Quotes About British

The British signal system was archaic. In battle, British ships hoisted enormous 'battle ensigns' to prevent them from being mistaken for the other side, but the signal flags remained as small as ever, and easy to misinterpret in the heat of battle.

One of the controversies about the history of Room 40 was how much the British authorities had thought about codes before 1914. They had certainly not prepared for the sheer flood of coded, intercepted signals that would pour into the Admiralty or War Office. But recent scholarship suggests that they had in fact been making preparations to intercept and, in a quiet way, attempt code-breaking, whereas before, the whole story had been reduced to an amateur series of lucky coincidences.

Tedn't fair. Tedn't just. Tedn't British.

In this period, almost equal to that which separates us from the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, well-to-do persons in Britain lived better than they ever did until late Victorian times. From the year 400 till the year 1900 no one had central heating and very few had hot baths.

The celebrated and largely successful attempt to solve them took place at the Synod of Whitby in 664. There the hinging issue was whether British Christianity should conform to the general life-plan of Christendom or whether it should be expressed by the monastic orders which had founded the Celtic Churches of the North.

British influence is healthy and kindly, and makes for the general happiness and welfare of mankind.

if the issue were presented to the British as a naked trading away of British possessions for sake of the fifty destroyers it would certainly encounter vehement opposition.

War is a hard school, but the British, once compelled to go there, are attentive pupils.

The British people do not, as is sometimes thought, go to war for calculation, but for sentiment

I proceeded to a joint review of the British and American forces. There was a long march past in threes, during which the tune "United States Marines" bit so deeply into my memory that I could not get it out of my head.

I have it from the highest American authorities that it is their wish that their troops should receive direct orders. They say their Army has been framed more on Prussian lines than on the more smooth British lines, and that American commanders expect to receive positive orders, which they will immediately obey.

Bertie, he said, I want your advice. Carry on. At least, not your advice, because that wouldn't be much good to anybody. I mean, you're a pretty consummate old [prat], aren't you? Not that I want to hurt your feelings, of course. No, no, I see that. What I wish you to do is put the whole thing to that fellow Jeeves of yours, and see what he suggests.

writing Jeeves stories gives me a great deal of pleasure and keeps me out of the public houses.

The fact that Holmes had earlier lodgings in Montague Street (alongside the British Museum) is forgotten. That was before Watson and we must have Watson too.

Does Magna Carta mean nothing to you? Did she die in vain, that brave Hungarian peasant girl who forced King John to sign the pledge at Runnymede and closed all the boozers at half past ten? Is all this forgotten? No. My friends, it is not John Harrison Peabody who is on trial here today but the fair name of British justice. I ask you to send that poor boy back to the loving arms of his poor white-haired old mother... a free man. I thank you.

It's alright," they say, "Of course, there's beauty there," but they hold back; you know they have seen or heard of the ugliness and the insularity there. They have experienced the farawayness of it. I have learned to keep silent, not to berate them for their disregard of the Brits' role in the colonial tragedy of my country.

A university anywhere can aim no higher than to be as British as possible for the sake of the undergraduates, as German as possible for the sake of the public at large-and as confused as possible for the preservation of the whole uneasy balance.

He tried to avoid the eyes of the weather-beaten old Yankee. With guys like that around, no wonder the British ended up with all their fucking tea in Boston Harbor.

I was born in the '60s and grew up in the '70s - not exactly the best decade for food in British history. It was horrendous. It was a time when, as a nation, we excelled in art and music and acting and photography and fashion - all creative skills... all apart from cooking.

Our aim is that all those who come here to live will participate fully in British society and that British society will be confident enough to allow diversity (as it always has) without losing its central values.

Audiences seem to have a limitless appetite for vampires and for fantasy in general. Unlike many other British actors, I haven't been building up my pension appearing in films like 'The Lord of the Rings' and 'Harry Potter,' but fantasy has now got a grip on me. I am also appearing in 'Game of Thrones' as the head of the House of Lannister.

I grew up in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Among the fables that inspired the British Admiralty's cartographic assignments to Captain James Cook in the 1770s and Captain George Vancouver in the 1790s was a 1640 account under the name of Bartholomew de Fonte that appeared in a journal with the delightful title 'The Monthly Miscellany, or Memoirs for the Curious.'

Every impression that I do is just a terrible variation on an awful Bill Cosby impression. You're doing an Australian accent, but it's just Australian Bill Cosby; or that's just British Bill Cosby; that's Pirate Bill Cosby.