“Abroad,” that large home of ruined reputations.
—George Eliot, 1866Quotes
In settling an island, the first building erected by a Spaniard will be a church, by a Frenchman a fort, by a Dutchman a warehouse, and by an Englishman an alehouse.
—Francis Grose, 1787I want to be the white man’s brother, not his brother-in-law.
—Martin Luther King Jr., 1962When the missionaries first came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said, “Let us pray.” We closed our eyes. When we opened them, we had the Bible and they had the land.
—Desmond Tutu, 1984Once any group in society stands in a relatively deprived position in relation to other groups, it is genuinely deprived.
—Margaret Mead, 1972The less intelligent the white man is, the more stupid he thinks the black.
—André Gide, 1927All of life is a foreign country.
—Jack Kerouac, 1949Intolerance is evidence of impotence.
—Aleister Crowley, c. 1925To need to dominate others is to need others. The commander is dependent.
—Fernando Pessoa, c. 1935To think ill of mankind, and not wish ill to them, is perhaps the highest wisdom and virtue.
—William Hazlitt, 1823By nature, men are nearly alike; by practice, they get to be wide apart.
—Confucius, c. 500 BCAll men naturally hate each other. We have used concupiscence as best we can to make it serve the common good, but this is mere sham and a false image of charity, for essentially it is just hate.
—Blaise Pascal, c. 1655If you wish to avoid foreign collision, you had better abandon the ocean.
—Henry Clay, 1812