George Mikes Quotes

One is not born English without knowing how to converse easily about the weather.

Every society in every period does or doesn't talk about certain topics. We don't discuss money much; it's almost certain that most people don't know how much their colleagues earn. The Victorians, in contrast, were very happy to discuss money. They weren't, however, happy to discuss sex.

The English say, Yours Truly, and mean it. The Italians say, I kiss your feet, and mean, I kick your head.

American life is based on a reassurance that we like one another but won't violate one another's privacies. This makes it a land of small talk.

People in England have a lot of respect. It is relaxed here.

The English love for privacy is proverbial, and has not been exaggerated. A stranger who strikes up a conversation is looked upon with suspicion - unless he happens to be an American, when his ignorance of good manners is indulged.

Canadians are more polite when they are being rude than Americans are when they are being friendly.

I learned to stop being English about things like love. If you make a film in England about love, it's hugely complicated. It's all about saying what the weather is like, and you're secretly telling someone you love them. You know what the English are like; they're very repressed people. You don't get that in India. India is incredibly un-cynical about love. It's a not a complicated thing. It's me, you, love. Let's go.

There's no nation under the sun can beat the English for ill-politeness: for my part, I hate the very sight of them; and so I shall only just visit a person of quality or two of my particular acquaintance, and then I shall go back again to France.

Atticus had said it was the polite thing to talk to people about what they were interested in, not about what you were interested in.

When two Eglishmen meet, their first talk is of the weather.

No- I cannot talk of books in a ballroom; my head is always full of something else.

I once met a beautiful, proper English girl. I bid her adieu.... she bid me a don't.

An American has no sense of privacy. He does not know what it means.There is no such thing in the country.

The Irish are hearty, the Scotch plausible, the French polite, the Germans good-natured, the Italians courtly, the Spaniards reserved and decorous - the English alone seem to exist in taking and giving offense.

I attributed their behavior to the fact that they didn't have a TV, but television didn't teach you everything. Asking for candy on Halloween was called trick-or-treating, but asking for candy on November first was called begging, and it made people uncomfortable. This was one of the things you were supposed to learn simply by being alive, and it angered me that the Tomkeys did not understand it.

What do we talk about? Just ordinary things. What happened today, or books we've read, or tomorrow's weather, you know. Don't tell me you're wondering if people jump to their feet and shout stuff like 'It'll rain tomorrow if a polar bear eats the stars tonight!

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.

It's not considered polite in Russia to count the money in someone else's pocket.

I've come from a very masculine country to a feminine country. England was very masculine; people went from England to abroad, and they landed from above and they said "These are the gods you will worship, these are the crops you will grow, now go away and do it." Which is a manly attitude. Americans go abroad and they say, "Try not to quarrel so much", which is a feminine attitude.

It was amusement enough to be with a group of fearless and talkative girls, who said new things in a new language, who were ignorant of tradition and unimpressed by distinctions of rank; but it was soon clear that their young hostesses must be treated with the same respect, if not with the same ceremony as English girls of good family.

It is in bad taste," is the most formidable word an Englishman can pronounce.

If somebody tells you an obviously untrue story, on the Continent you would remark, "You are a liar, Sir, and a rather dirty one at that." In England you just say "Oh, is that so?" Or "That's rather an unusual story, isn't it?

A cocktail party is a place where you talk with a person you do not know about a subject you have no interest in.

There are as many kinds of modesty as there are races. To the English woman it is a duty; to the French woman a propriety.