British Quotes

When we got down from the ambulances there were sharp cracks about us as bursts of shrapnel splashed down upon the Town Hall square. Dead soldiers lay outside and I glanced at them coldly. We were in search of the living.

We who go out to die shall be remembered, because we gave the world peace. That will be our reward, though we will know nothing of it, but lie rotting in the earth - dead.

It's better to give than to lend and it costs about the same.

It was so quiet that morning in Paris that the heels of my two companions and myself were loud on the deserted pavements. It was a city of shuttered shops, and barred windows, and deserted avenues.

It was announced as a French victory by the French Minister of War. I did not see any sign of victory but only the retreat of the French forces engaged in the battle.

It is better to give then to lend, and it costs about the same.

In front of us was not a line but a fortress position, twenty miles deep, entrenched and fortified, defended by masses of machine-gun posts and thousands of guns in a wide arc. No chance for cavalry!

I am going to fight - I, a socialist and Syndicalist - so that we shall make an end to war, so that the little ones of France will sleep in peace, and the women go without fear.

From each one of them rose separate columns of smoke, meeting in a pall overhead, and through the smoke came stabbing flashes of fire as German shells burst with thudding shocks of sound. This was the front line of battle.

But the worst handicap we had the prohibition of naming individual units who had done the fighting.

But do you know, I shall not be sorry to die. I shall be glad, Monsieur. And why glad, you ask? Because I love France and hate the Germans who have put this war on us.

All was well, until I reached the port of Havre. Three officers with the rank of lieutenant, whom afterwards I knew to be Scotland Yard men, came aboard and demanded to see my papers which they took away from me.

A friend in the War Office warned me that I was in Kitchener's black books, and that orders had been given for my arrest next time I appeared in France.

During the early months of the war in 1914 there was a conflict of opinion between the War Office and the Foreign Office regarding news from the Front.

The highest of distinctions is service to others.

Today 23 years ago dear Grandmama died. I wonder what she would have thought of a Labour Government.

My father was frightened of his mother; I was frightened of my father, and I am damned well going to see to it that my children are frightened of me.

Is it possible that my people live in such awful conditions? I tell you, Mr Wheatley, that if I had to live in conditions like that I would be a revolutionary myself.

I venture to allude to the impression which seemed generally to prevail among their brethren across the seas, that the Old Country must wake up if she intends to maintain her old position of pre-eminence in her colonial trade against foreign competitors.

How is the Empire?

Always go to the bathroom when you have a chance.

After I am dead, the boy will ruin himself in twelve months.

I have many times asked myself whether there can be more potent advocates of peace upon earth through the years to come than this massed multitude of silent witnesses to the desolation of war.

We must not be hampered by yesterday's myths in concentrating on today's needs.

Uncertainty will always be part of the taking charge process.

The worst disease which can afflict business executives in their work is not, as popularly supposed, alcoholism; it's egotism.

Performance stands out like a ton of diamonds. Nonperformance can always be explained away.

Performance is your reality. Forget everything else.

Management manages by making decisions and by seeing that those decisions are implemented.

It's better to take over and build upon an existing business than to start a new one.