Quotes about foreigner (1536 quotes, page 16)

“When tariffs are eliminated, consumers pay less for foreign goods. They therefore have more money to spend on other things. Their spending creates more new jobs than those that are lost.”

Mary Ruwart (1949) American scientist and libertarian activist

Source: Short Answers to the Tough Questions: How to Answer the Questions Libertarians Are Often Asked, (2012), p. 183

Money

“[I]f they were negotiating with a foreign country on a matter which might threaten war, it was so far from embarrassing the negotiation, that it would strengthen it, to place ourselves in a position to repel any sudden and unforeseen attack.”

Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (1784–1865) British politician

Speech https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1845/jun/13/maritime-defences#column_524 in the House of Commons in favour of rearmament (13 June 1845)
1840s

War , Country

“Sir, a wise Government in its home policy considers the reasonable wants of the people; in its foreign policy, it is prepared to resist the unjust demands and the unreasonable views of foreign powers.”

Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (1784–1865) British politician

Speech https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1843/jul/28/state-of-the-nation#column_1462 in the House of Commons (28 July 1843)
1840s

Home , People

“Profits, wages and salaries are still determined not by any conditions of national interest or social justice, but by the traditional methods of laisser-faire. Under conditions of full employment, this must result in a continuous inflationary pressure, which undermines the real value of social security and small savings, as well as making our products less competitive in foreign markets and so jeopardising our capacity to maintain the standard of living.”

Richard Crossman (1907–1974) British Member of Parliament

‘Introduction’, New Fabian Essays (1952), pp. 26–27

Making love , Justice

“Buonaparte's foreign policy was force and menace, aided by fraud and corruption. If the fraud was discovered, force and menace succeeded; and in most cases the unfortunate victim did not dare to avow that he perceived the fraud.”

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769–1852) British soldier and statesman

Letter to John Wilson Croker (29 December 1835), quoted in L. J. Jennings (ed.), The Croker Papers: The Correspondence and Diaries of the Late Right Honourable John Wilson Croker, LL.D., F.R.S., Secretary to the Admiralty from 1809 to 1830, Vol. II (1884), p. 288

Fraud

“The foreign policy of England should be to maintain peace, not only for herself but between the powers of the world. This should be her policy, not only because she can have no interest in a change of the state of possession of the several powers...but because she has the most extensive commercial relations depending upon peace with each and all the powers of the world, the interruption of which must be injurious to her prosperity.”

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769–1852) British soldier and statesman

Letter to John Wilson Croker (30 September 1833), quoted in L. J. Jennings (ed.), The Croker Papers: The Correspondence and Diaries of the Late Right Honourable John Wilson Croker, LL.D., F.R.S., Secretary to the Admiralty from 1809 to 1830, Vol. II (1884), p. 218

Peace , Dependency , Relation ships , World

“It is nonsense to say that generalization is foreign to history; history thrives on generalizations.”

Edward Hallett Carr What Is History?

Chap. 3 : History, Science and Morality
What is History? (1961)

History

“Music is of such power and glory that we should be ready to devote to its study as much time as to a foreign language.”

Walter Raymond Spalding (1865–1962) American music pedagogue and author

Music: An Art and a Language (1920), Preface

Study , Time , Music

“I had a lot of friends who worked in foreign embassies so I had the chance to exchange music tapes. That's the way I listened to a lot of rock music at that time”

Cui Jian (1961) Chinese rock musician of Korean descent

"Chinese rock legend sings on" in BBC (25 August 2010) https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-11067241

Chance , Time , Music , Way

“In an era of a global economy, we can't survive without foreign investment. We must change our attitude toward foreign investment. We should welcome it.”

Kim Dae-jung (1924–2009) South Korean politician

"New S. Korea Leader Warns of Hardship" in The Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/kimdaejung/kimdaejung.htm (18 January 1998)

Change

“The theme of displacement is very natural for me. It always comes up in my books because I have been a foreigner all my life and I don’t feel I belong anywhere. I’m an immigrant.”

Isabel Allende (1942) Chilean writer

On how her sense of self remains tied to her native country in “Isabel Allende: 'Few couples survive the death of one child, let alone three'” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/02/isabel-allende-interview-marriage-breakup-the-japanese-lover in The Guardian (2015 Dec 2)

Nature , Books , Life , Feeling

“Speaking English dialogue is not easy for me. I am too lazy to learn English or speak any foreign language, so I am very grateful to my dialogue coach for helping me a lot.”

Jet Li (1963) Chinese martial artist and actor

As quoted in Actor Jet Li Agreed To Star In ‘Mulan’ For His Daughter https://in.news.yahoo.com/actor-jet-li-agreed-star-045050431.html in Yahoo News (September 7, 2020)

Help , Learning

“Because if you were born there to a foreigner, this country will only be the place of your birth, without being your homeland.”

Emer de Vattel book The Law of Nations

The Law of Nations (1758)
Original: (fr) car si vous y etes ne d'un etranger, ce pays sera seulement le lieu de votre naissance, sans etre votre patrie

Country , Birth

“We still have forces that want to turn Baku into Beirut. Foreign forces are at work. We must be careful.”

