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Quotes

Children are all foreigners. We treat them as such.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1839

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

—Hebrews, c. 60

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.

—Joseph Conrad, 1899

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

—Samuel Johnson, 1751

All of life is a foreign country.

—Jack Kerouac, 1949

We have really everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, language.

—Oscar Wilde, 1887

No nation is fit to sit in judgment upon any other nation.

—Woodrow Wilson, 1915

At the bottom of enmity between strangers lies indifference.

—Søren Kierkegaard, 1850

Who sees all beings in his own self, and his own self in all beings, loses all fear.

—The Upanishads, c. 800 BC

Other nations use “force”; we Britons alone use “might.”

—Evelyn Waugh, 1938

I do desire we may be better strangers.

—William Shakespeare, 1600

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

—The Dhammapada, c. 400 BC

Strangers are an endangered species.

—Adrienne Rich, 1980