitution Stress British Stability Strife Monarchy British History British Constitution

Author:David Cannadine

“Charitable endeavour exalts the prestige and the status of the giver. This may sound unduly cynical but as with all philantrophic activity, it is not easy to unravel the mutually reinforcing motives of selflessness and self-interest. All that can safely be said is that most members of the royal family have difficulty distinguishing between concern about society, concern about the social order and concern about what best to do so they can remain at the top of it.”

“Prince Charles's concern for the underprivileged and disadvantaged has not exactly endeared him to the Conservative Central Office. As Norman Tebbit replied, it is not surprising that the Prince is so sympathetic towards the unemployed: he is by way of being one of them himself.”

Way Office Concern Conservative Surprising Sympathetic Unemployed British History Disadvantaged Underprivileged

Author:David Cannadine

“More attention should have been given to the fundamental transformation which took place during Queen Victoria's reign, from ruling sovereign to constitutional monarch. Again, gender mattered. If Albert had lived, it seems clear that he would have resisted that development much more tenaciously, which the gradual emasculation (and feminization) of monarchy was probably more easily accomplished when a woman was on the throne.”

“Cruel and paradoxical though it undoubtedly is, the record shows that yje most succesful 20th century monarchs have been those who were not actually born to succeed. King George VI was 41 when the abdication of Edward VIII propelled him suddenly and unexpectedly to take up the crown; and Queen Elizabeth II spent her first decade with no inkling thay she herself might one day have to reign. Taken together, these examples suggest that the best preparation for the job of sovereign is not to be prepared for it at all, ir not to be too well prepared for it, or for too long.”

“Like sex, poverty and power, suicide may always be with us. But like them again, the actual form is takes is essentially time-specific and culture-bound, not only in the past but in the present too. The people who took their lives, the paths which led them to that end, and the experience of dying in this way were deeply influenced by specific historical circumstances. Only by making a greater effort at historical understanding can this most secret house of death be made to yield up more of its confidences.”

People Way May Made Ends Past Form Culture House Sex Understanding Effort Secret Poverty Path Greater Dying Circumstances Suicide Historical Bounds Yield British History

Author:David Cannadine

“For those who reject it, the Victorian experience is something to feel embarrassed about, to apologise for, to escape from, and never to repeat. But to those who remain enthralled, it is a fabulous story of oustanding success and splendid achievement, by comparison with which Britain's 20th century records seems at best unimpressive, and often distinctly lacklustre.”

Feels Stories Seems Records Century Achievement Repeats Britain Comparison Rejects Embarrassed Fabulous 20th Century Splendid Victorian British History

Author:David Cannadine

“For Henry James, class was 'the essentially hierarchial plan of English society' which was 'the great and ever-present fact to the mind of a stranger; there is hardly a detail of life that does not in some degree betray it'.”

Mind Doe Facts Class Plans Degrees Details Stranger Betray British History Details Of Life English Society

Book:History in Our Time

Source: History in Our Time

“For all her active goodness, Florence Nightingale herself was far from being the angelic figure of popular adulation: according to Lytton Strachey's Eminent Victorians she was a self-righteous, domineering amazon, who was ruthless in her compassion, merciless in her philantropy, destructive in friendships, obsessional in her list for power, and demonic in her saintliness.”

Self Compassion Figures Goodness Active Lists Destructive Righteous Ruthless Amazon Angelic Self Righteous British History Demonic Nightingales Florence Adulation Florence Nightingale

Author:David Cannadine

“David Irving has consistenly applied an evidential double standard, demanding absolute documentary proof to convict the Germans (as when he sought to show that Hitler was not responsible for the Holocaust), while relying on circumstantial evidence to condemn the British (as in his account of the Allied bombing of Dresden).”

Shows Standards Evidence Accounts Absolutes Responsible British Proof Holocaust Documentaries Bombing Double Standard British History Dresden Convicts Circumstantial Evidence

Book:History in Our Time

Source: History in Our Time

“It is impossible not to be moved by the verve, courage and elan with Churchill attacked his last and ultimately invincible enemy, old age and infirmity. As in all his campaigns, he assailed his adversary with endless high spirits, expert advice, ample helpings of brandy and champagne, and the loving and long-suffering support of his wife.”

“Lord Beaverbrook was fundamentally a lonely man, with a low sense of his own self-worth, who was incapable of forming a stable, loving relationship with anyone. He could charm or he could bully; he could give or he could take; he was glad to see his guests arrive and pleased to see them go. Although many people genuinely loved him, he was incapable of believing that this was either possible or true. No wonder he was so restless, so impatient, so vindictive, so quick to lose his temper, so eager to stir things up.”

“In 1688 England contracted to the Netherlands the highest debt that one nation can owe to another. Herself not knowing how to recover her liberties, they were restored by men of the United Provinces.”

Men Nations United Liberty History Knowing Highest England Debt Not Knowing Provinces British History Netherlands

Book:History of the United States: From the Discovery of the American Continent

Source: History of the United States: From the Discovery of the American Continent

“I knew a bit but we don't study a lot of British history at school in Australia. We have our own 50-year period to concentrate on.”

Years School Bits Study Periods British Australia British History

Author:Eric Bana

“The long-established and noble rule of Law, one of the greatest products of the character and tradition of British history, has suffered a deadly blow. Blackmail has become respectable.”

Long Character Law Products Tradition Blow British Noble Reincarnation Respectable Rule Of Law British History Blackmail

Author:Robert Menzies

“I called the New World into existence, to redress the balance of the Old.”

World Existence History Balance New World British History Redress

Author:George Canning

“In the end, history, especially British history with its succession of thrilling illuminations, should be, as all her most accomplished narrators have promised, not just instruction but pleasure.”

Should Ends Pleasure History British Accomplished Instruction Thrilling Illumination Succession British History Narrators

Book:A History of Britain: At the edge of the world? 3000 BC-AD 1603

Source: A History of Britain: At the edge of the world? 3000 BC-AD 1603

“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.'”

“No medieval monarch in the whole of British history ever had such power as every modern British Prime Minister has in his or her hands. Nor does any American President have power approaching this”

Doe Whole Hands Politics President Modern British Ministers Prime Prime Minister Medieval Monarchs British History American President

Book:Arguments for socialism

Source: Arguments for socialism

“The Puritan hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators.”

Pain Religion Pleasure History Atheism Bears Cruelty Hated Agnostic Spectators Puritan British History

Author:Thomas B. Macaulay

“The British nation is unique in this respect. They are the only people who like to be told how bad things are, who like to be told the worst.”

People Nations Worst Unique Respect Dignity British Bad Things British History

Author:Winston Churchill

“There is a golden thread which runs through British history of the individual, standing firm against tyranny and then of the individual participating in his society”

Running Individual Economics Standing British Tyranny Golden Firm Thread Participating British History Stand Firm

Book:Moving Britain Forward: Selected Speeches, 1997-2006

Source: Moving Britain Forward: Selected Speeches, 1997-2006

“You have sat too long for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!”

Long Has Beens Done God Names History Sat Parliament British History Done With You

Author:Oliver Cromwell

“The British do not expect happiness. I had the impression, all the time that I lived there, that they do not want to be happy; they want to be right.”

Want British Impression Crisps British History Want To Be Happy

Author:Quentin Crisp

“Great Britain has lost an Empire and has not yet found a role.”

Found Lost Roles History Losing Classic Britain Empires Great Britain British History

Author:Dean Acheson

British History Quotes

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British History Quotes