Africa has her mysteries, and even a wise man cannot understand them. But a wise man respects them.
—Miriam Makeba, 1988Quotes
Other nations use “force”; we Britons alone use “might.”
—Evelyn Waugh, 1938Intolerance is evidence of impotence.
—Aleister Crowley, c. 1925When 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 almost insoluble task is to let neither the power of others, nor our own powerlessness, stupefy us.
—Theodor Adorno, 1951“Abroad,” that large home of ruined reputations.
—George Eliot, 1866Nationalism is an infantile disease, the measles of mankind.
—Albert Einstein, 1929There are chance meetings with strangers that interest us from the first moment, before a word is spoken.
—Fyodor Dostoevsky, 1866Do not do unto others as you would that they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same.
—George Bernard Shaw, 1903In 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.
—Francis Grose, 1787Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.
—George W. Bush, 2004Nothing 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, 1909Many need no other provocation to enmity than that they find themselves excelled.
—Samuel Johnson, 1751