The philosophy of Karl Marx ... is really an extreme version of High Victorian liberalism

The philosophy of Karl Marx ... is really an extreme version of High Victorian liberalism: the fact of the worldwide British Empire created the fantasy of the worldwide Socialist Revolution.

J. Hawes, cited in J. Law. 'as old as the hills', SF 84 (2024), 40

Just shake them up and tell them for God’s sake remember they are Englishmen

The world of officialdom sent him a memorandum in February outlining a proposal to withdraw representation from Chitral altogether. ‘One feels inclined to go up to these people who invent such timid counsels,’ he spluttered to Nellie, ‘and just shake them up and tell them for God’s sake remember they are Englishmen.’

P. French, Younghusband (1992), 107

Their chief achievement was to leave them, as they found them, unmistakably Greek

The Venetians left the Ionians peacefully if in obloquy, pushed out by Napoleon, and their place was presently taken by the British, whose manners were not dissimilar and whose intentions towards the islands were much the same. When, in their turn, the British voluntarily left in 1864, the islands became the most cultivated and progressive parts of the new Greece, and for this the Venetians could properly claim credit. They had ruled the Ionians for four centuries, and their chief achievement was to leave them, as they found them, unmistakably Greek.

J. Morris, The Venetian Empire (1980), 152

Her father, who by his neutrality had therefore chosen the side of the colonists

You knew what you loved and what you hated and what you did, what actions, what side you had chosen. You could not, for instance, work with the colonists in supressing the people and still say you loved the people. You could not stand on the fence in a struggle and say you were on the side of those fighting the evil. Her father had wanted to make money and to accumulate property: he had chosen neutrality, and he had hated any suggestion of being involved on the side of the people in case this ruined his chances of making money. The tragedy of her father, who by his neutrality had therefore chosen the side of the colonists, was that despite his selling out, despite his denial of self and of his father, he had ended up ruined anyway, the world disintegrating around him. 

N. wa Thiong'o, Petals of blood (1977), 399

Taken to keep the white man's shambas alive while theirs fell into neglect and waste!

Some were taken to work on European farms while the white man went to war. Imagine that: taken to keep the white man's shambas alive while theirs fell into neglect and waste! For a woman alone can never do all the work on the farm. How could she grow sugar cane, yams, sweet potatoes which used to be man's domain.

N. wa Thiong'o, Petals of blood (1977), 254

Colonialism was a brutal unification, brought about by fire and sword! Ten thousand entities were reduced to fifty.

 During precolonial times, and hence not so long ago, more than ten thousand little states, kingdoms, ethnic unions, and federations existed in Africa. Roland Oliver, a historian at the University of London, draws attention to a general paradox in his book, The African Experience (1991): it has become common parlance to say that European colonialists partitioned Africa. Partitioned? Oliver marvels. Colonialism was a brutal unification, brought about by fire and sword! Ten thousand entities were reduced to fifty. 

R. Kapuściński, tr. K. Glowczewska, The shadow of the sun (1998), 323

What Forster had against colonialism was its corruption of individual relation, its destruction of personality

What Forster had against colonialism (since he was a novelist and not a pamphleteer) was its corruption of individual relation, its destruction of personality. What irked Forster about the Raj was that it turned a silly Indian like Aziz into a martyr and a silly Englishman like Heaslop into a tyrant, and neither of them were fitted for roles so important.

J. Cameron, An Indian summer (1974), 110

I expect that is what irked Forster about colonialism, but it's not what I'd put top.

In Hindostan, what must be the astonishment of the natives to find that we are forbidden to rob, murder, and steal;

'Let us ask, too, if the Bible is universally diffused in Hindostan, what must be the astonishment of the natives to find that we are forbidden to rob, murder, and steal; we who, in fifty years, have extended our empire from a few acres about Madras, over the whole peninsula, and sixty millions of people, and exemplified in our public conduct every crime of which human nature is capable.' 

H. Pearson, The Smith of Smiths (1934), 76

You may not want to spend too many years of your life here, but as you see it in the early 1830s, Canton hardly seems the kind of place to start a war.

The entire formal trade of Europe and America with China, the largest empire in existence, goes on here in a space of just twelve acres — less, some like to point out, than the footprint of one of the pyramids in Egypt. You may not want to spend too many years of your life here, but as you see it in the early 1830s, Canton hardly seems the kind of place to start a war. 

