Best British Slang Quotes

The British have slang words, as we do, but it was fun. ~ Dennis Farina

Okay," she murmured. "I love you."
"I love you too."
She looked up at Holgar and realized that he didn't understand. She could feel her heartbeat speeding up, and she shook her head. His smile began to fade.
"Not as a friend, or as a partner. Holgar, I - I love you, and I want to be with you."
His smile faded, and his eyes took on a strange look. She could feel herself beginning to panic. He doesn't feel the same way. That's okay. At least I told him.
"Like a mate?" he asked.
She almost started laughing. A mate was British slang for a best friend. But that's not what Holgar was likely referencing. He was a werewolf, and they called their spouses mates.
"Like a mate," she said, managing not to giggle at the unexpected language barrier.
He still looked confused and a little lost.
"For helvede," she said, using his favourite curse word. And then she leaned forward and kissed him.
She tasted surprise on his lips for just a moment, and then he wrapped his arms around her and crushed her to him. she would have to do a healing spell on her bruised ribs later, but at the moment she didn't care. All she cared about was the passion, the yearning, she felt from him.
When at last they broke apart, she whispered again, "I love you."
"I love you too," he said.
And looking into his eyes this time, she knew that they were talking about the same thing.
"So, do we want to give us a shot?" she asked, breathless.
He ~ Nancy Holder

In general, American slang is much better than English slang. The entire world picks up American slang. ~ Jesse Sheidlower

Slang is vigorous and apt. Probably most of our vital words were once slang. ~ John Galsworthy

Slang in a woman's mouth is not obscene, it only sounds so. ~ Mark Twain

Correct English is the slang of prigs ... ~ George Eliot

I've found that there are only two kinds that are any good: slang that has established itself in the language, and slang that you make up yourself. Everything else is apt to be passe before it gets into print. ~ Raymond Chandler

Slang is the suitcase of the damned, my dear. CHECK IT. ~ Heather Cocks

Who originates the latest slang terms that are, seemingly overnight, known to every black youth across the country? ~ Donald Jeffries

The one stream of poetry which is continually flowing is slang. ~ Gilbert K. Chesterton

In China, when you get to the airport everyone be talking in American slang. ~ Ike Turner

I would rather have written Fables in Slang than be President. ~ William Allen White

The most vulgar slang is scarcely worse than the attempted elegance which those unused to good society imagine to be the evidence of cultivation. ~ Emily Post

The fastidious taste will find offence in the occasional vulgarisms, or what we now call slang, which not a few of our writers seem to have affected. ~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge

However British you may be, I am more British still. ~ Henry James

All slang is metaphor, and all metaphor is poetry. ~ Gilbert K. Chesterton

I'm really fascinated by lingos and colloquialisms that are outmoded and have gone by the wayside. I love the way people spoke in the '30s, and the amazing slang of the mid-'60s and '70s. ~ Beck

The education I received was a British education, in which British ideas, British culture, British institutions, were automatically assumed to be superior. There was no such thing as African culture. ~ Nelson Mandela

On the whole I try to keep Modesty and Willie in timeless settings, which is why I avoid all the latest slang and in-words. It won't be long before 'brill' sounds as dated as 'super' does now. [Uncle Happy, 1990] ~ Peter O'Donnell

I know only two words of American slang, 'swell' and 'lousy'. I think 'swell' is lousy, but 'lousy' is swell. ~ J.B. Priestley

What is slang in one age sometimes goes into the vocabulary of the purist in the next. ~ Thomas Bailey Aldrich

'Chamalkay' is an old Guyanese slang word. It means a 'young mischievous girl.' It's not derogatory, but it isn't over complimentary, either. It was probably a word I just Googled one day, and the song kind of played into the feel of that. ~ Dev Hynes

No British politician has ever been more despised by the British people than Margaret Thatcher. ~ Morrissey

I don't enjoy British shows as a rule because British audiences are strange. ~ Andrew Eldritch

I love British voicing and British humour in general. I'm a huge Ricky Gervais fan. ~ McG

You know, when I was a girl, the idea that the British Empire could ever end was absolutely inconceivable. And it just disappeared, like all the other empires. ~ Doris Lessing

It wasn't just British gangster films that really did for me as a kid, personally, it was British films in general. ~ William Monahan

When you think about Puritanism, you must begin by getting rid of the slang term 'Puritanism' as applied to Victorian religious hypocrisy. This does not apply to seventeenth-century Puritanism. ~ Leland Ryken

Adapt your style, if you wish, to admit the color of slang or freshness of neologism, but hang tough on clarity, precision, structure, grace. ~ William Safire

