Englishmen Quotes

“Into the face of the young man who sat on the terrace of the Hotel Magnifique at Cannes there had crept a look of furtive shame, the shifty hangdog look which announces that an Englishman is about to speak French.”
― P.G. Wodehouse, The Luck of the Bodkins

“Red lips are not so red as the stained stones kissed by the English dead.”
― Wilfred Owen, The Poems of Wilfred Owen

“You might, from your appearance, be the wife of Lucifer,” said Miss Pross, in her breathing. “Nevertheless, you shall not get the better of me. I am an Englishwoman.”
― Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

“I admired the English immensely for all that they had endured, and they were certainly honorable, and stopped their cars for pedestrians, and called you “sir” and “madam,” and so on. But after a week there, I began to feel wild. It was those ruddy English faces, so held in by duty, the sense of “what is done” and “what is not done,” and always swigging tea and chirping, that made me want to scream like a hyena”
― Julia Child, My Life in France

“He cursed himself for having assumed the weather would be sunny. Perhaps it was the result of evolution, he thought--some adaptive gene that allowed the English to go on making blithe outdoor plans in the face of almost certain rain.”
― Helen Simonson, Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

“that Englishman who came to challenge me three or four months ago, and whom I killed to stop him bothering me”
― Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo

“And Englishmen like posing as gods.”
― E.M. Forster

“Englishmen were rained on too often to come up with anything that imaginative.”
― Natasha Pulley, The Watchmaker of Filigree Street

“Why have the English remained to English? Throughout India's history conquerors have come from elsewhere, and all of them --- Turk, Arab, Hun, Mongol, Persian --- have become Indian. If --- when ---this Pakistan happens, those Muslims who leave Delhi, Lucknow and Hyderabad to go there, They will be leaving their homes. But when the English leave, they'll be going home.”
― Kamila Shamsie, Burnt Shadows

“In my time first cousins did not meet like strangers. But we are learning modesty from the Americans, and old English ways are too gross for us.”
― Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, Uncle Silas

“The ring which you are holding, my friend, is identical to that one. I had it cut according to the model of the king's ring, and damascened in Spain. The original is still in the Escorial; it would have been pleasant to steal it, for I easily acquire the instincts of a thief when I am in a museum, and I always find objects which have a history - especially a tragic history - uniquely attractive. I am not an Englishman for nothing - but that which is easily enough accomplished in France is not at all practical in Spain: the museums there are very secure.”
― Jean Lorrain, Monsieur de Phocas

“New Englanders began the Revolution not to institute reforms and changes in the order of things, but to save the institutions and customs that already had become old and venerable with them; and were new only to a few stupid Englishmen a hundred and fifty years behind the times.”
― Edward Pearson Pressey, History of Montague; A Typical Puritan Town

“Dowered with great historic names which they almost despise, they do their best to drag the memory of their ancient lineage into dishonour by vulgar passions, low tastes, and a scorn as well as lack of true intelligence. Let us not talk of them. The English aristocracy was once a magnificent tree, but its broad boughs are fallen,--lopped off and turned into saleable timber,--and there is but a decaying stump of it left.”
― Marie Corelli, The Soul of Lilith

“I should add that there are undoubtedly charming Englishmen; I have often met them. But they are rarely our fellow-guests at hotels.”
― Guy de Maupassant, 88 Short Stories

“And that continued for quite a while until the adventurer admitted that it IS an accepted fact among monsters and giants of all stripes that Englishmen are delicious.”
― Christopher Moore, The Serpent of Venice

“Haydon was more than his model, he was his inspiration, the torch-bearer of a certain kind of English calling which - for the very reason that it was vague and understated and elusive - had made sense of Guillam's life till now.”
― John le Carré, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

“Some years ago I adjourned with a friend to a nearby schoolyard net for a recreational hit. On the way, we exchanged philosophies of cricket, and a few personal partialities. What, my friend asked, did I consider my favourite shot? 'Easy,' I replied ingenuously. 'Back-foot defensive stroke.'

