Quentin Crisp Quotes

The British do not expect happiness. I had the impression, all the time that I lived there, that they do not want to be happy; they want to be right.

I'm British. I don't really have access to my emotions on a daily basis.

And I definitely do that very British thing of, take things with a pinch of salt, stiff upper lip, you know what I mean?

I think the British people have a strong sense of what is fair.

I like the English. They have the most rigid code of immorality in the world.

There is nothing I hate more than sentimentality.

I don't ever want to be a sentimentalist. I prefer to be a realist. I'm not a romantic really.

We believe it is bad or dangerous to be carried away by our emotions. We admire the person who is cool, who acts without feeling.

I'm quite British in the sense of not expressing my emotions much. I save it for my songs. If you ask about a death in the family, or a lover, I will not be emotional. I'd probably answer with a smile. Because that's what we British blokes do.

Deep down, the ordinary Frenchman doesn't believe that Turks, or Eastern Europeans for that matter, cherish the values he holds most dear. Nor do the French much trust that the Germans and the British have French interests at heart. Given European history -- and given what I see around me -- I can't say I blame them.

Facts are better than dreams.

The habit of analysis has a tendency to wear away the feelings.

The English, more than any other people, not only act but feel according to rule.

This sort of thing may be tolerated by the French, but we are British, thank God.

My father was the classic Puritan. Hold the emotions in check. Keep up appearances.

I think Americans have always been pretty outspoken. I always found that if you had emotions in England, it's like, 'Here's a cup of tea.'

You can't get emotional about your work.

We in a nasty business, at times. I don't even say that in a good or bad way. It's just no place to get too emotional.

I am deeply unsentimental.

People say you must be pragmatic, more clinical. More pragmatic than me? I'm sorry.

It is not that the Englishman can't feel-it is that he is afraid to feel. He has been taught at his public school that feeling is bad form. He must not express great joy or sorrow, or even open his mouth too wide when he talks-his pipe might fall out if he did.

The barrenest of all mortals is the sentimentalist.

The conceptions which any nation or individual entertains of the God of its popular worship may be inferred from their own actions and opinions, which are the subjects of their approbation among their fellow-men.

But since he stood for England And knew what England means, Unless you give him bacon You must not give him beans.