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Quotes

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

—Marcus Aurelius, c. 175

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

—Oscar Wilde, 1887

Do not do unto others as you would that they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same.

—George Bernard Shaw, 1903

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

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

—Terence, 163 BC

Nationalism is an infantile disease, the measles of mankind.

—Albert Einstein, 1929

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

—Marquis de Vauvenargues, 1746

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

—L.P. Hartley, 1953

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

—William Hazlitt, 1823

I want to be the white man’s brother, not his brother-in-law.

—Martin Luther King Jr., 1962

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

—E.B. White, 1958

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

—Samuel Johnson, 1751