The British soldier who thought himself superior, actually became so. ~ John Graves Simcoe

I'm very proud to be British, and my brand is British. ~ Victoria Beckham

I think you can look at the British economy with confidence. ~ George Osborne

The British press hate a winner who's British. They don't like any British man to have balls as big as a cow's like I have. ~ Nigel Benn

We played a festival in Ireland once, and in the middle of 'New Slang,' the Scissor Sisters kicked in across the field on this mega stage. It was a little distracting. It was hard to keep track of what I was supposed to sing. ~ James Mercer

Morris Weissman [on the phone, discussing casting for his movie]: What about Claudette Colbert? She's British, isn't she? She sounds British. Is she, like, affected or is she British? ~ Julian Fellowes

I have always thought we should think less about the British film industry as an entity, and more about getting British talent working. ~ Eric Fellner

There are no Rohingya among the races [in Burma]. We only have Bengalis who were brought for farming [during British rule]. ~ Thein Sein

Rick and Scotty, who had heard Australian slang before from Digger Sears, one-time mate of the Tarpon, broke into chuckles.

"I'd better translate," Scotty said, "'Lord stone the crows' is just an expression. Oscar Ashe is hard cash. Yakka is hard work. And dinkum oil is gospel truth. ~ John Blaine

I know too much about British politics to comment on British politics. ~ Helle Thorning-Schmidt

It's estimated that by 2030 there will be virtually no unskilled jobs in the British economy. ~ Lucy Powell

Be Briton still to Britain true,
Among oursel's united;
For never but by British hands
Maun British wrangs be righted. ~ Robert Burns

I never know which Starr I should be. I can use some slang, but not too much slang, some attitude, but not too much attitude, so I'm not a "sassy black girl." I have to watch what I say and how I say it, but I can't sound "white." Shit ~ Angie Thomas

Try and write straight English; never using slang except in dialogue and then only when unavoidable. Because all slang goes sour in a short time. I only use swear words, for example, that have lasted at least a thousand years for fear of getting stuff that will be simply timely and then go sour. ~ Ernest Hemingway,

So you're British?' said Billy.
'I think of myself as English first, British second. It's a way of keeping the Scots and Welsh at a distance, never mind the Irish. ~ John Connolly

The attack on the British embassy in Tehran came just days after the Iranian 'parliament' voted to expel the British ambassador, and therefore reeks of official complicity. ~ Elliott Abrams

Nova Scotia as a British colony also came into being as another result of these adventurous British expeditions to North America in the reign of James I. ~ Harry Johnston

At the height of the British Empire very few English novels were written that dealt with British power. It's extraordinary that at the moment in which England was the global superpower the subject of British power appeared not to interest most writers. ~ Salman Rushdie

British people are surprised that I'm British! ~ David Harewood

Down through the years certain fads of slang had come and gone, and their vestiges could be found in Janie's and Mabel's conversation, like mastodon bones in a swamp. ~ Dolores Hitchens

The British government is a murder machine, ~ Peter King

The Jews might become the dynamite that will blow up the British Empire. ~ Ze'ev Jabotinsky

Everyone the world over talks about British actors and British talent and I think that's because we were trained - until now - in theatre. ~ Brenda Blethyn

What astounds me about the history of the British Navy is how cheaply we have policed the world for 300 years. ~ Ernest Bevin

Technically it was a victory for the British, who attacked the patriot fortifications but a Pyrrhic victory if ever there was: out of 2,200 British soldiers 1,034 were killed or wounded, including one in nine of all the officers the British lost in the whole war. ~ Geoffrey Wheatcroft

The British constitution has always been puzzling and always will be. ~ Queen Elizabeth II

He told me he was used to getting what he wanted. ~ Celia Conrad

The trouble with the British is that they are not interested in ideas. If Jesus came back today and offered to speak for an hour on British television, they would say, What! Another talking head? ~ John Cleese

No medieval monarch in the whole of British history ever had such power as every modern British Prime Minister has in his or her hands. Nor does any American President have power approaching this ~ Tony Benn

I have been long associated with British music. I have favoured it as my alternate music next to American. ~ Leonard Slatkin

I found cause to wonder upon what ground the English accuse Americans of corrupting the language by introducing slang words. I think I heard more and more different kinds of slang during my few weeks' stay in London than in my whole "tenderloin" life in New York. But I suppose the English feel that the language is theirs, and that they may do with it as they please without at the same time allowing that privilege to others. ~ James Weldon Johnson

Much of what passes for quality on British television is no more than a reflection of the narrow elite which controls it and has always thought that its tastes were synonymous with quality. ~ Rupert Murdoch

