George Mikes

“On the Continent people have good food; in England people have good table manners.”

“An Englishman, even if he is alone, forms an orderly queue of one.”

“In England only uneducated people show off their knowledge; nobody quotes Latin or Greek authors in the course of conversation, unless he has never read them.”

“Jokes are better than war. Even the most aggressive jokes are better than the least aggressive wars. Even the longest jokes are better than the shortest wars.”

“When I am alone in the forest at night-time and jump from one tree to another, I often think that life is so strange.”

“Q. Why don't the British panic?A. They do, but very quietly. It is impossible for the naked eye to tell their panic from their ecstasy.”

“The world still consists of two clearly divided groups: the English and the foreigners. One group consists of less than 50 million people; the other of 3,950 million. The latter group does not really count.”

“When people say England, they sometimes mean Great Britain, sometimes the United Kingdom, sometimes the British Isles, - but never England.”

“Many Continentals think life is a game; the English think cricket is a game.”