British Empire/decolonisation and Decline 1945%e2%80%931997

Famous quotes containing the words british, empire and/or decline:

    “Swans moulting die, snow melts to tears,
    Roses do blush and hang their heads,”
    —Henry Noel, British poet, and William Strode, British poet. Beauty Extolled (attributed to Noel and to Strode)

    “The war shook down the Tsardom, an unspeakable abomination, and made an end of the new German Empire and the old Apostolic Austrian one. It ... gave votes and seats in Parliament to women.... But if society can be reformed only by the accidental results of horrible catastrophes ... what hope is there for mankind in them? The war was a horror and everybody is the worse for it.”
    —George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)

    “The decline of a culture
    Mourned by scholars who dream of the ghosts of Greek boys.”
    —Stephen Spender (1909–1995)