Chicken Tikka Massala is now a true British national dish ~ Robin Cook

I'm quite a fan of British designers. ~ Tinie Tempah

You are part of our Great British family. ~ Boris Johnson

I was determined that no British government should be brought down by the action of two tarts. ~ Harold Macmillan

The Australian divisions and the New Zealanders had become what they were to remain for the rest of the war the spearhead of the British Army ~ John Terraine

A few regular troops from old France, weakened by hunger and sickness, who, when fresh, were unable to withstand the British soldiers, are their general's chief dependence. ~ James Wolfe

To look at and properly appreciate the British Museum is the work of a lifetime. ~ M. E. W. Sherwood

I am leading a war against the British Empire. I'm not worried about what Democratic Party hacks say or do. ~ Kesha

British women can't cook. ~ Prince Philip

No more distressing moment can ever face a British government than that which requires it to come to a hard, fast and specific decision. ~ Barbara Tuchman

Like the British constitution, cricket was not made: it has 'grown'. ~ Neville Cardus

Scripture is the thing I like to share with people more than anything. My prayer reality is quite kooky. I have this very unique dialogue with the Lord. I utilize my own sort of street vocabulary - nothing slang that would be unacceptable. ~ Stephen Baldwin

Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, fewer than 5,000 British officials, about 40,000–70,000 British soldiers, and perhaps another 100,000 British business people, hangers-on, wives and children were sufficient to conquer and rule up to 300 million Indians. ~ Yuval Noah Harari

British films are all "room with a view and a staircase and a pond." ~ Ben Dreyfuss

[Congress] is not the British Parliament, and I hope it never will become the British Parliament ... Are we going to bring the president in here and have a question period like the prime minister has in Great Britain? ~ Trent Lott

America has had an influence on me, as has going out with a Cuban-American guy and having lots of American friends. But I am still fundamentally British and speak with a British accent and feel very English. ~ Lily Cole

There's nothing the British like better than a bloke who comes from nowhere, makes it, and then gets clobbered. ~ Melvyn Bragg

Ultimately, imperialism made even the British working classes suffer. This is a point which the British working classes found quite difficult to swallow, but they did, actually. ~ Amartya Sen

My mother always tried to keep a little bit of British culture in our family. We'd drink tea all the time! ~ Kurt Cobain

India is less manly under the British rule than she ever was before. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

I am confident that the British people will not be intimidated by terrorism. ~ Tom Allen

By 2015 more British Muslims were fighting for Isis than for the British armed forces. ~ Douglas Murray

My attitude towards the British is one of utter friendliness and respect. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Primary responsibility for Brexit lies with British conservatives, who took an entire continent hostage. ~ Martin Schulz

I really like Roland Moret, Alexander McQueen and Marios Schwab, a young British designer. ~ Naomie Harris

I'm actually going in to ER as the new British intern. ~ Parminder Nagra

The British public has always had an unerring taste for ungifted amateurs. ~ John Osborne

There is nobody as hopelessly vulgar as a British aristocrat ... ~ Charles Finch

There is a profound and ineradicable taint of antisemitism in the British. ~ David Mamet

I'm so excited to be working on 'Doctor Who,' as it's such a big and important part of British culture. ~ Maisie Williams

They can bite, but cannot be us,
They can come and pick up little slang but cannot see us,
You ought to be ashamed trying to fit in my adidas,
So Run like DMC like you don't know you got no heater ~ Andre Benjamin

I'm somebody who is very, very proud to have been a part of the British film industry all my life and to have kind of been involved with a very important piece of British film history. ~ Daniel Radcliffe

But more than anything else, for the British folks Irish people were all terrorists. So when we went to Britain, it was always a lot of resistance to U2. And that's why we came to America. ~ Bono

I give no more paroles to British officers. ~ Christopher Gadsden

My mother wouldn't allow me to speak slang when I was growing up. But when I got outside, around my friends, it was 'Yo' and 'That's the joint' and 'Yo, what's up?' So I had my game for my friends and my game for my mom. ~ Queen Latifah

In the end, history, especially British history with its succession of thrilling illuminations, should be, as all her most accomplished narrators have promised, not just instruction but pleasure. ~ Simon Schama

It is with deep grief I watch the clattering down of the British Empire with all its glories and all the services it has rendered to mankind. ~ Winston Churchill

I've never felt British. I'm just not interested in national identity. I don't know why. ~ Elvis Costello

Our ability to make a decision about the declaration is hampered by the British government being reluctant to give us the clarification which we require. ~ Martin McGuinness