“All relationships of people to each other rest, as a matter of course, upon the precondition that they know something about each other. The merchant knows that his correspondent wants to buy at the lowest price and to sell at the highest price. The teacher knows that he may credit to the pupil a certain quality and quantity of information. Within each social stratum the individual knows approximately what measure of culture he has to presuppose in each other individual.”

— Georg Simmel

Source: The Sociology of Secrecy and of Secret Societies (1906), p. 441: First lines of the article.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 21, 2021. History

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Georg Simmel 27

German sociologist, philosopher, and critic 1858–1918

Kenneth E. Boulding (1910–1993) British-American economist

Source: 1940s, Economic Analysis, 1941, p. 42 as cited in: Vernon L. Smith (1991) Papers in Experimental Economics. p. 516

“War: a massacre of people who don't know each other for the profit of people who know each other but don't massacre each other.”

Paul Valéry (1871–1945) French poet, essayist, and philosopher

La guerre, c'est un massacre de gens qui ne se connaissent pas, au profit de gens qui se connaissent, mais ne se massacrent pas.
Bizarre, issues 24-31 (1962), p. 102
This apocryphal quote from Paul Valéry is never precisely sourced: neither on the internet nor in the works we have consulted. See: https://www.guichetdusavoir.org/question/voir/52650

“That’s how it goes within a family. You think you know each other so well, and so you don’t bother hardly getting to know each other at all.”

Orson Scott Card (1951) American science fiction novelist

Source: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Prentice Alvin (1989), Chapter 2.

“Men often hate each other because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don't know each other; they don't know each other because they can not communicate; they can not communicate because they are separated.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

In reference to the Alabama Council on Human Relations, an organization which was joined by King, whose church's meeting room was used to hold monthly meetings for the Montgomery chapter the council. Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story (1958)
1950s
Context: Although the Montgomery council never had a large membership, it played an important role. As the only truly interracial group in Montgomery, it served to keep the desperately needed channels of communication open between the races.
Men often hate each other because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don't know each other; they don't know each other because they can not communicate; they can not communicate because they are separated. In providing an avenue of communication, the council was fulfilling a necessary condition for better race relations in the South.

“No matter in what land we may dwell the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ makes us brothers and sisters, interested in each other, eager to understand and know each other.”

Heber J. Grant (1856–1945) President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Grant (1932) "Christmas Greetings from the First Presidency," Improvement Era Dec. 1932, 67.; Cited in " Heber J. Grant, Served 1918–1945 http://www.lds.org/churchhistory/presidents/controllers/potcController.jsp?leader=7&topic=quotes" on ids.org

“It is a lie that people who love each other must know everything about each other. Love must occasionally allow for a gap.”

Gabrielle Zevin (1977) American writer

Source: Margarettown

“It is very well to say "be prudent, be careful, try to know each other." But how are you to know each other?”

Florence Nightingale (1820–1910) English social reformer and statistician, and the founder of modern nursing

Cassandra (1860)
Context: It is very well to say "be prudent, be careful, try to know each other." But how are you to know each other?
Unless a woman had lost all pride, how is it possible for her, under the eyes of all her family, to indulge in long exclusive conversations with a man? "Such a thing" must not take place till after her "engagement." And how is she to make an engagement, if "such a thing" has not taken place?

“Paul and I know each other on a lot of different levels that very few people know about.”

John Lennon (1940–1980) English singer and songwriter

“If machines knew as much about each other as we know about each other (even in our privacy), the ecology of machines would be indomitable.”

Kevin Kelly (1952) American author and editor

Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems and the Economic World (1995)

“They bend to each other, you know, its not like they like fuckin', beat each other over the head, its like 'oh, hear I come; wenenenenenen or chachachachacha' you know, they bend to each other, and they compromise, you know. And it makes for a good guitar relationship I suppose, you know. So Willie brings in the riff, and hes like 'jejejejeje', and Mark is like 'Oh, psh, wenenenenenen', and like, and you can see it happen dude, physically see it happen, like, they're melding, like Vulcans or something, like 'mind melding', I don't know, you know. I've learned a lot about music from watching those guys, by how different they are, and how they complement each other.”

Randy Blythe (1971) American musician

On the writing process of Mark Morton and Wille Adler, the guitarists of Lamb of God.
Making of Sacrament DVD

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