There are chance meetings with strangers that interest us from the first moment, before a word is spoken.

When you name yourself, you always name another.

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.

A criminal may improve and become a decent member of society. A foreigner cannot improve. Once a foreigner, always a foreigner. There is no way out for him.

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.

If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world, and that his heart is no island cut off from other lands, but a continent that joins to them.

All of life is a foreign country.

By nature, men are nearly alike; by practice, they get to be wide apart.

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

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

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

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