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22 Fred Dibnah Quotes

Fred Dibnah delivers bold, larger-than-life musings on fear, power, and the chaos of modern work.

Fred Dibnah quotes

  1. 'Did yer like that!?'

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  2. ' Mmmm. Aye. Oh aye. Y'know?'

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  3. 'A man who says he feels no fear is either a fool or a liar.'

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  4. 'I realise that steam engines aren't everyone's cup of tea. But they're what made England great.'

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  5. 'The modern world stinks.'

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  6. 'We've become a nation of con men, living by selling double glazing to each other.'

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  7. 'Steam engines don't answer back. You can belt them with a hammer and they say nowt.'

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  8. 'I set out as a steeplejack in my youth to preserve chimneys. I've finished by knocking most of them down.'

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  9. 'Height gives you a wonderful feeling of grandeur. You're the king of the castle up here.'

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  10. 'I have a wash more now than I used to y'know... I have a shower everynight.'

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  11. 'I'm just a bum who climbs chimneys.'

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  12. 'Anybody who destroys anything made of stone should be prosecuted. It is not all beautiful, but it took a man all day to make one stone.'

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  13. 'Steeplejacking's a bit of a spasmodic job, so you can play with your steam engine instead. It's a bit like being very rich.'

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  14. 'If you make one mistake, it's half a day out with the undertaker.'

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  15. 'It's a funny thing this celebrity. If you don't wave back you're a miserable bugger, if you do wave back you're a big-headed bugger. I don't know.'

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  16. 'The thing is nowadays, you'll have 20 men working, yet 60 men telling them 'You can't do that, you ain't got a tin hat on''.

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  17. 'Teaching boys to bake cakes? That's no way to maintain an industrial empire.'

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  18. 'By 'eck it were grand.'

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  19. 'Them fancy London types don't know the pleasure of eating chips with fingers'

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  20. 'That's Bolton's biggest chimney that... and I climbed it for a ten bob wager. Never did get the ten bob though.'

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  21. Fred also previously received two honorary doctorates ..... They were both given by the relevant engineering faculties, but Fred always told people that they were for 'back street mechanicing'.

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  22. 'I've never fell off a big chimney. You'd only fall off one of them once.'

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