There are no countries in the world less known by the British than these selfsame British Islands, or where more strange things are every day occurring.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Borrow observes that the British know little about their own islands despite daily strange occurrences.
- In plain terms
- British people know less about their own country than foreigners do.
- What can you take from it?
- Familiarity can blind us to the strange aspects of our own home.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Do we know our own home?
- Is ignorance better than familiarity?
Another view
The statement assumes a lack of knowledge without proof.
More from George Borrow
Sherry...a silly, sickly compound, the use of which will transform a nation, however bold and warlike by nature, into a race of sketchers, scribblers, and puns…
Permalink to quote #3 Smoking has a sedative effect upon the nerves, and enables a man to bear the sorrows of this life (of which every one has his share) not only decently, but dig…
Permalink to quote #5 There is a peculiarity in the countenance, as everybody knows, which, though it cannot be described, is sure to betray the Englishman.
Permalink to quote #2
Related quotes
Art hath an enemy called Ignorance.
Ben JonsonBen Jonson quote #1 We are like ignorant shepherds living on a site where great civilizations once flourished. The shepherds play with the fragments that pop up to the surface, ha…
Allan BloomAllan Bloom quote #5 They expressed, as was usual, unbounded astonishment at the globe being round, and could scarcely credit that a hole would, if deep enough, come out on the oth…
Charles DarwinCharles Darwin quote #18