Foreigners Quotes

“There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.”
― Robert Louis Stevenson, The Silverado Squatters

“Best way to live in California is to be from somewheres else.”
― Cormac McCarthy, No Country for Old Men

“We of alien looks or words must stick together.”
― C.J. Sansom, Revelation

“Such then is the human condition, that to wish greatness for one's country is to wish harm to one's neighbors.”
― Voltaire

“If men were equal in America, all these Poles and English and Czechs and blacks, then they were equal everywhere, and there was really no such thing as foreigner; there were only free men and slaves.”
― Michael Shaara, The Killer Angels

“When I was in London in 2008, I spent a couple hours hanging out at a pub with a couple of blokes who were drinking away the afternoon in preparation for going to that evening's Arsenal game/riot. Take away their Cockney accents, and these working-class guys might as well have been a couple of Bubbas gearing up for the Alabama-Auburn game. They were, in a phrase, British rednecks. And this is who soccer fans are, everywhere in the world except among the college-educated American elite. In Rio or Rome, the soccer fan is a Regular José or a Regular Giuseppe. [...] By contrast, if an American is that kind of Regular Joe, he doesn't watch soccer. He watches the NFL or bass fishing tournaments or Ultimate Fighting. In an American context, avid soccer fandom is almost exclusively located among two groups of people (a) foreigners—God bless 'em—and (b) pretentious yuppie snobs. Which is to say, conservatives don't hate soccer because we hate brown people. We hate soccer because we hate liberals.”
― Robert Stacy McCain

“Perhaps, like most of us in a foreign country, he was incapable of placing people, selecting a frame for their picture, as he would at home; therefore all Americans had to be judged in a pretty equal light, and on this basis his companions appeared to be tolerable examples of local color and national character.”
― Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Three Stories

“Books can be the people we never get to meet, ancestors or far neighbors.”
― Elizabeth Knox, The Vintner's Luck

“There is no harm in our criticizing foreigners, if only we would also criticize ourselves. In other words, the world might need even less of its new charity, if it had a little more of the old humility.”
― G.K. Chesterton, What I Saw in America

“Typical white man behavior, Ms. Mori said. Have you ever noticed how a white man can learn a few words of some Asian language and we just eat it up? He could ask for a glass of water and we’d treat him like Einstein. Sonny smiled and wrote that down, too. You’ve been here longer than we have, Ms. Mori, he said with some admiration. Have you noticed that when we Asians speak English, it better be nearly perfect or someone’s going to make fun of our accent? It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been here, Ms. Mori said. White people will always think we’re foreigners. But isn’t there another side to that? I said, my words a little slurred from the cognac in my bloodstream. If we speak perfect English, then Americans trust us. It makes it easier for them to think we’re one of them.”
― Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Sympathizer

“I might have been just half an Asian, but in America it was all or nothing when it came to race. You were either white or you weren’t. Funnily enough, I had never felt inferior because of my race during my foreign student days. I was foreign by definition and therefore was treated as a guest. But now, even though I was a card-carrying American with a driver’s license, Social Security card, and resident alien permit, Violet still considered me as foreign, and this misrecognition punctured the smooth skin of my self-confidence. Was I just being paranoid, that all-American characteristic? Maybe Violet was stricken with colorblindness, the willful inability to distinguish between white and any other color, the only infirmity Americans wished for themselves.”
― Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Sympathizer

“It was easy not to like the other foreigners. I wondered how I'd fallen in with such a band of freaks. There were so many odd, wandering types--a host of bent Australians, warped British, tainted Canadians, tormented runaway Americans. (I considered myself fairly well balanced among this cast, but then look what became of me.) I'd expected it to a certain degree, but I was still surprised. Most of them seemed like misfits. Only a few content. But all of us found teaching work with astounding ease. It didn't matter that, on the whole, we were ragged and suspect because the demand for English in Korea was so great that almost anyone was accepted.”
― Cullen Thomas, Brother One Cell: An American Coming of Age in South Korea's Prisons

“Being with Ken was like being with a permanently foreign friend. It was impossible to understand them, but all you really needed to do was reflect back their own expressions. When Ken looked sad, they looked sad. When he looked happy, they smiled. It was actually very relaxing to be around him. Not much was expected.”
― Louise Penny, Bury Your Dead

“I'm the stranger in the foreign land;
The one walking without a brand.
The one with someone deep within.
I want to be the one who doesn't fit in.”
― Cali Willette, Fractures of Gold

“I don't have any problems with foreigners," says Peter. "I don't even know any."

