Stephen Fry Quotes

American people have the ability to laugh at themselves. It is one of the things that makes this country the great country that it is.

Trust me: I don't wish I was a New Zealander.

In Washington DC, most of the honest and courageous people are statues.

Boy, the things I do for England.

Flags are bits of colored cloth that governments use first to shrink-wrap people's brains and then as ceremonial shrouds to bury the dead.

Nobody's wrong but England – and England's always wrong, Too late – or else too early – too soft – or else too strong. And when for once the wide world begins to praise her name Her own sons crowd and hurry to shout her back to shame.

A flag translates into everything, from tacky souvenirs to the names of organizations and the way that flags function.

Have you seen the Olympic uniforms? It's for the American Olympic team and it's berets. To me, nothing says America like a guy in a beret. Look at our founding fathers, they all wore berets.

Your country is bigger than baseball.

The national anthem blows. Are you kidding me? Do any of you have it on your iPod?

I do not know the American gentleman, God forgive me for putting two such words together.

Modest about our national pride - and inordinately proud of our national modesty.

I don't get all choked up about yellow ribbons and American flags. I see them as symbols, and I leave them to the symbol-minded.

I always carried a small American flag red white and blue with me so people would know I was from America.

This is getting funny, but there ain't nobody laughing.

The true meaning of America, you ask? It's in a Texas rodeo, in a policeman's badge, in the sound of laughing children, in a political rally, in a newspaper... In all these things, and many more, you'll find America. In all these things, you'll find freedom. And freedom is what America means to the world. And to me.

The 100% American is 99% idiot.

I think I have a good sense of humor, but I'm not, like, a joke-teller. I get the jokes, which is sometimes half the battle. Believe me, I have no idea why anyone hires me.

Perhaps,” murmured his lordship, “I yielded to a compassionate impulse.” “A what?” gasped his best friend. “Oh, did you think I never did so?” said his lordship, the satirical glint in his eyes extremely pronounced. “You wrong me! I do, sometimes—not frequently, of course, but every now and then!

I spell 'god' with a small 'g' because I do not believe in him, but I love to swear by him.

In Europe they look upon jazz as art. In America it's a diversion. Somebody opens a restaurant and installs another band off to the side. People don't listen.

A man's country is not a certain area of land, of mountains, rivers, and woods, but it is a principle: and patriotism is loyalty to that principle. In poetic minds and in popular enthusiasm this feeling becomes closely associated with the soil and the symbols of the country. But the secret sanctification of the soil and the symbol is the idea which they represent, and this idea the patriot worships through the name and the symbol, as a lover kisses with rapture the glove of his mistress and wears a lock of her hair upon his heart.

I express myself very strongly it's groveling, I'm trying to show groveling, but all of a sudden I found that I was mocking somebody.

So it’s still standing?” he managed to get out between his snickers. “I would’ve thought you two had knocked it to rubble by now. What were you doing last night? Discussing the national debt?” Emmett howled with laughter.

Remember," he called. "Just be yourself, and everyone will love you!" Nick rolled his eyes and made a rude gesture, and Alan drove the car away laughing.