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.

No man has any natural authority over his fellow man.

Some of us would be greatly astonished to learn the reasons why others respect us.

Nationalism is an infantile disease, the measles of mankind.

There is no foreign land; it is the traveler only that is foreign.

Once any group in society stands in a relatively deprived position in relation to other groups, it is genuinely deprived.

France has neither winter, summer, nor morals—apart from these drawbacks it is a fine country.

Africa has her mysteries, and even a wise man cannot understand them. But a wise man respects them.

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

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

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

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.

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