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

Let the French but have England, and they won’t want to conquer it.

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.

The misfortune of the man of color is having been enslaved. The misfortune and inhumanity of the white man are having killed man somewhere.

Such then is the human state, that to wish greatness for one’s country is to wish harm to one’s neighbors.

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

If you wish to avoid foreign collision, you had better abandon the ocean.

I do desire we may be better strangers.

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

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.

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

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

There are chance meetings with strangers that interest us from the first moment, before a word is spoken.