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Quotes

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.

—Karl Kraus, 1909

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

—The Upanishads, c. 800 BC

Nationalism is an infantile disease, the measles of mankind.

—Albert Einstein, 1929

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

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

—Euripides, 431 BC

It’s good to remember that in crises, natural crises, human beings forget for a while their ignorances, their biases, their prejudices. For a little while, neighbors help neighbors and strangers help strangers.

—Maya Angelou, 2011

I 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

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

—Henry Clay, 1812

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.

—Desmond Tutu, 1984

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

—Evelyn Waugh, 1938

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

—Voltaire, 1764

No man has any natural authority over his fellow man.

—Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1762

Strangers are an endangered species.

—Adrienne Rich, 1980