British Empire/first British Empire 1583-1783

Famous quotes containing the words british and/or empire:

    Among the virtues and vices that make up the British character, we have one vice, at least, that Americans ought to view with sympathy. For they appear to be the only people who share it with us. I mean our worship of the antique. I do not refer to beauty or even historical association. I refer to age, to a quantity of years.
    William Golding (b. 1911)

    The sea, washing the equator and the poles, offers its perilous aid, and the power and empire that follow it.... “Beware of me,” it says, “but if you can hold me, I am the key to all the lands.”
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)