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, 1899Quotes
Who sees all beings in his own self, and his own self in all beings, loses all fear.
—The Upanishads, c. 800 BCStrangers are an endangered species.
—Adrienne Rich, 1980Intolerance is evidence of impotence.
—Aleister Crowley, c. 1925All 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.
—Blaise Pascal, c. 1655By nature, men are nearly alike; by practice, they get to be wide apart.
—Confucius, c. 500 BCPatriotism is an ephemeral motive that scarcely ever outlasts the particular threat to society that aroused it.
—Denis Diderot, 1774No man has any natural authority over his fellow man.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1762Nationalism is an infantile disease, the measles of mankind.
—Albert Einstein, 1929I do desire we may be better strangers.
—William Shakespeare, 1600We have really everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, language.
—Oscar Wilde, 1887Such then is the human state, that to wish greatness for one’s country is to wish harm to one’s neighbors.
—Voltaire, 1764The less intelligent the white man is, the more stupid he thinks the black.
—André Gide, 1927