The junior senator from Wisconsin, by his reckless charges, has so preyed upon the fears and hatreds and prejudices of the American people that he has started a prairie fire which neither he nor anyone else may be able to control.
—J. William Fulbright (1905–95) American Political leader, Politician
It is just as impossible to help reform by conciliating prejudice as it is by buying votes. Prejudice is the enemy. Whoever is not for you is against you.
—John Jay Chapman (1862–1933) American Biographer, Poet, Essayist, Writer
We can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavoring to stifle is a false opinion; and even if we were sure, stifling it would be an evil still.
—John Stuart Mill (1806–73) English Philosopher, Economist
Much of our ignorance is of ourselves. Our eyes are full of dust. Prejudice blinds us.
—Abraham Cowley (1618–67) English Poet, Essayist
The only justification for repressive institutions is material and cultural deficit. But such institutions, at certain stages of history, perpetuate and produce such a deficit, and even threaten human survival.
—Noam Chomsky (b.1928) American Linguist, Social Critic
The prejudices of ignorance are more easily removed than the prejudices of interest; the first are all blindly adopted, the second willfully preferred.
—George Bancroft (1800–91) American Historian, Politician
If you judge people, you have no time to love them.
—Mother Teresa (1910–97) Roman Catholic Missionary, Nun
Our prejudices are like physical infirmities – we cannot do what they prevent us from doing.
—John Lancaster Spalding (1840–1916) American Catholic Clergyman, Educator, Essayist, Biographer
You can’t shake hands with a clenched fist.
—Indira Gandhi (1917–84) Indian Head of State
Ignorance is less remote from the truth than prejudice.
—Denis Diderot (1713–84) French Philosopher, Writer
One can only give an unbiased opinion about things that do not interest one, which is no doubt the reason an unbiased opinion is always valueless. The man who sees both sides of a question is a man who sees absolutely nothing.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
Passion and prejudice govern the world, only under the name of reason.
—John Wesley (1703–91) British Methodist Religious Leader, Preacher, Theologian
Prejudice is a great time saver. You can form opinions without having to get the facts.
—E. B. White (1985–99) American Essayist, Humorist
Wisdom has never made a bigot, but learning has.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw) (1818–85) American Humorist, Author, Lecturer
Education is a method whereby one acquires a higher grade of prejudices.
—Laurence J. Peter (1919–90) Canadian-born American Educator, Author
Bigotry tries to keep truth safe in its hand; with a grip that kills it.
—Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) Bengali Poet, Polymath
Prejudice is a great timesaver. It enables you to form opinions without bothering to get facts.
—Unknown
Some prejudices are to the mind what the atmosphere is to the body; we cannot feel without the one, nor breathe without the other.
—George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick (1746–1816) British Nobleman, Politician
Let us have but one end in view, the welfare of humanity; and let us put aside all selfishness in consideration of language, nationality, or religion.
—John Amos Comenius (1592–1670) Czech Educationalist
Bigotry is the sacred disease.
—Heraclitus (535BCE–475BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher
Prejudice, which sees what it pleases, cannot see what is plain.
—Aubrey Thomas de Vere (1814–1902) Irish Poet, Critic
I think there’s just one kind of folks. Folks.
—Harper Lee (1926–2016) American Novelist
The confirmed prejudices of a thoughtful life, are as hard to change as the confirmed habits of an indolent life: and as some must trifle away age, because they trifled away youth, others must labor on in a maze of error, because they have wandered there too long to find their way out.
—Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke (1678–1751) English Politician, Philosopher
A man must be both stupid and uncharitable who believes there is no virtue or truth but on his own side.
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English Essayist, Poet, Playwright, Politician
We are each burdened with prejudice; against the poor or the rich, the smart or the slow, the gaunt or the obese. It is natural to develop prejudices. It is noble to rise above them.
—Unknown
Human nature is so constituted, that all see, and judge better, in the affairs of other men, than in their own.
—Terence (c.195–159 BCE) Roman Comic Dramatist
The one and only formative power given to man Is thought. By his thinking he not only makes character, but body and affairs, for “as he thinketh within himself, so is he.” Prejudice is a mist, which in our journey through the world often dims the brightest and obscures the best of all the good and glorious objects that meet us on our way.
—Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury (1621–83) British Statesman
Yes great people are always subject to persecution and always getting into straits.
—Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) German Poet, Dramatist
Ignorance is stubborn and prejudice is hard.
—Adlai Stevenson (1900–65) American Diplomat, Politician, Orator
All looks yellow to the jaundiced eye.
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744) English Poet
Bigot, one who is obstinately and zealously attached to an opinion that you do not entertain.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
When we believe ourselves in possession of the only truth, we are likely to be indifferent to common everyday truths.
—Eric Hoffer (1902–83) American Philosopher, Author
Instead of casting away our old prejudices, we cherish them to a very considerable degree, and, more shame to ourselves, we cherish them because they are prejudices; and the longer they have lasted the more we cherish them. We are afraid to put men to live and trade each on his own private stock of reason because we suspect that in this stock each man is small, and that the individuals would do better to avail themseive of the general bank and capital of nations and of ages.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
To divest one’s self of some prejudices, would be like taking off the skin to feel the better.
—George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick (1746–1816) British Nobleman, Politician
He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that.
—John Stuart Mill (1806–73) English Philosopher, Economist
Criticism is prejudice made plausible.
—H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American Journalist, Literary Critic
It is harder to crack a prejudice than an atom.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
There is no tariff so injurious as that with which sectarian bigotry guards its commodities.—It dwarfs the soul by shutting out truths from other continents of thought, and checks the circulation of its own.
—Edwin Hubbell Chapin (1814–80) American Preacher, Poet
Nobody outside of a baby carriage or a judge’s chamber believes in an unprejudiced point of view.
—Lillian Hellman (1905–84) American Playwright, Dramatist, Memoirist
America owes most of its social prejudices to the exaggerated religious opinions of the different sects which were so instrumental in establishing the colonies.
—James Fenimore Cooper (1789–1851) American Novelist
Two things reduce prejudice: education and laughter.
—Laurence J. Peter (1919–90) Canadian-born American Educator, Author
Never suffer the prejudice of the eye to determine the heart.
—Johann Georg Ritter von Zimmermann (1728–1795) Swiss Philosophical Writer, Naturalist, Physician
Prejudices are the chains forged by ignorance to keep men apart.
—Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington (1789–1849) Irish Novelist, Writer
Prejudices are the principles of people we dislike.
—Dero A. Saunders (1914–2002) American Journalist, Scholar
In overcoming prejudice, working together is even more effective than talking together.
—Ralph Washington Sockman (1889–1970) American United Methodist Pastor
Prejudices are so to speak the mechanical instincts of men: through their prejudices they do without any effort many things they would find too difficult to think through to the point of resolving to do them.
—Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–99) German Philosopher, Physicist
Prejudices are rarely overcome by argument; not being founded in reason they cannot be destroyed by logic.
—Tryon Edwards American Theologian
All colors will agree in the dark.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
Morality is simply the attitude we adopt toward people whom we personally dislike.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright