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.

When you name yourself, you always name another.

This is not a clash between civilizations. It is a clash about civilization.

The less intelligent the white man is, the more stupid he thinks the black.

Nationalism is an infantile disease, the measles of mankind.

Who sees all beings in his own self, and his own self in all beings, loses all fear.

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

France has neither winter, summer, nor morals—apart from these drawbacks it is a fine country.

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.

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.

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

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.