British Quotes

I have never been attracted to any kind of violence.

I don't want to be involved in endless media gossip.

I don't sit there and speculate. I'm not that sort of person. It wastes time, actually.

I also read modern novels - I have just had to read 60 as I am one of the judges for the Orange Fiction Prize.

Hair is also a problem. I remember once, when I was reporting from Beirut at the height of the civil war, someone wrote in to the BBC complaining about my appearance.

But in the first Gulf war the United Kingdom was not under any threat from Iraq, and is still less so in the second one. Then there is no justification for obstructing freedom of information, particularly as nations have a right to know what their soldiers are being used for.

Beslan, where the Russian authorities stopped live coverage of the school being stormed, was an illustration of the progress we still have to make.

It wasn't glamorous in my day. In the regions, reporters were seen as such low life that they didn't merit their name in the Radio Times. Now people are interested in being famous. I never gave it a thought.

If I'm in danger then it's usually my fault and it's up to me to get myself out of it. I am not in it just to get an adrenalin rush. No way!

I keep telling myself to calm down, to take less of an interest in things and not to get so excited, but I still care a lot about liberty, freedom of speech and expression, and fairness in journalism.

It is with deep regret that the determination to assemble Parliament has been so long delayed.

I hate liberality - nine times out of ten it is cowardice, and the tenth time lack of principle.

What this country needs is a good five-cent nickel.

There is not a soul who does not have to beg alms of another, either a smile, a handshake, or a fond eye.

The science of politics is the one science that is deposited by the streams of history, like the grains of gold in the sand of a river; and the knowledge of the past, the record of truths revealed by experience, is eminently practical, as an instrument of action and a power that goes to making the f

The man who prefers his country before any other duty shows the same spirit as the man who surrenders every right to the state. They both deny that right is superior to authority.

If some great catastrophe is not announced every morning, we feel a certain void. Nothing in the paper today, we sigh.

Be not content with the best book; seek sidelights from the others; have no favourites.

Save for the wild force of Nature, nothing moves in this world that is not Greek in its origin.

Machiavelli's teaching would hardly have stood the test of Parliamentary government, for public discussion demands at least the profession of good faith.

Property is not the sacred right. When a rich man becomes poor it is a misfortune, it is not a moral evil. When a poor man becomes destitute, it is a moral evil, teeming with consequences and injurious to society and morality.

Every thing secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity.

A wise person does at once, what a fool does at last. Both do the same thing; only at different times.

The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern: every class is unfit to govern.

There are two things which cannot be attacked in front: ignorance and narrow-mindedness. They can only be shaken by the simple development of the contrary qualities. They will not bear discussion.

Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.

The long term versus the short term argument is one used by losers.

To be able to look back upon one's past life with satisfaction is to live twice.

Socialism means slavery.

History is not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul.