We British are an aggressive nation.We seem to have become more violent this last decade: look how we drive fast and furious, with fists clenched; listen, at the stadiums, how the crowds shout,'Kick his fuckin' head in,'or to the sirens of police cars and ambulances in the shoddy streets of Brixton or Liverpool.

-Abse, Dannie
  Journals from the Ant-Heap,'Appendix1:  Authors Take Sides'.

With a nation, as with a boxer, one of the greatest assurances of safety is to add reach to power.

-Acheson, Dean Gooderham
Alluding to US bases in Europe. Quoted in  James B Reston Deadline (1991).

We must free ourselves from thinking in terms of nation states.The countries of westernEuropeareno longer ina position to protect themselves individually. Not one of them is any longer in a position to salvage Europe's culture.

-Adenauer, Konrad
  Speech, May.

CromwellsaidtotheLong Parliament whenhethought it wasno longer fitto conducttheaffairs of thenation,'You havesattoolong hereforanygood youhavebeendoing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!'

-Amery, Leo(pold) Charles Maurice Stennett
  Remark addressed to Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, House of Commons,7 May.

   The Parliament of England cannot have on earth so strong pillars and pregnant supporters of all their were always told there is one golden rule: no hanky panky in theTardis.

-Baillie, Robert
  On playing Doctor  Who. Quoted in the Sunday Times,7 Mar.

It is beginning to dawn on people that the influence of a nation is not measured by the size of its military budget, but by its industrial strength.

-Benn,Tony (Anthony Neil Wedgwood)
  In The Independent,18  Apr.

The Press is the living Jury of the Nation.

-Bennett,James Gordon, Snr
  In the Courier and Enquirer, 6  Aug.

Just foraword'neutrality'öaword which inwartimehas so often been disregardedöjust for a scrap of paper Great Britain isgoing to make war on a kindred nation who desires nothing better than to be friends with her.

-Bethmann Hollweg,Theobald von
  On Britain's reaction to the German invasion of neutral Belgium, 4  Aug. Quoted in British Documents on the Origins of the War1898^1914 (1926), vol.11.

Think of what our Nation stands for, Books from Boots'and country lanes, Free speech, free passes, class distinction, Democracy and proper drains. Lord, put beneathThy special care One-eighty-nine Cadogan Square.

-Betjeman, SirJohn
  Old Lights for New Chancels,'In Westminster  Abbey'.

Now the L had said unto Abram,Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

-Bible (Old Testament)
ORDGenesis12:1^3.

   They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

-Bible (Old Testament)
Isaiah 2:4.

And ye shall hear of wars and rumours or wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdomagainst kingdom: and thereshall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.

-Bible (NewTestament)
St Matthew 24:6^7.

But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that yeshould shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.

-Bible (NewTestament)
Peter 2:9.

The whore and gambler, by the state Licensed build that nation's fate. The harlot's cry from street to street Shall weave old England's winding sheet.

-Blake,William
c.1803  Auguries of Innocence, l.113^6

Illness and death†the only things that a tyrant has in commonwith his subjects† In thissensealone, a nation profits from being run byan old man.

-Brodsky, Ioseph
  Less Than One,'On Tyranny'.

   Theuse of forcealoneisbuttemporary.It maysubduefor a moment; but it does not remove the necessity of subduing again; and a nation is not governed, which is perpetually to be conquered.

-Burke, Edmund
  On Conciliation with  America.

Now Sark rins o'er the Solway sands, An' Tweed rins to the ocean, To mark where England's province stands, Such a parcel of rogues in a nation!

-Burns, Robert
  'Such a parcel of rogues in a nation', stanza1.

We're bought and sold for English gold, Such a parcel of rogues in a nation!

-Burns, Robert
  'Such a parcel of rogues in a nation', stanza 3.

The United States is the best and fairest and most decent nation on the face of the earth.

-Bush, George Herbert Walker
  Speech, May.

For in what stupid age or nation Was marriage ever out of fashion?

-Butler, Samuel
  Hudibras, pt.3, canto1, l.817^18.