British Quotes

Usually, certainly British singers, adopt an American accent when they sing and I think that usually people are thinking of somebody else, but I just think of very specific people.

I will walk on no grave of Ulster's honoured dead to do a deal with the IRA or the British government.

A new study published by The British Medical Journal found that inactivity can kill you. I mean, these are the kind of findings that just scare the hell out of Congress.

British Conservatives base their entire approach to politics on the rule of law, and rightly so.

Our [British] summers are often, though beautiful for verdure, so cold, that they are rather cold winters.

I respect the British a lot - their history, their past, their culture. I think it's beautiful, what they have with the monarchy.

Hollywood movies are designed for 15-year-old youths from North Dakota who, intellectually speaking, are on equal terms with a British zoo animal.

Further, not only the United States, but the French, British, Germans and the United Nations all thought Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction before the United States intervened.

[The British constitution] presumes more boldly than any other the good sense and the good faith of those who work it.

Americans are very good at animating voices. I don't know why. They have a freedom with them that we British actors find more difficult to get to.

I received an OBE from the Queen, which probably doesn't mean anything in America but is quite nice in England - the Order of the British Empire for services to drama.

With or without the Royals, we are not Americans. Nor are we British. Or French. Or Void. We are something else. And the sooner we define this, the better.

Nothing could be more inappropriate to American literature than its English source since the Americans are not British in sensibility.

I began thinking there should be an American phrase book, 'cause I've got an Italian phrase book, and an Arabic one... now a British one. I think it'd be pretty good to have an American phrase book.

I am the only British writer who writes in Spanish

I live in London and I am a British subject, although I do write in Spanish, of course

Like, Mission Of Burma to me always sounded almost like they were part of the British Arty New Wave. I kind of like that. I like not being able to tell the difference.

Think for a moment: what is the British equivalent of the U.S. Fourth of July, or even the French 14th of July for that matter?

People say there's no trace of an accent anymore, and there isn't because I worked very hard to lose it. And the reason I did that is a British accent in America is a real status symbol.

I can stand here today, leader of the Labour Party, Prime Minister, and say to the British people: you have never had it so ... prudent.

I don't think the British carry a historical consciousness either.

The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.

Every empire has to get sucked down the drain. As a British person, I know how it feels.

I'm British, so obviously I repress any powerful emotions of any kind in relation to anything.

The young British players need to take responsibility themselves for their form and ability.

British politicians used to be good at misleading people without actually lying.

The hard left is a very small section of the British population and I myself am not hard left. I am a traditional Labour left-winger.

I've had more than 12,000 emails from the United States. It's not easy in the United States to find out the email address of a British parliamentarian.

The refusal of the British and Russian peoples to accept what appeared to be inevitable defeat was the great factor in the salvage of our civilization.

Most British statesmen have either drunk too much or womanised too much. I never fell into the second category.

This most dangerous enemy is the American counterpart of the British Fabian Socialist, who denies that he is a Socialist and operates behind a mask which he calls National Planning.

You know what? I'm really attracted to British women, there's something innately proper about them. However badly they behave their accent is so cute that it makes up for everything!

Ryan Giggs will go down as the most successful British footballer of all time and I cannot see anyone ever overtaking him. He's on the brink of his 13th league title, after all.

I'm not Tom Cruise. Very few British actors are. If you look at the body of work I've done it's pretty obvious I'm not going to make a 'Mission: Impossible.'

I have done my time living on the run. I'm British and I want to come home.

Between Clive Owen winning at the Golden Globes and the British Academy announcing its nominations, of which Sideways received only one, I'm feeling pretty humbled these days.

I was never too keen on the British music press. They've called us a supermarket hype, and they used to suggest that we didn't write our own songs.

Something is happening to Britain and the British. Or has happened. We are said to be passing through a transition, or a turning point, or a transformation; nobody is quite sure which.

If you look at the British royal family and take away the scandals and the goofy stuff that's going on, people love to have this king to look up to - the royals are like celebrities.

The sun never sets on the British Empire. But it rises every morning. The sky must get awfully crowded.

The Monarchy...is the secret well from which the flourishing institution of British Snobbery draws its nourishment

I do like British guys. If I had to pick one it would be Ewan McGregor. I met him once and he was gorgeous even if he is a little short. He has the most amazing charisma.

Traditional British desserts with lots of custard are my biggest weakness - I particularly love the puds at St. John restaurant in East London.

No British politician has ever been more despised by the British people than Margaret Thatcher.

But, you know, the Stones were my opening act in the Sixties. I loved those British guys, the way they just stood there and shook their hair.

If the British are a nation of shopkeepers, Americans are a nation of shoppers.

In Italy, for the same price as a typical British hamburger meal including sweet, a builder's labourer could eat like a king - rather better in fact, because pasta dishes gain from being kept simple.

I think the good old British democracy should keep scrutinising and pressing to get the truth out.

I'd be quite excited to play somebody British.

My parents are Italian and British. They live in Berkeley now - we all moved there four years ago.