top of page
.png){kind=small}
Quotes by English Authors
"Man does not necessarily begin with despotism because he is barbarous, but very often finds his way to despotism because he is civilised. He finds it because he is experienced; or, what is often much the same thing, because he is exhausted."
"Well, now we have exactly the same situation as at the beginning of the race, only exactly opposite."
"The great instrument of moral good is the imagination."
"And what's interesting about him as a comic character is that the custard pie hardly ever ends up on his face."
"In vain we roared;in vain we triedTo rouse her into laughter:Her pensive glances wandered wideFrom orchestra to rafter -"TIER UPON TIER!" she said,and sighed;And silence followed after."
"It was an instinctive testimony to Little Dorrit's worth and difference from all the rest, that the poor young fellow honoured and loved her for being simply what she was."
"There will always be a part, and always a very large part of every community, that have no care but for themselves, and whose care for themselves reaches little further than impatience of immediate pain, and eagerness for the nearest good."
"I feel as though we're living in a time where there is very little distinction paid between the personal and the professional."
"Partially undermining the manufacturer's ability to assert that its work constituted a meaningful contribution to mankind was the frivolous way in which it went about marketing its products. Grief was the only rational response to the news that an employee had spent three months devising a supermarket promotion based on an offer of free stickers of cartoon characters called the Fimbles. Why had the grown-ups so churlishly abdicated their responsibilities? Were there not more important ambitions to be met before Death showed himself on the horizon in his hooded black cloak, his scythe slung over his shoulder?"
"I was born in Liverpool in England, and I lived there for the first nine years of my life."
"No,' said Gould, with an unusual and convincing gravity; 'I do not believe that being perfectly good in all respects would make a man merry.' 'Well,' said Michael quietly, 'will you tell me one thing? Which of us has ever tried it?"
"When two Englishmen meet their first talk is of the weather."
"It may be said of Socialism, therefore, that its friends recommended it as increasing equality, while its foes resisted it as decreasing liberty.The compromise eventually made was one of the most interesting and even curious cases in history. It was decided to do everything that had ever been denounced in Socialism, and nothing that had ever been desired in it, we proceeded to prove that it was possible to sacrifice liberty without gaining equality.In short, people decided that it was impossible to achieve any of the good of Socialism, but they comforted themselves by achieving all the bad."
"Though language forms the preacher, 'Tis good works make the man."
"For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach."
"The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it."
"Meccano gives boys the secrets of the world's wonderful engineering structures."
"Telling the entire world and his dog how good a manager I was. I knew I was the best but I should have said nowt and kept the pressure off 'cos they'd have worked it out for themselves."
"Reason obeys itself, and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it."
"He that commends me to mine own contentCommends me to the thing I cannot get.I to the world am like a drop of waterThat in the ocean seeks another drop,Who, falling there to find his fellow forth,Unseen, inquisitive, confounds himself:So I, to find a mother and a brother,In quest of them, unhappy, lose myself."
"I think one of things is that all fantasy it seems to me works the way your brain basically works. This is perhaps a startling concept, but I think it's true."
"Fit to govern? No, not fit to live."
"No change, no pause, no hope! Yet I endure."
"There is such a thing as a small and cramped eternity. You may see it in many modern religions."
"If you are prepared to make a fool of yourself for them then you usually get that back. I think that there are points where you become so close to an actor, you know them so well, almost as well or better than their spouse. You have to know them, warts and all."
"These people are amazing. It's so emotional I was thinking about wearing waterproof mascara."
"But I hope that you walk around the corner and you get very surprised."
"We'd never have got a chance to go outside and look at the earth if it hadn't been for space exploration and NASA."
"As long as she is talented enough and passionate about doing it herself then I will be happy and support her. I think I will be sensible - my parents said I could only do it if I got my education and so I had something to fall back on."
"The quality of mercy is not strained;It droppeth as the gentle rain from heavenUpon the place beneath. It is twice blessed;It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes.'Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomesThe throned monarch better than his crown; * * * * *It is enthroned in the hearts of kings;It is an attribute to God himself."
"Then I obviously didn't understand what it all meant, but I do now."
bottom of page