Archive

Quotes

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

—Oscar Wilde, 1887

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

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

—Miriam Makeba, 1988

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

—Tony Blair, 2006

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

—Confucius, c. 500 BC

Such then is the human state, that to wish greatness for one’s country is to wish harm to one’s neighbors.

—Voltaire, 1764

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

Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.

—George W. Bush, 2004

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

—Fyodor Dostoevsky, 1866

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

—L.P. Hartley, 1953

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.

—Francis Bacon, 1625

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

—André Gide, 1927
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