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We never were downtrodden. We just kept quiet and let the female revolution wash over us - Paul de Vere, who conducted a nation-wide survey on male attitudes

Bravo the French. People said they were indifferent but it's not true - Jack Lang, French Socialist politician, on his party's win at the polls

The British don't understand that a good shower is one of life's basic essentials - a new guide to Britain from Lonely Planet

Jane Austen doesn't sell hi-tech cars. We do the past very well in this country but how can we compete from a hi-tech point of view when the rest of the world sees us dressed up in top hats and crinolines all the time? - Roger Puttnam, Jaguar's sales and marketing director

He was the Attila the Hun of the pillaging game. He was undoubtedly the the most prodigious thief this century- Peter Scott, friend of George "Taters" Chatham, who died on Thursday aged 81

There are times when instead of saying "the body of Christ", I am tempted to say "Christ, what a body!". Do things in the right place. I don't want this practice to spread - Teodoro Bacani, a Roman Catholic bishop in the Philippines, on brides who wear revealing dresses in church

After 40 years in showbusiness I feel that I have finally cracked it. Appearing with the Spice Girls will give me enormous street cred - Richard Briers, veteran Shakespearean actor who is to play a bishop in the forthcoming film starring the pop group