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Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon
16 quotes
“The children won't go without me. I won't leave the King. And the King will never leave.”
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (1900–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am glad we have been bombed. Now we can look the East End in the eye.”
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (1900–2002) first seen 1940 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: After the Luftwaffe bombed the Buckingham Palace whilst the King and Queen were in residence on 13 September 1940.
“Tinkety tonk old fruit, and down with the Nazis.”
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (1900–2002) first seen 1940 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A valediction in a letter to her niece in 1940.
“Never trust them, never trust them. They can't be trusted.”
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (1900–2002) first seen 1991 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the Germans, to Woodrow Wyatt (16 November 1991), as quoted in The Journals of Woodrow Wyatt: Volume Two (2000) ed. Sarah Curtis, p. 608
“He is the only man, since my dear husband died, to have had the effrontery to kiss me on the lips.”
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (1900–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We'd have to go self-service.”
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (1900–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We loved him.”
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (1900–2002) first seen 2002 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the Duke of Windsor, previously Edward VIII, as quoted by the Duke of Grafton in The Queen Mother Remembered (2002), BBC Books
“Whilst playing cards, Elizabeth: How are you getting on? You don't look very happy. Lord Salisbury: Oh, Ma'am, I've been left with a horrible queen. Elizabeth: I don't think that's a very good of way of putting it, do you?”
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (1900–2002) first seen 2002 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted by Lord Home of the Hirsel in The Queen Mother Remembered (2002), BBC Books
“Was this yours? Oh, could you take it?”
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (1900–2002) first seen 2002 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On returning a toilet roll to a demonstrator who had thrown it at her, as quoted by Sir Peter Ustinov in The Queen Mother Remembered (2002), BBC Books
“But I love communists!”
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (1900–2002) first seen 2002 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On being warned that a functionary to whom she was about to be introduced was a communist, as quoted by the Duchess of Grafton in The Queen Mother Remembered (2002), BBC Books
“Wouldn't it be terrible if you'd spent all your life doing everything you were supposed to do, didn't drink, didn't smoke, didn't eat things, took lots of exercise, all the things you didn't want to do, and suddenly one day you were run over by a big red bus, and as the wheels were crunching into you you'd say 'Oh my god, I could have got so drunk last night!' That's the way you should live your life, as if tomorrow you'll be run over by a big red bus.”
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (1900–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted by Michael Parker, as cited in William Shawcross Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother: The Official Biography (2009)
“That's mine!”
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (1900–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Dear Edwina, she always liked to make a splash.”
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (1900–2002) first seen 2000 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On hearing that Edwina Mountbatten, Countess Mountbatten of Burma had been buried at sea, as quoted in The Straits Times [Singapore] (7 August 2000)
“I wouldn't if I were you, Noël; they count them before they put them out.”
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (1900–2002) first seen 2002 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Murmured to Sir Noël Coward (who was gay) at a gala. While she mounted a staircase lined with Guards, she noticed Coward's eyes flicker momentarily over the soldiers; as quoted by Thomas Blaikie in You look awfully like…
“I'll polish it off myself.”
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (1900–2002) first seen 2002 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted by Graham Taylor in Elizabeth: The Woman and the Queen (2002)
“Queen Elizabeth: I thought the girls . . . you see, they were marooned in Windsor Castle for most of the war, and I was not sure that they were having a very good education and kind Sachie and Osbert [Sitwell] said they would arrange a poetry evening for us. Such an embarrassment. Osbert was wonderful, as you would expect, and Edith, of course, but then we had this rather lugubrious man in a suit, and he read a poem . . . I think it was called "The Desert". And first the girls got the giggles, and then I did and then even the King. Self: "The Desert", ma'am? Are you sure it wasn't called "The Waste Land? Queen Elizabeth: That's it. I'm afraid we all giggled. Such a gloomy man, looked as though he worked in a bank, and we didn't understand a word. Self: I believe he did once work in a bank.”
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (1900–2002) first seen 1990 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A.N. Wilson "Miracle-Worker in the Charm School", The Spectator (20 June 1990), p. 20
Also quoted by: A. N. Wilson