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Quotes

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

—Robert Louis Stevenson, 1883

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

—Fyodor Dostoevsky, 1866

When you name yourself, you always name another.

—Bertolt Brecht, 1926

Patriotism is an ephemeral motive that scarcely ever outlasts the particular threat to society that aroused it.

—Denis Diderot, 1774

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

—Marquis de Vauvenargues, 1746

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

—Horace Walpole, 1745

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

—William Hazlitt, 1823

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

—Samuel Johnson, 1751

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

—Confucius, c. 500 BC

Of troubles none is greater than to be robbed of one’s native land.

—Euripides, 431 BC

The misfortune of the man of color is having been enslaved. The misfortune and inhumanity of the white man are having killed man somewhere.

—Frantz Fanon, 1952

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.

—George Mikes, 1946
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