WIST Quotations

Shakespeare, William -- Richard II, Act 2, sc. 1, l. 45ff (2.1.45-56) (1595)

Dave — Mon, 20 Oct 2025 15:58:30 +0000

GAUNT: This royal throne of kings, this sceptered isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,
This blessèd plot, this earth, this realm, this England ….

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Richard II, Act 2, sc. 1, l. 45ff (2.1.45-56) (1595)
(Source)

Orwell, George -- Essay (1941-02-19), “The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius,” Part 1 “England Your England,” sec. 2, The Searchlight Books [ed. Fyvel and Orwell]

Dave — Mon, 16 Sep 2024 14:02:33 +0000

In England such concepts as justice, liberty and objective truth are still believed in. They may be illusions, but they are very powerful illusions.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1941-02-19), “The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius,” Part 1 “England Your England,” sec. 2, The Searchlight Books [ed. Fyvel and Orwell]
(Source)

Part of Part 1, "England Your England" with the title "The Ruling Class" was previously published in Horizon (1940-12).

Rogers, Will -- Article (1928-05-26), “Letter of a Self-Made Diplomat to His President,” Saturday Evening Post

Dave — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 15:33:50 +0000

What is Tradition? It’s the thing we laugh at the English for having, and we beat them practicing it.

Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist
Article (1928-05-26), “Letter of a Self-Made Diplomat to His President,” Saturday Evening Post
(Source)

Collected in More Letters of a Self-Made Diplomat to His President (1928) [ed. Steven Gragert].

Mill, John Stuart -- Letter to Giussepe Mazzini (15 Apr 1858)

Dave — Tue, 09 May 2017 23:08:26 +0000

The English, of all ranks and classes, are at bottom, in all their feelings, aristocrats. They have some concept of liberty, & set some value on it, but the very idea of equality is strange & offensive to them. They do not dislike to have many people above them as long as they have some below them.

John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) English philosopher and economist
Letter to Giussepe Mazzini (15 Apr 1858)
(Source)

Verne, Jules -- Around the World in Eighty Days (1873)

Dave — Sat, 30 Jul 2016 17:54:18 +0000

A true Englishman doesn’t joke when he is talking about so serious a thing as a wager.

Jules Verne (1828-1905) French novelist, poet, playwright
Around the World in Eighty Days (1873)
(Source)

Blunt, Wilfred -- My Diaries, 1888-1914, 22 Dec 1900 (1921)

Dave — Thu, 26 May 2016 14:01:51 +0000

The old century is very nearly out, and leaves the world in a pretty pass, and the British Empire is playing the devil in it as never an empire before on so large a scale. We may live to see its fall. All the nations of Europe are making the same hell upon earth in China, massacring and pillaging and raping in the captured cities as outrageously as in the Middle Ages. The Emperor of Germany gives the word for slaughter and the Pope looks on and approves. In South Africa our troops are burning farms under Kitchener’s command, and the Queen and the two houses of Parliament, and the bench of bishops thank God publicly and vote money for the work. The Americans are spending fifty millions a year on slaughtering the Filipinos; the King of the Belgians has invested his whole fortune on the Congo, where he is brutalizing the Negroes to fill his pockets. The French and Italians for the moment are playing a less prominent part in the slaughter, but their inactivity grieves them. The whole white race is reveling openly in violence, as though it had never pretended to be Christian. God’s equal curse be on them all! So ends the famous nineteenth century into which we were so proud to have been born.

Wilfrid Scawen Blunt (1840-1922) English poet, critic, horse breeder
My Diaries, 1888-1914, 22 Dec 1900 (1921)
(Source)

Shaw, George Bernard -- (Attributed)

Dave — Tue, 12 Apr 2016 19:57:26 +0000

England and America are two countries separated by the same language.

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) Irish playwright and critic
(Attributed)

Variants:

"England and America are two peoples separated by a common language."
"England and America are two countries separated by one language."
"The British and the Americans are two great peoples divided by a common tongue."

Possibly a misattribution from Oscar Wilde in 1887: "We have really everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, language."

One of the first attributions to Shaw, without source, was in Reader's Digest (Nov 1942). It also shows up in other articles at the time, referenced as a remark by Shaw but without any actual citation. The phrase is not found in Shaw's published writing.

For further discussion of the quote's origins: Britain and America Are Two Nations Divided by a Common Language – Quote Investigator.

Wilde, Oscar -- The Canterville Ghost (1887)

Dave — Wed, 06 Apr 2016 14:54:24 +0000

Indeed, in many respects, she was quite English, and was an excellent example of the fact that we have really everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, language.

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish poet, wit, dramatist
The Canterville Ghost (1887)

See Shaw.

James, P. D. -- “Rhesus Positive,” A Taste for Death (1986)

Dave — Wed, 08 Oct 2014 09:15:01 +0000

It was one of those perfect English autumnal days which occur more frequently in memory than in life.

P. D. James (1920-2014) British mystery writer [Phyllis Dorothy James White]
“Rhesus Positive,” A Taste for Death (1986)

Smith, Sydney -- The Letters of Peter Plymley, Letter 2 (1807)

Dave — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 12:54:19 +0000

The moment the very name of Ireland is mentioned, the English seem to bid adieu to common feeling, common prudence, and common sense, and to act with the barbarity of tyrants, and the fatuity of idiots.

Sydney Smith (1771-1845) English clergyman, essayist, wit
The Letters of Peter Plymley, Letter 2 (1807)
(Source)

Smith, Sydney -- (Attributed)

Dave — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:32:08 +0000

What a pity it is that we have no amusements in England but vice and religion!

Sydney Smith (1771-1845) English clergyman, essayist, wit
(Attributed)
(Source)

In Hesketh Pearson, The Smith of Smiths, ch. 10 (1934).