Archive

Quotes

I have said this before, but I shall say it again and again and again: your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars.

—Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1940

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

—Marquis de Vauvenargues, 1746

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

—Robert Louis Stevenson, 1883

Let the French but have England, and they won’t want to conquer it.

—Horace Walpole, 1745

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

—Marcus Aurelius, c. 175

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

—Samuel Johnson, 1751

When 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, 1984

All 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. 1655

To need to dominate others is to need others. The commander is dependent.

—Fernando Pessoa, c. 1935

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.

—Hebrews, c. 60

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.

—Francis Grose, 1787

Children are all foreigners. We treat them as such.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1839
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