Many need no other provocation to enmity than that they find themselves excelled.

The noblest kind of retribution is not to become like your enemy.

The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much.

Your worst enemy cannot harm you as much as your own thoughts, unguarded.

One of the most time-consuming things is to have an enemy.

Of troubles none is greater than to be robbed of one’s native land.

All 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.

If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world, and that his heart is no island cut off from other lands, but a continent that joins to them.

The almost insoluble task is to let neither the power of others, nor our own powerlessness, stupefy us.

Patriotism is an ephemeral motive that scarcely ever outlasts the particular threat to society that aroused it.

A criminal may improve and become a decent member of society. A foreigner cannot improve. Once a foreigner, always a foreigner. There is no way out for him.

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.

Strangers are an endangered species.