No event casts a longer shadow over China’s modern history than the Opium War. Sparked by an explosive series of events that took place in the Canton factory compound in 1839, the war would end in 1842 with China’s humiliating defeat and a treaty all but dictated by the British aggressors, setting a disastrous pattern for the century to come. Textbooks in China on “modern” history, as a rule, take the Opium War as their starting point, the moment when China left its traditional past behind and was dragged forcibly into the world of European imperialism. The war occupies that place not because it was so destructive; in fact, it was relatively small and contained. It caused none of the large-scale social dislocation that China’s major internal wars of the nineteenth century like the Taiping Rebellion did. It did not topple the ruling dynasty or even remotely threaten to do so. There weren’t even that many battles fought.

But the symbolic power of the Opium War if almost limitless. It has long stood as the point where China's weakness was laid bare before the world, the opening of a "Century of Humiliation".

S. R. Platt, Imperial Twilight (2018), xxi-xxii

He didn’t need to be bold any more because he had made himself plenty of power

Babamukuru, I knew, was different. He hadn’t cringed under the weight of his poverty. Boldly, Babamukuru had defied it. Through hard work and determination he had broken the evil wizards’ spell. Babamukuru was now a person to be reckoned with in his own right. He didn’t need to bully anybody any more. Especially not Maiguru, who was so fragile and small she looked as though a breath of wind would carry her away. Nor could I see him bullying Nyasha. My cousin was pretty and bold and sharp. You never thought about Babamukuru as being handsome or ugly, but he was completely dignified. He didn’t need to be bold any more because he had made himself plenty of power. Plenty of power. Plenty of money. A lot of education. Plenty of everything. When you have a lot of anything it makes you feel good to give a bit of it away.

T. Dangarembga, Nervous conditions (1988), loc 934

I think of old British colonialists, bred to authority and the wide horizons, living out their pensioned lives in semi-detached houses of cramped suburbia

At the other end of life I have often met exiles from their own times. I think of old British colonialists, bred to authority and the wide horizons, living out their pensioned lives in semi-detached houses of cramped suburbia.

J. Morris, Trieste and the meaning of nowhere (2001), 74

I said, 'Are these people ready for self-government?' And he said , 'No, of course not.'

Many officials thought the pace of change was too fast, but acknowledged that they simply had no choice, as Macmillan discovered when he talked to the Governor-General of Nigeria [James Robertson]:

I said, 'Are these people ready for self-government?' And he said , 'No, of course not.'

I said, 'When will they be ready?' He said, 'Twenty years, twenty-five years.'

Then I said, 'What do you recommend me to do?' He said, 'I recommend you give it to them at once.'

D. Sandbrook, Never had it so good (2005), 289

The fuller quote, which is here, is thoughtful on why, though of course is of its time.

Men like Scott have featured hundreds of times in British history

Men like Scott have featured hundreds of times in British history, conquering India and nameless islands in the East Indian archipelago, colonizing Africa and fighting battles against the whole world, always with the same iron energy, the same collective consciousness and the same cold, reserved expression.

S. Zweig,'The Race to reach the South pole' (1927), tr. A.Bell, in Triumph and Disaster: Five historical miniatures (2016), 40

The existence of Simla was itself a comment on the astonishing complacency of the British in India

The existence of Simla was itself a comment on the astonishing complacency of the British in India at this period: for seven months of the year, the Company ruled one-fifth of mankind from a Himalayan village overlooking the borders of Tibet and connected to the outside world by a road little better than a goat path. 

W. Dalrymple, Return of a King (2013), 130

Reduce England to a cold and unimportant little island where we should all have to work very hard and live mainly on herrings and potatoes

Under the capitalist system, in order that England may live in comparative comfort, a hundred million Indians must live on the verge of starvation--an evil state of affairs, but you acquiesce in it every time you step into a taxi or eat a plate of strawberries and cream. The alternative is to throw the Empire overboard and reduce England to a cold and unimportant little island where we should all have to work very hard and live mainly on herrings and potatoes. That is the very last thing that any left-winger wants. Yet the left-winger continues to feel that he has no moral responsibility for imperialism. He is perfectly ready to accept the products of Empire and to save his soul by sneering at the people who hold the Empire together

G. Orwell, The road to Wigan pier (1937), 148

NB. The thrust of this isn't true, like so much of Part II of the book, but it's a great line.

There is a prevalent idea that the men at the ‘outposts of Empire’ are at least able and hardworking

There is a prevalent idea that the men at the ‘outposts of Empire’ are at least able and hardworking. It is a delusion. Outside the scientific services–the Forest Department, the Public Works Department and the like–there is no particular need for a British official in India to do his job competently. Few of them work as hard or as intelligently as the postmaster of a provincial town in England. The real work of administration is done mainly by native subordinates; and the real backbone of the despotism is not the officials but the Army. Given the Army, the officials and the business men can rub along safely enough even if they are fools. And most of them are fools. A dull, decent people, cherishing and fortifying their dullness behind a quarter of a million bayonets

G. Orwell, Burmese Days (1934),