The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.

I am a man: I consider nothing human alien to me.

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

To need to dominate others is to need others. The commander is dependent.

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

I do desire we may be better strangers.

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

Nothing is more narrow-minded than chauvinism or racial hatred. To me all men are equal; there are flatheads everywhere and I despise them all equally.

“Abroad,” that large home of ruined reputations.

To think ill of mankind, and not wish ill to them, is perhaps the highest wisdom and virtue.

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

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.

When 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.