"A man's feet should be planted in his
country, but his eyes should survey the world." George Santayana
"Building a society where different
cultures are welcomed and interaction valued is a difficult task. ...
The trick - difficult, to be sure, but also rewarding - is to hold on to
what is good, yet incorporate what is new." Leonard Pitts, Jr.
"But this idea that some of us are less than the rest of us, that some of us are roaches, vermin, viruses, parasites, infestations, beasts or subhumans to whom one owes no duty of human decency or commiseration, didn't start with the Nazis. It is as old as Cain. As widespread as the common cold.
"Yet we don't learn, never learn. Dead Jews become dead Rwandans become dead Serbs become dead Darfurians, yet still some of us mouth pious hatreds with a smug certitude and offhand arrogance accessible only to the deeply, profoundly and utterly wrong." Leonard Pitts Jr.
"Cultural diversity kicks ass." South Park
"Details of culture, color and sexuality are dangerous because they assume outsized importance in our mental calculus, because they have this ability to shape people's understanding of who one is." Leonard Pitts, Jr.
"Differences are something you live with, not
something you fight about." John Hume
"For those who have seen the Earth
from space, and for the hundreds and perhaps thousands more who will,
the experience most certainly changes your perspective. The things
that we share in our world are far more valuable than those which
divide us." David Williams
"Gay-bashing is the IQ demarcation line if the subzero intellect." Tim Dorsey, Cadillac Beach
"How can we remain silent about
so many kinds of violence perpetuated in the name of faith? Wars of
religion, the courts of of the Inquisition, and other mechanisms whereby
the rights of individuals were violated ... It is necessary that the
Church ... take the initiative in reviewing the darker aspects of
its history, judging them in the light of the principles enunciated
in the Gospels." Pope John Paul II
"Human diversity makes tolerance more
than a virtue; it makes it a requirement for survival." Rene Dubos
"I am glad I stayed in my seat on a Montgomery,
Alabama, bus, Dec. 1, 1955." Rosa Parks, civil rights hero
"I am in the right, and you are in the wrong. When you are the stronger, you ought to tolerate me; for it is your duty to tolerate truth. But when I am the stronger, I shall persecute you; for it is my duty to persecute error." Thomas Babington Macaulay, Critical and Historical Essays
"I don't know who's a Sunni and who's a Shia , and I don't care." Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Mahtoum of Dubai
"I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think
Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians." Ben Stein
"I have never told my own religion nor
scrutinized that of another. I never attempted to make a convert, nor
wished to change another's creed. I am satisfied that yours must be
an excellent religion to have produced a life of such exemplary virtue and
correctness. For it is on our lives, and not from our words, that our
religion must be judged." Thomas Jefferson, letter to Mrs. H.
Harrison
"I wonder why we say that people are of
different 'races.' It seems to me we're all running at the same speed and
heading towards the same destination. the only 'winners' are the ones
who've made the world a better place for having been there!" Lynn Johnston, For Better or Worse
"If we are
to achieve a richer culture, rich in contrasting values, we must
recognize the whole gamut of human potentialities, and so weave a
less arbitrary social fabric, one in which each diverse human gift
will find a fitting place." Margaret Mead
"In the 21st century, there can be no place
for xenophobia, anti-Semitism or other forms of racial or religious intolerance.
This is not only our debt to the millions who died in the gas chambers, it is
our duty to future generations." Vladimir Putin