Ayaz Mutallibov (1938–2022) Soviet politician, then president of Azerbaijan

Source: "Azerbaijani Leader, Restored To Power, Imposes Emergency Rule" in The Washington Post https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:epcCRJyvH3AJ:https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1992/05/15/azerbaijani-leader-restored-to-power-imposes-emergency-rule/c4a5d291-a743-4227-90db-54e0f9739b80/+&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us (15 May 1992)

“It’s always challenging to portray foreign characters in a novel that is told mainly from a Chinese perspective or, you may say, in a Chinese story.”

Geling Yan (1958) Chinese writer and screenwriter

Source: "What War Does to Human Hearts: Interview with Geling Yan" http://www.chinaww2.com/2016/04/30/what-war-does-to-human-hearts-interview-with-geling-yan/ (30 April 2016)

“If the knowledge of foreign languages is particularly useful in our time, that of national languages is a necessity. It is necessary to have them taught to the youth simultaneously, and it is to be desired that their use should become more and more common to all Belgians.”

Leopold II of Belgium (1835–1909) King of the Belgians

Source: J. Steur, Netherlands. Volume 63 Article from 1959. Quoted from J. Vuylsteke, "Flemish Belgium since 1830: Studies and sketches collected by the general board of the Willemsfonds on the occasion of the Jubilee Year 1905", Willemsfonds, 1905, p. 222. https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/_nee003195901_01/_nee003195901_01_0114.php King Leopold II and the Queen are invited by the mayor of Brussels, Karel Buls, to attend the first performance in the renovated Flemish theatre, where he gives a speech in Flemish. This was followed by thunderous applause such as 'Long live our Flemish King!'

Time , Knowledge , Youth

“Our demand for restraint in foreign policy must be stronger than defense contractor lobbyists. Our demand for criminal justice reform must be stronger than the prison-industrial complex.”

Ro Khanna (1976) U.S. Representative from California

Source: Twitter post https://twitter.com/RoKhanna/status/1078674237311860736 (28 December 2018)

Justice

“British influence... is not exercised to impose an uncongenial foreign system upon a reluctant people. It is a force making for the triumph of the simplest ideas of honesty, humanity, and justice, to the value of which Egyptians are just as much alive as anybody else.”

Alfred Milner, 1st Viscount Milner (1854–1925) British statesman and colonial administrator

Source: England in Egypt (1894 ed.), p. 407

People , Idea , Justice , Exercises

“We have to continue to attract foreign direct investment to help generate more fiscal revenue sources.”

Linah Mohohlo (1952–2021) Botswana banker

Source: "In On the Ground Floor" (December 2004)

Help

“Whether it is being just a company or "more than just a company," Google's geopolitical aspirations are firmly enmeshed within the foreign-policy agenda of the world's largest superpower.”

Julian Assange book When Google Met Wikileaks

Source: Julian Assange, "When Google Met Wikileaks" (ORbooks, New York, 2014), p. 46

World

“Oh, rolling round the ocean,
From a far and foreign land,
May suit the common notion
That a sailor's life is grand.
But as for me, I'd sooner be
A roaring here at home
About the rolling, roaring life
Of them that sails the foam.
For the homeward-bounder's chorus,
Which he roars across the foam,
Is all about chucking a sailor's life,
And settling down at home.
Home, home, home,
That's the song of them that roam,
The song of the roaring, rolling sea
Is all about rolling home.”

Norman Lindsay book The Magic Pudding

The Salt Junk Sarah
The Magic Pudding (1918)

Home , Sea , Life

“I would like everyone to understand that the Church in this society is not a foreign element but a profoundly domestic reality that truly wants the good for each person. We hope to find agreement and a suitable response from the other side.”

Josip Mrzljak (1944) Croatian Roman Catholic bishop

Source: Josip Mrzljak Appointed as the New Bishop of Varaždin https://ika.hkm.hr/english/josip-mrzljak-appointed-as-the-new-bishop-of-varazdin/ (2007)

Personality , Understanding , Hope , Reality

“I want to create new educational and work opportunities for young professionals in our country. I want them to gain experience and to become educated and trained to be owners and managers of all sectors of our society. While, at this time, we must rely on foreign know-how in the oil and gas sectors, the ground must be readied now for young Guyanese to assume those positions, regardless of their race, color or creed.”

Irfaan Ali (1980) President of Guyana

Source: Irfaan Ali (2022) cited in: " President pledges more oil and gas scholarships https://www.stabroeknews.com/2022/01/01/news/guyana/president-pledges-more-oil-and-gas-scholarships/" in Stabroek News, 1 January 2022.

Training , Education , Time , Country

“Nothing can astonish me more than that any one should accuse me of all people of loving foreign fashions, whom I owne rather incline too much to the John Bull, and am apt to despise what I am not accustom'd to.”

