John Wilson Quotes

England was the first true colonial power to use its dominion over a large part of Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Australia, North America, and many Caribbean islands, in the first half of the 20th century.

We have got over our imperial past, and the withdrawal symptoms.

British Empire

Long did I endeavor … to preserve from breaking that fine and noble vase, the British Empire; for I knew that, being once broken, the separate parts could not retain even their share of the strength or value that existed in the whole.

Whatever was the conduct of England, I am equally arraigned.

How is the Empire?

The English sent all their bores abroad, and acquired the Empire as a punishment.

An empire founded by war has to maintain itself by war.

Who colonized the other – us or them? Did Algeria colonize France, or vice versa? Did Egypt colonize England, or vice versa? We are the victims...

For Carolina once ruined and destroyed, the extermination of her [England's] colonial dependencies will follow.

Whereas the British were generally quite open about the fact that they were running an empire, few Americans politicians today would use the “e” word as anything other than a term of abuse.

The British Empire (with the exception of a very short period in the 1930s) was a free trade empire, unlike all the other great empires of the world …. Anyone could trade with the British Empire.

… to me, I confess, they are pieces on a chessboard upon which is being played out a game for domination of the world.

The foundations of empire are often occasions of woe; their dismemberment, always.

It can be considered a rule that the probable duration of an Empire may be prognosticated by the degree to which its rulers believe in their own propaganda.

I do not agree that the dog in a manger has the final right to the manger even though he may have lain there for a very long time. I do not admit that right. I do not admit for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race, a more worldly wise race to put it that way, has come in and taken their place.

Dominion by land or sea will appear equally destitute of attraction, when it comes to be generally understood, that all its advantages rest with the rulers, and that the subjects at large derive no benefit whatever.

I hate Imperialism whether British or Japanese or Burmese.

… there is a notion of exchanging Hong Kong for a more healthy colony.

The British Empire is the greatest secular agency for good now known to mankind.

It is an invariable maxim, that every acquisition of foreign territory is at the absolute disposal of the King. [And not to Parliament.]

With nearly every great European empire today walks its dark colonial shadow …

The United States although a superpower was never an empire..

The United States is now The Empire. There isn't an empire; there's The Empire, and that empire is the United States.