Home
Authors
Tags
App
Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App
" While it is entirely untrue that Canadians lack a sense of humour, the funniest ones tend to head south: Dan Aykroyd, Jim Carrey, Michael J. Fox. "
Simon Hoggart
Sense
Fox
Funniest
Related Quotes:
" When people move from one extreme set of views to embrace another equally batty picture of the world, they expect us to applaud their choice, as if the fact that they have rejected one form of nuttiness somehow validates the screwball views they hold now. "
Simon Hoggart
Choice
People
Picture
" A married vicar is likely to regard his vocation as a job - a tough and ill-paid one, to be sure - but a priest is seen as a pillar of the community, answerable only to his parishioners and his God, rather than to a wife and children. "
Simon Hoggart
Job
God
Wife
" One of the pleasures of staying with friends is that you get to browse their shelves. I always arrive with a book, but I almost never read it. It would be like sitting at their dinner table and opening a packet of sandwiches. "
Simon Hoggart
Sitting
Book
Dinner
" It's sad that the BBC is toning down Dennis the Menace for a cartoon series. He is losing his weapons, catapult and peashooter, will no longer pick on Walter the Softy, and his ferocious grimace is to be replaced by a charming, boyish smile. "
Simon Hoggart
Losing
Down
Will
" She is the first head of government in history to give a whole country its second childhood. "
Simon Hoggart
She
Government
Childhood
" If you read the 'Daily Mail,' you would imagine that the British middle classes lead lives of unremitting misery. "
Simon Hoggart
Lead
Daily
You
" Kind 'Guardian' readers have been forwarding me round robin Christmas newsletters for years now: lengthy missives full of perfect children, exotic holidays, talented pets and endless, tedious detail. The notes that accompanied them revealed they had inspired in the original recipients everything from mild irritation to absolute rage. "
Simon Hoggart
Children
Christmas
Detail
" Americans are fascinated by their own love of shopping. This does not make them unique. It's just that they have more to buy than most other people on the planet. And it's also an affirmation of faith in their country. "
Simon Hoggart
Unique
Shopping
People
" When you actually see Barack Obama, it's startling how slight he is and how young he looks. "
Simon Hoggart
He
How
Looks
" Some government expenditure actually makes a profit. Our theatre leads the world. Loads of tourists must be attracted by the fact that you could spend a week in London doing nothing but visit superb museums and galleries, free. "
Simon Hoggart
Free
Theatre
Week
" In Washington, success is just a training course for failure. "
Simon Hoggart
Washington
Failure
Success
" The Tory party is like a rugby union match in which all 30 players are wearing the same strip. They're not sure who they are grabbing round the knees, but they're having a lot of fun doing it. "
Simon Hoggart
Party
Same
Rugby
" I think the great thing about grandparents is seeing another home, realising that people you love can have different priorities, different diversions, different opinions and lead quite different lives from the ones you see every day, and that is immensely valuable. "
Simon Hoggart
Home
Think
People
" I've been intrigued by 'Le Monde' ever since work took me to Paris once, and I noted that on a day when there was some huge worldwide story, the paper led its front page on some cabinet changes in Turkey. It implied a magnificent disdain for the quotidian folderol of mere news. "
Simon Hoggart
Paris
Changes
Work
" Living in New York is like being at some terrible late-night party. You're tired, you've had a headache since you arrived, but you can't leave because then you'd miss the party. "
Simon Hoggart
New York
You
Tired
" I've served on five different juries, and many of them were bonkers in their own way. "
Simon Hoggart
Own
Them
Many
" Remember how Margaret Thatcher came to believe that abroad was more important than at home? Didn't do her much good. "
Simon Hoggart
Good
Important
Believe
" To be fair to the Inquisition, they only used confessions extracted after the torture had ended, which let them claim that admissions had been freely given; the fact that the torture would have started again if they hadn't confessed was a minor detail. "
Simon Hoggart
Detail
Started
Fair
" During my own gap year, I learned an invaluable lesson - that I was a lousy teacher. Even though the children I 'taught,' in upcountry Uganda, were desperate for qualifications, they largely ignored me. Until, that is, I realised that they wanted to hear about other young persons around the world. "
Simon Hoggart
Lesson
Teacher
World
" Poor Harper Seven Beckham, having to live with that name all her life. It's the Boy Named Sue syndrome; at the very least it will toughen her up. "
Simon Hoggart
Poor
Name
Live
" Every time humanists try to get a slot on 'Thought For the Day' on Radio 4, they are told it's reserved for 'the faith community,' whatever that is. Yet 'TfT' is almost always pabulum about how God wants us all to love each other and care for the unfortunate. I'm sure humanists would say much the same, without God. "
Simon Hoggart
Time
Love
God
" There are few tribes more loathsome than the American Right, and their vicious use of the shortcomings in the NHS to attack Barack Obama's attempts at health reform are a useful reminder. "
Simon Hoggart
More
Right
Health
" Jim Sheridan, the MP who wants to ban sketchwriters from the Commons for being rude about politicians, is a blithering idiot. Sorry, scrub that - clearly a very thoughtful person with whom I might conceivably disagree on some marginal issues. A blithering savant, perhaps. "
Simon Hoggart
Thoughtful
Sorry
Politicians
" Watching the Commons tribute to Margaret Thatcher was like being suffocated inside a gigantic sticky toffee pudding, but one with nasty bogeys planted inside. There was much of the 'Margaret Thatcher who was lucky enough to know me,' especially from her own side of the House. "
Simon Hoggart
Enough
House
Know
" British diplomats who worked in Iran during the 1980 hostage crisis are deeply upset by Ben Affleck's Oscar-winning film 'Argo,' which suggests they refused shelter to the group who managed to get out of the U.S. embassy. "
Simon Hoggart
Upset
Out
Film
" The formal Washington dinner party has all the spontaneity of a Japanese imperial funeral. "
Simon Hoggart
Washington
Party
Dinner Party
" When you visit a foreign city you are in it, but not of it, separated by a glass wall. Once, while a student, I was getting dressed in my ground-floor room when a family of Italians crossed the grass to watch, as if I were laid on for their amusement and instruction. "
Simon Hoggart
City
Student
Watch
" I also learned to play Fruit Ninja on an iPad. It is quite hypnotic, and I hope one day to get past 100 points. I remembered that David Cameron admits to being an addict. I wonder if it helps him in his work. 'Great, just destroyed a pineapple! Reminds me, shall we send those grenades to the Syrian rebels?' "
Simon Hoggart
Great
Past
Me
" Most successful American politicians look well-fed on endorsements, campaign contributions and chicken dinners. "
Simon Hoggart
Successful
American
Chicken
" Switzerland still has a huge share of the watch market, all advertised at the airport on illuminated hoardings. Gosh, they are ugly. "
Simon Hoggart
Watch
Airport
Ugly