Quotes about native
page 4

George Holmes Howison photo
Richard Cobden photo
Evelyn Waugh photo
Thomas Browne photo
Steven Curtis Chapman photo
Madison Grant photo
Vladimir Mayakovsky photo

“I want to be understood by my country,
but if I fail to be understood –
what then?,
I shall pass through my native land
to one side,
like a shower
of slanting rain.”

Vladimir Mayakovsky (1893–1930) Russian and Soviet poet, playwright, artist and stage and film actor

"Back Home!", first version (1926); translation from Patricia Blake (ed.) The Bedbug and Selected Poetry (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1975) p. 36

P. W. Botha photo

“I am not against the provision of the necessary medical assistance to Coloured and natives, because, unless they receive that medical aid, they become a source of danger to the European community.”

P. W. Botha (1916–2006) South African prime minister

As cited in Dictionary of South African Quotations, Jennifer Crwys-Williams, Penguin Books 1994, p. 244

Karen Blixen photo
Helen Nearing photo
Noel Coward photo

“The natives grieve
When the white men leave
Their huts.
Because they're obviously,
Definitely
Nuts.”

Noel Coward (1899–1973) English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer

Mad Dogs and Englishmen (1930)

Johannes Tauler photo
David Graeber photo
Ahad Ha'am photo

“We must surely learn, from both our past and present history, how careful we must be not to provoke the anger of the native people by doing them wrong, how we should be cautious in our dealings with a foreign people among whom we returned to live, to handle these people with love and respect and, needless to say, with justice and good judgment. And what do our brothers do? Exactly the opposite! They were slaves in their Diasporas, and suddenly they find themselves with unlimited freedom, wild freedom that only a country like Turkey [the Ottoman Empire] can offer. This sudden change has planted despotic tendencies in their hearts, as always happens to former slaves ['eved ki yimlokh – when a slave becomes king – Proverbs 30:22]. They deal with the Arabs with hostility and cruelty, trespass unjustly, beat them shamefully for no sufficient reason, and even boast about their actions. There is no one to stop the flood and put an end to this despicable and dangerous tendency. Our brothers indeed were right when they said that the Arab only respects he who exhibits bravery and courage. But when these people feel that the law is on their rival's side and, even more so, if they are right to think their rival's actions are unjust and oppressive, then, even if they are silent and endlessly reserved, they keep their anger in their hearts. And these people will be revengeful like no other.”

Ahad Ha'am (1856–1927) Hebrew essayist and thinker

Source: Wrestling with Zion, p. 15.

Pablo Neruda photo

“And you will ask: why doesn't his poetry
speak of dreams and leaves
and the great volcanoes of his native land?Come and see the blood in the streets.
Come and see
the bloods in the streets.
Come and see the blood
in the streets!”

Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) Chilean poet

Preguntaréis ¿por qué su poesía
no nos habla del sueño, de las hojas,
de los grandes volcanes de su país natal?<p>Venid a ver la sangre por las calles,
venid a ver
la sangre por las calles,
venid a ver la sangre
por las calles!
Explico Algunos Cosas (I'm Explaining a Few Things or I Explain a Few Things), Tercera Residencia (Third Residence), IV, stanza 9.
Alternate translation by Donald D. Walsh:
You will ask: why does your poetry
not speak to us of of sleep, of the leaves,
of the great volcanoes of your native land?<p>Come and se the blood in the streets,
come and see
the blood in the streets,
come and see the blood
in the streets!
Residencia en la Tierra (Residence on Earth) (1933)

Mark Steyn photo
George Santayana photo
Aurangzeb photo

“In the month of January, all the Governors and native officers received an order from the great Mughal prohibiting the practice of pagan religion throughout the country and closing down all the temples and sanctuaries of idol worshippers, in the hope that some pagans would embrace the Muslim religion.”

Aurangzeb (1618–1707) Sixth Mughal Emperor

Nicolaas de Graaff, see History of Sikh Gurus Retold: 1606-1708 C.E. https://books.google.com/books?id=vZFBp89UInUC&pg=PA636, p. 636 by Surjit Singh Gandhi; Journal of Indian History: Vol. 56-57, p. 448; Encyclopaedia Indica: Aurangzeb and his administrative measures by Shyam Singh Shashi
Quotes from late medieval histories

Algernon Charles Swinburne photo

“Rhyme is the native condition of lyric verse in English; a rhymeless lyric is a maimed thing.”

Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909) English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic

Essays and Studies (1875), p. 162.

“Even the Revenue is better loved by the twenty first century Irish natives than were the English colonists who ruled from Dublin Castle in earlier centuries.”

Dennis O'Driscoll (1954–2012) Irish poet, critic

'Sing for the Taxman' -Poetry Magazine-Poetry Foundation May 1 2009
Having lived in Ireland all my life I can hardly be more 'Irish', in ways that are invisible to me. My inclination is to play down my Irishness rather than whip it up. Nothing is more potentially damaging to an Irish writer than buying into the myth that we have some locutions and the so called ' gift of the gab' too many Irish writers have fall prey to such delusions.
Interview ,Mark Thwaite, 12th August 2005. 'Ready Steady Book for literature'
Other Quotes

Winston S. Churchill photo
Thomas Browne photo
Adolf Hitler photo

“There is only one duty: to Germanise this country [the East] by the immigration of Germans, and to look upon the natives as Redskins.”

Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) Führer and Reich Chancellor of Germany, Leader of the Nazi Party

Secret conversation October 17, 1941 quoted in World History, Volume 1 pg. 703 https://books.google.com/books?id=J1g7pxIrctQC&pg=PA703&lpg=PA703&dq='There+is+only+one+duty:+to+Germanize+%5B%E2%80%9Cthe+East%E2%80%9D%5D+by+the+immigration+of+Germans,+and+to+look+upon+the+natives+as+Redskins&source=bl&ots=ivCFt6jbTz&sig=NNM68pyr1zvuOQHh98r1XK0XlL0&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwillfzazpTXAhXFyyYKHblIApYQ6AEIMjAC#v=onepage&q='There%20is%20only%20one%20duty%3A%20to%20Germanize%20%5B%E2%80%9Cthe%20East%E2%80%9D%5D%20by%20the%20immigration%20of%20Germans%2C%20and%20to%20look%20upon%20the%20natives%20as%20Redskins&f=false and The Holocaust Encyclopedia https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10008219
1940s

Bouck White photo

“Native oligarchies, living under Rome's protectorate, were moons depending upon their central sun for light.”

Bouck White (1874–1951) American author and novelist

Source: The Call of the Carpenter (1914), p. 10

Owen Lovejoy photo

“No human being, black or white, bond or free, native or foreign, infidel or Christian, ever came to my door, and asked for food and shelter, in the name of a common humanity, or of a pitying Christ, who did not receive it. This I have done. This I mean to do, as long as God lets me live.”

Owen Lovejoy (1811–1864) American politician

As quoted in His Brother's Blood: Speeches and Writings, 1838&ndash;64 https://books.google.com/books?id=qMEv8DNXVbIC&pg=PA178 (2004), edited by William Frederick Moore and Jane Ann Moore, p. 178
1850s, The Fanaticism of the Democratic Party (February 1859)

George Gerbner photo

“In fact, their contempt for the native converts was deeper than that for their Hindu subjects. They had all along looked down upon the native converts as Ajlãf (low-born) and Arzãl (base-born) as compared to the Ashrãf (exalted) which distinctive designation they had reserved for themselves….. It was at this critical juncture that the frustrated fraternity of foreign Muslims took a very strategic step. They started swearing by a solidarity with the native Muslims whom they had despised so far. They let loose on the native Muslims an army of mercenary Mullahs recruited, mostly from their own ranks. These Mullahs went about broadcasting the message that ‘Islam was in danger’, and that ‘Hindus were out to enslave and exploit the Muslim minority’. It was in this manner that the residues of Islamic imperialism managed to ‘merge’ themselves with the native converts, and to present themselves at the head of a strong phalanx pitted against whatever historical forces threatened their unjust privileges. Hitherto, the haughty Ashrãf had stood strictly aloof from the abject Ajlãf and the despised Arzãl. Now all of a sudden the latter became the former’s ‘brothers in faith’. This was a tremendous transformation of the political scene in the second decade of the 20th century. … The British never attached more than a nuisance value to this noisy fraternity which had to be befriended or ignored according to the needs of British policy at any time. It was the national leadership which was impressed by this mobilisation of the ‘Muslim masses’ and the pathos of ‘Muslim plight’. They accepted not only separate electorates but also weightages for the ‘Muslim minority’ in many provinces.”

