Other nations use “force”; we Britons alone use “might.”
—Evelyn Waugh, 1938Quotes
Patriotism is an ephemeral motive that scarcely ever outlasts the particular threat to society that aroused it.
—Denis Diderot, 1774If 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.
—Francis Bacon, 1625When 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, 1984The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.
—L.P. Hartley, 1953At the bottom of enmity between strangers lies indifference.
—Søren Kierkegaard, 1850Once any group in society stands in a relatively deprived position in relation to other groups, it is genuinely deprived.
—Margaret Mead, 1972Such then is the human state, that to wish greatness for one’s country is to wish harm to one’s neighbors.
—Voltaire, 1764The noblest kind of retribution is not to become like your enemy.
—Marcus Aurelius, c. 175I have said this before, but I shall say it again and again and again: your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars.
—Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1940“Abroad,” that large home of ruined reputations.
—George Eliot, 1866When you name yourself, you always name another.
—Bertolt Brecht, 1926France has neither winter, summer, nor morals—apart from these drawbacks it is a fine country.
—Mark Twain, 1879