Top 141 Quotes & Sayings by Prince Philip

You don't really want nonagenarians as heads of organisations which are trying to do something useful.

There was no precedent. If I asked somebody, 'What do you expect me to do?' they all looked blank. They had no idea; nobody had much idea.

People can't get their heads round the idea of a species surviving; you know, they're more concerned about how you treat a donkey in Sicily or something.

It's better to get out before you reach the sell-by date.

When a man opens a car door for his wife, it's either a new car or a new wife.

I don't think a prostitute is more moral than a wife, but they are doing the same thing.

If anything, I've thought of myself as Scandinavian. Particularly, Danish. We spoke English at home.

I have frequently been misrepresented. I don't hate the press; I find a lot of it is very unpalatable.

The man who invented the red carpet needed his head examined.

You can't just decide you want to do this or that. You have to be invited.

Everybody was saying we must have more leisure. Now they are complaining they are unemployed.

I am the only man in the country not allowed to give his name to his children.

I reckon I've done my bit. I want to enjoy myself a bit now, with less responsibility, less frantic rushing about, less preparation, less trying to think of something to say.

I can't remember names and things.

All these other creatures have an equal right to exist here. We have no prior rights to the Earth than anybody else, and if they're here, let's give them a chance to survive.

In the first years of the Queen's reign, the level of adulation - you wouldn't believe it. You really wouldn't.

I had been playing polo, and I decided to give up at the age of 50.

It's much better to go when you are still capable than wait until people say you're so doddery it's time you went.

I didn't want to be president of the World Wildlife Fund. I was asked to do it. I'd much rather have stayed in the navy, frankly.

A gun is no more dangerous than a cricket bat in the hands of a madman.

Occasionally I get fed up, going to visit a factory, when I am being shown around by the chairman, who clearly hasn't got a clue, and I try to get hold of the factory manager, but I can't because the chairman wants to make sure he's the one in all the photographs.

Everything that wasn't invented by God is invented by an engineer.

It would have been very easy to play to the gallery, but I took a conscious decision not to do that. Safer not to be too popular. You can't fall too far.

Everyone has to have a sense of duty. A duty to society, to their family. I mean, you name it.

We don't come to Canada for our health. We can think of other ways of enjoying ourselves.

I must confess that I am interested in leisure in the same way that a poor man is interested in money.

I've never been noticeably reticent about talking on subjects about which I know nothing.

Human population growth is probably the single most serious long-term threat to survival. We're in for a major disaster if it isn't curbed...We have no option. If it isn't controlled voluntarily, it will be controlled involuntarily by an increase in disease, starvation and war.

A few years ago, everybody was saying we must have more leisure, everyone's working too much. Now everybody's got more leisure time they're complaining they're unemployed. People don't seem to make up their minds what they want.

So who's on drugs here?... He looks as if he's on drugs.

Cannibalism is a radical but realistic solution to the problem of overpopulation.

If you travel as much as we do, you appreciate the improvements in aircraft design of less noise and more comfort - provided you don't travel in something called economy class, which sounds ghastly.

Do you still throw spears at each other?

You can't have been here long, you haven't got a pot belly.

If you stay here much longer you'll all be slitty-eyed.

[after accepting a gift from a Kenyan woman] You are a woman, aren't you?

As so often happens, I discover that it would have been better to keep my mouth shut.

That's a nice tie... Do you have any knickers in that material?

I just wonder what it would be like to be reincarnated in an animal whose species had been so reduced in numbers than it was in danger of extinction. What would be its feelings toward the human species whose population explosion had denied it somewhere to exist. I must confess that I am tempted to ask for reincarnation as a particularly deadly virus.

It’s a pleasure to be in a country that isn’t ruled by its people.

I don't care what kind it is, just get me a beer.

If it has got four legs and it is not a chair, if it has got two wings and it flies but is not an aeroplane, and if it swims and it is not a submarine, the Cantonese will eat it.

If it doesn't fart or eat hay, she isn't interested.

British women can't cook.

In the event that I am reincarnated, I would like to return as a deadly virus, in order to contribute something to solve overpopulation.

Change does not change tradition, it strengthens it. Change is a challenge and anopportunity, not a threat.

A horse which stops dead just before a jump and thus propels its rider into a graceful arc provides a splendid excuse for general merriment.

How do you keep the natives off the booze long enough to pass the test?

It's my custom to say something flattering to begin with so I shall be excused if I put my foot in it later on.

Tolerance is the one essential ingredient ... You can take it from me that the Queen has the quality of tolerance in abundance.

People think there's a rigid class system here, but dukes have been known to marry chorus girls. Some have even married Americans.

I would like to go to Russia very much — although the bastards murdered half my family.

Dontopedalogy is the science of opening your mouth and putting your foot in it, which I've practised for many years.

So you are the people tearing down the Brazilian rainforest and breeding cattle.

My favourite subject at school was avoiding unnecessary work.

The bastards murdered half my family.

You're just a silly little Whitehall twit: you don't trust me and I don't trust you.

If I were reincarnated I would wish to be returned to Earth as a killer virus to lower human population levels.

The conservation of nature, the proper care for the human environment and a general concern for the long-term future of the whole of our planet are absolutely vital if future generations are to have a chance to enjoy their existence on this earth.

During the Blitz, a lot of shops had their windows blown in and put up notices saying, 'More open than usual'. I now declare this place more open than usual.