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.

Once any group in society stands in a relatively deprived position in relation to other groups, it is genuinely deprived.

Other nations use “force”; we Britons alone use “might.”

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

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

When you name yourself, you always name another.

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.

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

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

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.

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

One of the most time-consuming things is to have an enemy.