British Character Quotes

I've always considered myself to be fiercely patriotic. I love Britain - its history and the down-to-earth attitude people have.

The British illicit trading of opium in China was rapidly staining the British character with deep disgrace

I do not believe it is in the character of the British people to begrudge the lion's share to those who have genuinely played the lion's part. They are ready to recognise that those who create the wealth - and I mean not only material but intellectual wealth - enrich the whole nation.

The British people are good all through. You can test them as you would put a bucket into the sea and always find it salt.

That is the nature of the British psyche. It's very blunt, plain, very linear. It's pragmatic: it records life as it is.

Variety, individuality, peculiarity, eccentricity and indeed crankiness are agreeable to the British mind; they make life more interesting.

It is a curious fact about British Islanders, who hate drill and have not been invaded for nearly a thousand years, that as danger comes nearer and grows they become progressively less nervous; when it is imminent the are fierce, when it is mortal they are fearless.

It's very British to go about to see something unusual and paint it.

The title, the name Frank, comes from this extraordinary British character Frank Friedbottom. He was very big in Britain in the '80s, but I, as an Irish kid, saw him on 'Top of the Charts.'

We weren't getting a fair deal on the budget and I wasn't going to have it. There's a great strand of equity and fairness in the British people - this is our characteristic. There's not a strand of equity and fairness in Europe - they're out to get as much as they can. That's one of those enormous differences. So I tackled it on that basis.

The British - who rarely start a fight, but always know how to finish it - have nothing to be ashamed of.

There's something in people's character, particularly the British character, about unfairness. They don't like it.

I'd be quite excited to play somebody British.

Among the virtues and vices that make up the British character, we have one vice, at least, that Americans ought to view with sympathy. For they appear to be the only people who share it with us. I mean our worship of the antique. I do not refer to beauty or even historical association. I refer to age, to a quantity of years.

The British public like a Briton with personality, someone who comes out on court and isn't dour and down on themselves.

He was a hero to his valet, who bullied him, and a terror to most of his relations, whom he bullied in turn. Only England could have produced him, and he always said that the country was going to the dogs. His principles were out of date, but there was a good deal to be said for his prejudices.