My friend did a double take and demanded a serious response. When I informed him he'd had one, he scoffed: 'You'll be telling me that Chris Tavaré's your favourite player next.' My guilty hesitation gave me away. 'You Poms!' he protested. 'You all stick together!”
― Gideon Haigh

“The typical English painting is narrative in character. The English are a nation of diarists.”
― Neville Weston, The Reach of Modern Art: A Concise History

“Really, it was my fickleness, I sometimes think, that they found unendurable. If I had restricted myself to only one of their sweet girls, and married her, and chewed her neck in private, I suppose I might, like any eccentric cousin, have been made almost welcome among family and friends in the circle of the hearth. But perhaps I misjudge what degree of eccentricity even an Englishman can
tolerate.”
― Fred Saberhagen

“Indians abroad tend to stick together. They join Indian clubs, regularly visit mosques, temples and gurdwaras and eat Indian food at home or in Indian restaurants. Very rarely do they mix with the English on the same terms as they do with their own countrymen. This kind of island-ghetto existence feeds on stereotypes - the English are very reserved; they do not invite outsiders to their homes because they regard their homes as their castles; English women are frigid, etc. I discovered that none of this was true. In the years that followed, I made closer friends with English men and women than I did with Indians. I lived in dozens of English homes and shared their family problems. And I discovered to my delight that nothing was further from the truth that the canard that English women are frigid.”
― Khushwant Singh, Truth, Love & A Little Malice

“There comes a moment for all of us when our childhood ceases to be an excuse. In your case, I would say that, as with many English, the moment is somewhat delayed.”
― John le Carré, Absolute Friends

“In other words, you’re justifying the Hundred Years’ War.’

‘More or less. For it enabled our two peoples to become deeply interdependent, allowing the most fruitful of intellectual exchanges.’

‘You mean, the French are “anglicized” without knowing it.’

‘And the English have assimilated their Continental experience from that time much more than you think. But this is what I was leading up to: the Englishman is essentially a mystical being. And, because he’s scrupulous, he’s apprehensive. And therefore susceptible to everything that might be interpreted as a superhuman manifestation, whether it be a legend of esoteric significance - as in this case - or an event of peculiar resonance. Don’t forget, all the official bodies in Paris — parliament, clergy, and especially the university — were in favour of the English at the period I’m talking about.’

‘Of course!”
― Jacques Yonnet, Paris Noir: The Secret History of a City

“He had known Wind for much of his life; like many male English friendships it was based on faint disdain mixed with longevity.”
― Ian Pears

“Not all Englishmen are homosexual.”
― Frédéric Martel‏, Global Gay: How Gay Culture Is Changing the World

“There's always some smart ass Englishmen coming over here and telling us we're mean and vulgar. I agree. But they showed their hand way back during the Irish Potato Famine as instinctual Nazis.”
― Jim Harrison, Wolf False Memoir

“Y en el asedio de La Mámora del año 1628, cuando los moros intentaron tomarnos aquella plaza, quienes cavaban las trincheras y dirigían las obras de asedio eran gastadores ingleses. Que a los hijos de puta, como es sabido, Dios los cría y ellos se juntan”
― Arturo Pérez-Reverte, Corsarios de Levante

“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, The Idler, Issues 1-103

“Gibraltareño de padre maltés y madre inglesa, o sea, tradición pirata total.”
― Arturo Pérez-Reverte, The Nautical Chart: A Literary Thriller and Action Adventure of Maritime Mysteries, Betrayal, and Treasure

“«Disparad a matar contra esa escoria», ordenó Isabel, quien creía justo y conveniente aniquilar tantos ingleses y tantos holandeses como se pusieran a tiro de sus hombres.”
― Álber Vázquez, Pizarro y la conquista del Imperio Inca

“I am suffering from a complaint quite new to me tonight. My bottom is sore with sunburn. I was working for an hour or two on the clew of the big runner and I must have got burnt then. But I am not moaning about it because it is such a wonderful thing for a Briton to be able to get a burnt bottom in January.”
― Francis Chichester, The Romantic Challenge