Sita Ram Goel (1921–2003) Indian activist

Muslim Separatism – Causes and Consequences (1987)

Frances Kellor photo
Democritus photo

“To a wise man, the whole earth is open; for the native land of a good soul is the whole earth.”

Democritus Ancient Greek philosopher, pupil of Leucippus, founder of the atomic theory

Freeman (1948), p. 166
Durant (1939), Ch. XVI, §II, p. 352 (footnote); citing F. Uberweg, History of Philosophy, New York, 1871, vol. 1, p. 71.
Variant: To a wise and good man the whole earth is his fatherland.

James Hudson Taylor photo
Madison Grant photo
John Hoole photo
Salmon P. Chase photo

“True democracy makes no enquiry about the color of skin, or the place of nativity, whereever it sees man, it recognizes a being endowed by his Creator with original inalienable rights.”

Salmon P. Chase (1808–1873) Chief Justice of the United States

Address accepting a testimonial of gratitude from the colored people of Cincinnati for the advocacy in the case of Samuel Watson (February 12, 1845).

George Steiner photo
Percy Bysshe Shelley photo
Noel Coward photo

“In Rangoon
The heat of noon
Is just what the natives shun,
They put their Scotch
Or Rye down
And lie down.”

Noel Coward (1899–1973) English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer

Mad Dogs and Englishmen (1930)

James Thurber photo

“Speed is scarcely the noblest virtue of graphic composition, but it has its curious rewards. There is a sense of getting somewhere fast, which satisfies a native American urge.”

James Thurber (1894–1961) American cartoonist, author, journalist, playwright

Preface to A Thurber Garland (1955)
From other writings

Laurent Clerc photo
Paul Harvey photo
Enoch Powell photo
Abraham Cowley photo
Frances Kellor photo
Frances Kellor photo
Joni Madraiwiwi photo
George Holmes Howison photo
Steve Sailer photo
Francis Xavier photo
Frances Kellor photo

“In these days he promoted a bramin, by name Seeva Dew Bhut, to the office of prime minister, who embracing the Mahomedan faith, became such a persecutor of Hindoos that he induced Sikundur to issue orders proscribing the residence of any other than Mahomedans in Kashmeer; and he required that no man should wear the mark on his forehead, or any woman be permitted to burn with her husband’s corpse. Lastly, he insisted on all golden and silver images being broken and melted down, and the metal coined into money. Many of the bramins, rather than abandon their religion or their country, poisoned themselves; some emigrated from their native homes, while a few escaped the evil of banishment by becoming Mahomedans. After the emigration of the bramins, Sikundur ordered all the temples in Kashmeer to be thrown down; among which was one dedicated to Maha Dew, in the district of Punjhuzara, which they were unable to destroy, in consequence of its foundation being below the surface of the neighbouring water. But the temple dedicated to Jug Dew was levelled with the ground; and on digging into its foundation the earth emitted volumes of fire and smoke which the infidels declared to be the emblem of the wrath of the Deity; but Sikundur, who witnessed the phenomenon, did not desist till the building was entirely razed to the ground, and its foundations dug up….. “In another place in Kashmeer was a temple built by Raja Bulnat, the destruction of which was attended with a remarkable incident. After it had been levelled, and the people were employed in digging the foundation, a copper-plate was discovered, on which was the following inscription:- ‘Raja Bulnat, having built this temple, was desirous of ascertaining from his astrologers how long it would last, and was informed by them, that after eleven hundred years, a king named Sikundur would destroy it, as well as the other temples in Kashmeer’…Having broken all the images in Kashmeer, he acquired the title of the Iconoclast, ‘Destroyer of Idols’…”

Firishta (1560–1620) Indian historian

Sultãn Sikandar Butshikan of Kashmir (AD 1389-1413)Kashmir
Tãrîkh-i-Firishta

Paul Robeson photo
Luther Burbank photo

“A particular characteristic of Britain is that its natives, when travelling abroad, are more splendid in their dress and manner of living, whence they may be distinguished from all other peoples.”
Proprie uero proprium Britanniae est, ut incolae eius in peregrinationem tendentes, omnibus gentibus cultu et sumptu clariores ex hoc unde sint dinosci possint.’’

Book I, §6, pp. 18-21.
Historia Anglorum (The History of the English People)

Margaret Fuller photo
William Foote Whyte photo
Ignatius Sancho photo
Emil Nolde photo
Margaret Mead photo

“[In Western Samoa] native theory and vocabulary recognized the real pervert who was incapable of normal heterosexual response.”

