British people

To be British seems to us to mean that we respect the laws, the elected parliamentary and democratic political structures, traditional values of mutual tolerance, respect for equal rights and mutual concern; that we give our allegiance to the state (as commonly symbolised by the Crown) in return for its protection. ~ Bernard Crick

The British people, or the Britons, are the citizens of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the British Overseas Territories, and the Crown dependencies.

Arranged alphabetically by author or source:
A · B · C · D · E · F · G · H · I · J · K · L · M · N · O · P · Q · R · S · T · U · V · W · X · Y · Z · See also · External links

Quotes

I believe that the British race is the greatest of the governing races that the world has ever seen. ~ Joseph Chamberlain

We were wrong to believe that the British are our friends. You are obsessed solely with your own selfish interests and treat us as a people beyond the pale. But your attitude is a matter of profound disinterest. Your democratic system has already erupted into chaos. We shall soon overtake you and in a decade you will be struggling in our wake. Perhaps then you will remember how you treated us. ~ Muhammad Reza Pahlavi

A

• Heaven is where the police are British, the lovers French, the mechanics German, the chefs Italian, and it is all organized by the Swiss.
  • Anonymous proverb

• Hell is where the police are German, the lovers Swiss, the mechanics French, the chefs British, and it is all organized by the Italians.
  • Anonymous proverb

B

• Do the British see the lion and the unicorn on the land or in the sea?
  • George Bagby, "Editor’s Table" (January 1862), Southern Literary Messenger (1862), p. 68

• The Brits look to provoke. The Italians occasionally imagine conversations, though not maliciously. The Germans veer from confrontational to nationalistic.
  • Chris Ballard, "The Reflection, Future and Duality of Post-USMNT Jurgen Klinsmann" (16 May 2018), Sports Illustrated

• To ensure the continuation of the British race, its present rate of reproduction... cannot continue.
  • William Beveridge, as quoted in Austerity Britain, 1945-1951 (4 January 2010), by David Kynaston

C

• I believe that the British race is the greatest of the governing races that the world has ever seen... It is not enough to occupy great spaces of the world's surface unless you can make the best of them. It is the duty of a landlord to develop his estate.
  • Joseph Chamberlain, speech given to the Imperial Institute (11 November 1895), as quoted in "Mr. Chamberlain On The Australian Colonies", The Times (12 November 1895), p. 6

• I don't fancy you will find any with literary or musical talents among them.
  • Marcus Tullius Cicero, as quoted in Letters to Atticus; with an English translation · Volume 1 (1912), by Titus Pomponius Atticus and Eric Otto Winstedt, New York: The MacMillan Company, p. 325

• To be British seems to us to mean that we respect the laws, the elected parliamentary and democratic political structures, traditional values of mutual tolerance, respect for equal rights and mutual concern; that we give our allegiance to the state (as commonly symbolised by the Crown) in return for its protection.
  • Bernard Crick, as quoted in Believing in Britain: The Spiritual Identity of 'Britishness‍'‍ (2007), by Ian C. Bradley, I.B.Tauris, p. 34

• This country shall remain forever the home of the descendants of those people who came here in peace in order to establish in the South Seas an outpost of the British race.
  • John Curtin, as quoted in "Fact Sheet – Abolition of the 'White Australia' Policy" (2013), Australian Immigration, Australia: National Communications Branch, Department of Immigration and Citizenship

G

• The sayings of the Briton resound with the wisdom of the heart and sage comprehension of life...
  • Nikolai Gogol, Dead Souls, the "prose poem" originally written in 1835—1852, Chapter V finale, 1922 translation by Constance Garnett

H

• Hillary has climbed to the top of the world. He has put the British race and New Zealand on top of the world.
  • Keith Holyoake, as quoted in Edmund Hillary - A Biography, by Michael Gill

K

• No! No! Gentlemen, no emotion for me. But, those of congratulation. I am happy. To die is the irreversible decree of him who made us. Then what joy to be able to meet death without dismay. This, thank God, is my case. The happiness of man is my wish, that happiness I deem inconsistent with slavery, and to avert so great an evil from an innocent people, I will gladly meet the British tomorrow, at any odds whatever.
  • Johann de Kalb, in August 1780, as quoted in "Death of Baron De Kalb" (1849), by Benjamin Franklin Ells, The Western Miscellany, Volume 1, p. 233.

M

• The British tourist is always happy abroad as long as the natives are waiters.
  • Robert Morley, The Observer (20 April 1958), as quoted in More Caviar (1959), by Art Buchwald. Harper, p. 54

P

• We were wrong to believe that the British are our friends. You are obsessed solely with your own selfish interests and treat us as a people beyond the pale. But your attitude is a matter of profound disinterest. Your democratic system has already erupted into chaos. We shall soon overtake you and in a decade you will be struggling in our wake. Perhaps then you will remember how you treated us.
  • Muhammad Reza Pahlavi, as quoted in The Shah and I (1991), by Asadollah Alam, I. B. Tauris, p. 237

• [W]e all love being British.
  • Fabian Picardo describing the UK government's position on the UN Decolonisation Committee (2012)

• [I]t's not impossible but it's difficult, for a non-white person to be British.
  • Enoch Powell, as quoted in Iain Macleod (1994), by Robert Shepherd, Hutchinson, p. 366

• Tan-sun Moon: It's pathetic that you British still believe you have the right to police the world.
  • Die Another Day (November 2002), written by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

W

• The British have always fought, to be sure. No nation on Earth can be taken seriously in historical circles unless it has had at least one war with the British; it's like not having an American Express card. And yet the very idea of Britain in a contemporary war is a shock. Britain, one feels, fights in history books and not on TV.
  • Gene Wolfe, "A Few Points About knife Throwing", Fantasy Newsletter (1983), as reprinted in Gene Wolfe, Castle of Days (1992)

External links

• Encyclopedic article on British people on Wikipedia