George III of the United Kingdom (1738–1820) King of Great Britain and King of Ireland

Source: Letter to the Earl of Bute (c. 1761–1762), quoted in Letters from George III to Lord Bute, 1756–1766, ed. Romney Sedgwick (1939), p. 77

People , Fashion , Love

“"You must tell them that there must be a new union or there will be chaos," he [Shevardnadze] implored me. That evening, when I hosted republic leaders for dinner — a mixed group of presidents, prime ministers, and foreign ministers — I saw around the table and in the conversation a microcosm of the post-coup Soviet Union’s potential — and its problems. Whatever euphoria that they felt with their post-putsch independence declarations had given way to a marked degree of realism. "Independence sounds nice, but we have to live, and we have to be practical," observed the Prime Minister of Moldova, Valeriu Muravsky. That was the persistent theme that I heard from every one of the republic leaders, with the sole exception of the Georgian Prime Minister, Vissarion Gugushvili, though even he spoke of the need for economic cooperation once Georgian independence was recognized internationally.”

James Baker (1930) Former U.S. Secretary of State

The Politics of Diplomacy: Revolution, War and Peace 1989-1992 (1995) by James Addison Baker, p. 531
1990s

Problem , Way

“To taste God’s air, the adrenaline rush on track, thousands of people all eyes on me, fans chanting a name not friendly to a foreign tongue, ‘It’s Amantle Moncho from Botswana!”

Amantle Montsho (1983) Motswana sprinter

https://southerntimesafrica.com/amantle-montsho-hangs-up-her-spikes/ Amantle Montsho hangs up her spikes, The Southern Times, 24 October 2021, Retrieved 16 November 2021
"Simply the Greatest" (2020)

God , People

“Freedom can never be found by the use of a foreign force.”

Maximilien Robespierre (1758–1794) French revolutionary lawyer and politician

Opposing the annexation of Belgium, 5th February 1793. Robespierre, Oeuvres, v. 270
Misc Quotes

Freedom

“We cannot realize financial reconstruction and enhance social security without a strong economy. It’s impossible to pursue foreign and security policy based on our stance without a strong economy.”

Yoshihide Suga (1948) 99th Prime Minister of Japan

Use 2020 Olympics to lift economy, Suga urges execs, Masaaki, Kameda, Japan Times, November 4, 2013 https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/11/04/business/use-2020-olympics-to-lift-economy-suga-urges-execs/,

Strong

“Our cause is just. Our union is perfect. Our internal resources are great, and, if necessary, foreign assistance is undoubtedly attainable.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

We gratefully acknowledge, as signal instances of the Divine favour towards us, that his Providence would not permit us to be called into this severe controversy, until we were grown up to our present strength, had been previously exercised in warlike operation, and possessed of the means of defending ourselves. With hearts fortified with these animating reflections, we most solemnly, before God and the world, declare that, exerting the utmost energy of those powers, which our beneficent Creator hath graciously bestowed upon us, the arms we have been compelled by our enemies to assume, we will, in defiance of every hazard, with unabating firmness and perseverence, employ for the preservation of our liberties; being with one mind resolved to die freemen rather than to live slaves.
Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms (1775); Jefferson composed the first draft of this document, but the final work was done by John Dickinson, working with his original draft. Full text online http://www.nationalcenter.org/1775DeclarationofArms.html
1770s

Perfection

“No country will allow its legislative structure, parliament or congress to be filled up by treasonists, foreign agents or proxies of foreign forces. The Hong Kong electoral system must therefore be protected from exploitation and from foreign interference.”

John Lee Ka-chiu (1957) Chief Executive-elect of Hong Kong

"Speech by CS at online side event on Hong Kong-related issues during 49th session of United Nations Human Rights Council" https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202203/16/P2022031600619.htm (16 March 2022)

Country

“The main thing for Ukraine today is that the whole other world hears and sees us, and it is important that our war does not become "habitual," so that our victims do not become statistics. That's why I communicate with people through foreign media. Don't get used to our grief!”

Olena Zelenska (1978) Ukrainian architect and screenwriter

The number one target is all of us (2022)

War , People , Communication , World

“People claiming that some fundamental right is foreign to their culture—that stinks no matter who says it, fundamentalists, patriarchs, Leninists, metanats, I don’t care who. They aren’t going to get away with it here, not if I can help it.”

Kim Stanley Robinson (1952) American science fiction writer

Source: Blue Mars (1996), Chapter 3, “A New Constitution” (pp. 128-129)

People , Help

“I would prefer fighting foreign fighters to show the true power of Lethwei against other martial arts.”

Dave Leduc (1991) Canadian Lethwei fighter (born 1991)

As quoted by Anadolu Agency https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/ethnic-muslim-fighter-eyes-myanmar-s-kickboxing-crown/1325639 (November 30, 2018)
On Lethwei

Art , Fight

“Cultural products which present foreign wars as the heroic effort of a master race to ennoble mankind are, to the degree they are successful as art, objectively in the interests of imperialists, who are people who make foreign wars against other races for profit.”

Meredith Tax (1942) American writer

Source: "Culture is not Neutral, Whom Does it Serve?" (1972), p. 15

War , People , Success , Art