To think ill of mankind, and not wish ill to them, is perhaps the highest wisdom and virtue.

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.

I am a man: I consider nothing human alien to me.

Nothing is more narrow-minded than chauvinism or racial hatred. To me all men are equal; there are flatheads everywhere and I despise them all equally.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

At the bottom of enmity between strangers lies indifference.