{"quotes":[{"text":"The advantages of a hereditary Monarchy are self-evident. Without some such method of prescriptive, immediate and automatic succession, an interregnum intervenes, rival claimants arise, continuity is interrupted and the magic lost. Even when Parliament had secured control of taxation and therefore of government; even when the menace of dynastic conflicts had receded in to the coloured past; even when kingship had ceased to be transcendental and had become one of many alternative institutional forms; the principle of hereditary Monarchy continued to furnish the State with certain specific and inimitable advantages.Apart from the imponderable, but deeply important, sentiments and affections which congregate around an ancient and legitimate Royal Family, a hereditary Monarch acquires sovereignty by processes which are wholly different from those by which a dictator seizes, or a President is granted, the headship of the State. The King personifies both the past history and the present identity of the Nation as a whole. Consecrated as he is to the service of his peoples, he possesses a religious sanction and is regarded as someone set apart from ordinary mortals. In an epoch of change, he remains the symbol of continuity; in a phase of disintegration, the element of cohesion; in times of mutability, the emblem of permanence. Governments come and go, politicians rise and fall: the Crown is always there. A legitimate Monarch moreover has no need to justify his existence, since he is there by natural right. He is not impelled as usurpers and dictators are impelled, either to mesmerise his people by a succession of dramatic triumphs, or to secure their acquiescence by internal terrorism or by the invention of external dangers. The appeal of hereditary Monarchy is to stability rather than to change, to continuity rather than to experiment, to custom rather than to novelty, to safety rather than to adventure.The Monarch, above all, is neutral. Whatever may be his personal prejudices or affections, he is bound to remain detached from all political parties and to preserve in his own person the equilibrium of the realm. An elected President – whether, as under some constitutions, he be no more than a representative functionary, or whether, as under other constitutions, he be the chief executive – can never inspire the same sense of absolute neutrality. However impartial he may strive to become, he must always remain the prisoner of his own partisan past; he is accompanied by friends and supporters whom he may seek to reward, or faced by former antagonists who will regard him with distrust. He cannot, to an equal extent, serve as the fly-wheel of the State.","author":"Harold Nicholson","tags":["british","constitution","continuity","dictator","elect","government","hereditary","identity","institution","king","legitimate","monarch","neutral","partisan","political","politician","president","queen","royal-family","service","sovereign","state","succession","terrorism"],"id":5646,"author_id":"Harold+Nicholson"},{"text":"Royal Young's writing is that rare blend of irony and beauty.","author":"Simon Van Booy","tags":["beauty","british","celebrity","fame","irony","romance","simon-van-booy"],"id":26319,"author_id":"Simon+Van+Booy"},{"text":"We must do our utmost to preserve our British ally's strategic independence from Europe.","author":"Richard Perle","tags":["europe","british","preserve "],"id":27808,"author_id":"Richard+Perle"},{"text":"The tall, thin serious man strode in, his dark cloak billowing so dramatically it threatened to extinguish the lamp flame with its draught. He advanced like a malevolent shadow consuming the dim orange light, filling the room with a presence almost more than human.","author":"Gregory Figg","tags":["british","historical-fiction","kings","medieval-fantasy","medieval-literature","wales"],"id":38274,"author_id":"Gregory+Figg"},{"text":"The word bollocks seems strong, punk rock, and imposing, but in reality, bollocks is always too tame to make much of an impact.","author":"Jennifer Harrison","tags":["bollocks","british","heartbreak","punk-rock"],"id":41222,"author_id":"Jennifer+Harrison"},{"text":"Other unsolved murders or untimely deaths were readily blamed on the supposedly sinister Jews: If a Jewish doctor failed to save a life, the whole Jewish community might be attacked and fined.","author":"Robert Winder","tags":["antisemitism","britain","british","oppression","racism","white-privilege"],"id":42423,"author_id":"Robert+Winder"},{"text":"He looks like a horse in a man costume!","author":"Dylan Moran","tags":["black-books","british","british-comedy","dylan-moran","funny","horse","man"],"id":42600,"author_id":"Dylan+Moran"},{"text":"The most dangerous people in the world are not the tiny minority instigating evil acts, but those who do the acts for them – for a paycheck. To act without a conscience, but for a paycheck, makes anyone a dangerous animal. The devil would be powerless if he couldn’t entice people to do his work. So as long as money continues to seduce the hungry, the hopeless, the broken, the greedy, and the needy, there will always be war between people.","author":"Suzy Kassem","tags":["attract","british","broken","buck","conscience","corruption","dangerous","devil","devious","ethics","evil","evil-acts","greed","greedy","hopeless","hungry","india","lure","needy","paycheck","people","power","powerless","seduce","sell-your-soul","unethical","untrustworthy"],"id":66634,"author_id":"Suzy+Kassem"},{"text":"Then one woman looked directly at her husband. 'Is our place gone?' 'I'm afraid so, girl,' he said. 'There isn't much left up there. But we're alive. We're all lucky to be alive. We'd have been dead if we'd stayed up above.' 'Oh, what a mercy we didn't!' she exclaimed. 'How lucky we are!' Incredible though it sounds, within a few moments, a whole lot of people were congratulating each other on their extraordinary good fortune in only having lost all their worldy posessions.","author":"Ida Cook","tags":["british","london-bombing","luck","wwii"],"id":67958,"author_id":"Ida+Cook"},{"text":"Would it save you a lot of time if I just gave up and went mad now?","author":"Douglas Adams","tags":["british","humor","science-fiction","social-commentary","thumb","towel"],"id":70819,"author_id":"Douglas+Adams"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":92,"pages":10,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}