"In the early 1940s, as a young teenager, I was utterly appalled by the racist and jingoist hysteria of the anti-Japanese propaganda. The Germans were evil, but treated with some respect: They were, after all, blond Aryan types, just like our imaginary self-image. Japanese were mere vermin, to be crushed like ants."

History, Racism, War, Propaganda, Ignorance

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"In the early 1940s, as a young teenager, I was utterly appalled by the racist and jingoist hysteria of the anti-Japanese propaganda. The Germans were evil, but treated with some respect: They were, after all, blond Aryan types, just like our imaginary self-image. Japanese were mere vermin, to be crushed like ants."

Exlpore more History quotes

"Dr. Rex Curry, the professor and attorney from Florida, has debated and largely proven the unavoidable evidence that Hitler's National Socialism was significantly influenced by Bellamy's 'nationalistic' form of 'socialism.' Curry is famous for making the claim that Hitler adopted the 'stiff-arm salute' from Francis and Edward Bellamy."

A.E. Samaan, American Author

History, Ideology, Influence, Politics

"If we could read the secret history of our enemies we should find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility."

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, American Poet

History, Life, Enemies, Man

"I found myself thinking about President William McKinley, the third American president to be assassinated. He lived for several days after he was shot, and toward the end, his wife started crying and screaming, "I want to go, too! I want to go, too!" And with his last measure of strength, McKinley turned to her and spoke his last words: "We are all going."

John Green, American Author

History, Assassination, Death, Suffering

"They say that Caliph Omar, when consulted about what had to be done with the library of Alexandria, answered as follows: 'If the books of this library contain matters opposed to the Koran, they are bad and must be burned. If they contain only the doctrine of the Koran, burn them anyway, for they are superfluous.' Our learned men have cited this reasoning as the height of absurdity. However, suppose Gregory the Great was there instead of Omar and the Gospel instead of the Koran. The library would still have been burned, and that might well have been the finest moment in the life of this illustrious pontiff."

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Swiss Philosopher

History, Knowledge, Books, Observation

"According to Adam One, the Fall of Man was multidimensional. The ancestral primates fell out of the trees; then they fell from vegetarianism into meat-eating. Then they fell from instinct into reason, and thus into technology; from simple signals into complex grammar, and thus into humanity; from firelessness into fire, and thence into weaponry; and from seasonal mating into an incessant sexual twitching. Then they fell from a joyous life in the moment into the anxious contemplation of the vanished past and the distant future."

Margaret Atwood, Canadian Novelist

History, Evolution, Humanity, Instinct, Change

"This land on which so many centuries have left their mark is merely an obligatory retreat for you, whereas it has always been our dearest hope. Your too sudden passion is made up of spite and necessity."

Albert Camus, French Philosopher

History, Land, Hope, Passion, Necessity

"Our evolution depends on our memory. If we keep forgetting the mistakes of the past, only to keep repeating them, then we will never change. Humanity will never move forward, spiritually or morally, to become superior beings."

Suzy Kassem, American Writer

History, Memory, Learning, Change

"In the legal respect, after the execution of the supposed incendiaries, the other half of Moscow burned down."

Leo Tolstoy, Russian Novelist

History, Execution, Fire, Destruction

"Up to 90% of all inventions of the world comes from the Protestant world."

Sunday Adelaja, Nigerian Author

History, Invention, Protestant, Innovation

"And out of that hopeless attempt has come nearly all that we call human history-money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery-the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy."

C. S. Lewis, British Author

History, Humanity, Ambition, Conflict

Explore more quotes by Noam Chomsky

"I have often thought that if a rational Fascist dictatorship were to exist, then it would choose the American system."

Thought

"Actually, Bush, technically speaking, is not really President-because he refused to take the Oath of Office. I don't know how many of you noticed this, but the wording of the Oath of Office is written in the Constitution, so you can't fool around with it-and Bush refused to read it. The Oath of Office says something about, I promise to do this, that, and the other thing, and Bush added the words, so help me God. Well, that's illegal: he's not President, if anybody cares."

Politics

"Unlimited economic growth has the marvelous quality of stilling discontent while maintaining privilege, a fact that has not gone unnoticed among liberal economists."

Quality

"Any dictator would admire the uniformity and obedience of the U.S. media."

Media

"It's not radical Islam that worries the US -- it's independence."

Politics

"Our only real hope for democracy is that we get the money out of politics entirely and establish a system of publicly funded elections."

Politics

"The number of people killed by the sanctions in Iraq is greater than the total number of people killed by all weapons of mass destruction in all of history."

Consequence

"You never need an argument against the use of violence, you need an argument for it."

Argument

"The debt is being cynically exploited by the far right, with collusion of the Democrat establishment, to undermine what remains of social programs, public education, unions, and, in general, remaining barriers to corporate tyranny."

Politics

"States are not moral agents, people are, and can impose moral standards on powerful institutions."

People