Margaret Mead (1901–1978) American anthropologist

Source: 1920s, Coming of Age in Samoa (1928), p. 147-148

Ken Livingstone photo
Edward VIII of the United Kingdom photo
André Breton photo
P.G. Wodehouse photo
Winston S. Churchill photo
Isaac Watts photo

“I would not change my native land
For rich Peru with all her gold.
A nobler prize lies in my hand
Than East or Western Indies hold.”

Isaac Watts (1674–1748) English hymnwriter, theologian and logician

Song 5, "Praise for Birth and Education in a Christian Land", stanza 3. Cf. Psalms 119:72 (KJV): "The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver."
1710s, Divine Songs Attempted in the Easy Language of Children (1715)

Torquato Tasso photo

“Armida smiles to hear, but keeps her gaze
fixed on herself, love's labours to behold.
Her locks she braided and their wanton ways
in lovely order marshalled and controlled.
She wound the curls of her fine strands with sprays
of flowers, like enamel worked on gold,
and made the stranger rose join with her pale
breast's native lily, and composed her veil.”

Torquato Tasso (1544–1595) Italian poet

Ride Armida a quel dir: ma non che cesse
Dal vagheggiarsi, o da' suoi bei lavori.
Poichè intrecciò le chiome, e che ripresse
Con ordin vago i lor lascivi errori,
Torse in anella i crin minuti, e in esse,
Quasi smalto su l'or, consparse i fiori:
E nel bel sen le peregrine rose
Giunse ai nativi giglj, e 'l vel compose.
Canto XVI, stanza 23 (tr. Wickert)
Gerusalemme Liberata (1581)

George Macaulay Trevelyan photo
Robert T. Bakker photo
Vitruvius photo
Robert Frost photo
Ze'ev Jabotinsky photo
John Ogilby photo
Robert Ardrey photo
Lycurgus photo
Bruce Palmer Jr. photo
Bernard Lewis photo
Andrew Dickson White photo
Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay photo
Eliza Acton photo
Murray Leinster photo

“He’d caused the First Native War on Mars, by taking advantage of the fact that at that time human law had not defined the killing of Martians as murder.”

Murray Leinster (1896–1975) Novelist, short story writer

The Aliens, p. 92 (originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, April 1957).
Short fiction, Anthropological Note (1957)

“A pigeon a day keeps the natives away”

Arthur Ransome (1884–1967) English author and journalist

Pigeon Post Title page and Chapter 4), 1936

“We dissect nature along lines laid down by our native language.”

Benjamin Lee Whorf (1897–1941) American linguist

Source: Language, thought and reality (1956), p. 213.

Cecil Rhodes photo

“We must find new lands from which we can easily obtain raw materials and at the same time exploit the cheap slave labor that is available from the natives of the colonies. The colonies would also provide a dumping ground for the surplus goods produced in our factories.”

Cecil Rhodes (1853–1902) British businessman, mining magnate and politician in South Africa

Teaching a “Racist and Outdated Text”: A Journey into my own Heart of Darkness, Wong, Melody, Western Washington University, 2008-09-20 http://www.wce.wwu.edu/Resources/CEP/eJournal/v003n001/a025.shtml,
[Britten, Sarah, The Art of the South African Insult, 30° South Publishers, 2006, 167, 9781920143053]
Disputed

Joseph Hayne Rainey photo
Frantz Fanon photo
Daniel O'Connell photo

“My days – the blossom of my youth and the flower of my manhood – have been darkened by the dreariness of servitude. In this my native land – in the land of my sires – I am degraded without fault as an alien and an outcast.”

Daniel O'Connell (1775–1847) Irish political leader

July 1812, aged 37, reflecting on the failure to secure equal rights or Catholic Emancipation for Catholics in Ireland. Quoted from Vol I, p. 185, of O'Connell, J. (ed.) The Life and Speeches of Daniel O'Connell, 2 Vols, Dublin, 1846)

William S. Burroughs photo
George Eliot photo
Alexander Pope photo

“Happy the man whose wish and care
A few paternal acres bound,
Content to breathe his native air
In his own ground.”

Alexander Pope (1688–1744) eighteenth century English poet

"Ode on Solitude", st. 1 (c. 1700).

James Fenimore Cooper photo