"Well," says the woman with a smile, "not knowing any doesn't stop most people from having problems with them.”
― Marc-Uwe Kling, QualityLand

“Well, I won't call on foreigners," Mary said.

"You can't treat them the same as you'd treat regular people," I said.”
― Shirley Jackson, Just an Ordinary Day: The Uncollected Stories

“Do not oppress the foreigners living in your land. Always, remember that you will be a foreigner when you travel to another land.”
― Lailah Gifty Akita

“Do not oppress foreigners nor the fatherless.”
― Lailah Gifty Akita

“There are foreigners in every nation, this is the beauty of internation community.”
― Lailah Gifty Akita

“Foreigners in every nation are the friends of the earth.”
― Lailah Gifty Akita

“Be friendly towards foreigners.”
― Lailah Gifty Akita

“We are all foreigners on earth. The best we can do is to be friends.”
― Lailah Gifty Akita

“Foreigners are good for any country's economy. But Illegal foreigners are good for politicians or political parties as rented crowd, hitman or to vote for them with illegal documents. Are good for business for cheap labor, fraud and other crimes. Are good for extortion and bribe from Police, soldiers, government officials and border control officials, and are made slaves by other foreigners.”
― De philosopher DJ Kyos

“There was no need to fear new things. Shaking hands with a foreigner didn't make me foreign.”
― Ijen Kim, The Sunset Emperor

“I listened with interest, but thought it too sad a thing that we and the foreigners knew each other only in this way: they came conquering, and we went with apologies forced from our lips.”
― Ijen Kim, The Sunset Emperor

“To my African brother and sisters.
If you manage to go overseas or to other countries.
When you get there .Please don’t ruin it for other Africans .
Don’t say or do things that will make other Africans not be allowed .
Don’t be a curse to other Africans and don’t let other African be cursed because of you.”
― De philosopher DJ Kyos

“So, why do we do it?” I decided at least to try and give the appearance of being in control.
“I don’t know, I swear some of you English men use it to seek me out and be obsessive on my front doorstep. What do you think? Are you going to come knocking on my door?”
“Well, I don’t know. I mean about the assumptions and the bullshit, not the door.” I thought it needed stressing, but immediately realised it was part of her game. “Perhaps it’s some kind of safety thing. If a stranger starts talking to you in the street, you have little by which to judge your safety. Here in a hotel lobby you have some sanctuary, but that doesn’t mean it’s safe. Not every hotel guest is in a foreign land, and I am sure not every Colombian is going to rob you, but I don’t know.”
“It is prejudice, if you ask me,” she spat distastefully.”
― Mel Vil, The Heart Worm

“As I watched the new couple settle into the apartment, I wondered if they, too, would one day take in a stranger in need, continuing the cycle of kindness that had carried us this far.
(From: Those Little Things)”
― Delenda Carthago, Incredible Stories at the Bus Stop: A Flash Fiction Collection on Human Experience

“Indiana,' he said. 'They steal the land from the Indians and leave the name, yes?”
― John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

“It is absolutely necessary to their structure that there should be no contact with foreigners except to a limited extent with war prisoners and colored slaves. Even the official ally of the moment is always regarded with a darkest suspicion. War prisoners apart, the average citizen of Oceania never sets eyes on a citizen of either Eurasia or Eastasia and he is forbidden the knowledge of foreign languages. If he were allowed contact with foreigners, he would discover that they are creatures similar to himself and that most of what has been told about them is lies.”
― Orwell George, 1984