Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes

The most violent element in society is ignorance.

I was never concretely aware of the extent of anti-Semitism in the United States and in the upper levels of the State Department.

Bigotry murders religion to frighten fools with her ghost.

Any deviation is looked upon as a perversion, is feared, and is usually a target of hatred and prejudice.

There are weapons that are simply thoughts. For the record, prejudices can kill and suspicion can destroy.

It is not our sexual preferences, the color of our skin, the language we speak, nor the religion we practice that creates friction, hatred and wars amongst in society. It is our words and the words of our leaders that can create that disparity.

The roots of homophobia are fear. Fear and more fear.

I think in our society we too often choose the people we associate with based on our own hasty judgments.

There is again a rising fever and anger towards those seen as different.

The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosives and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices, to be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill, and suspicion can destroy. And a thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all of its own

Ignorance breeds fear and hatred.

Sometimes, unfortunately, hatred is more powerful than progress.

Everybody's scared for their ass. There aren't too many people ready to die for racism. They'll kill for racism but they won't die for racism.

Racism springs from the lie that certain human beings are less than fully human. It's a self-centered falsehood that corrupts our minds into believing we are right to treat others as we would not want to be treated.

Somebody called me a homophobe. I'm not homophobic.

Prejudice is a raft onto which the shipwrecked mind clambers and paddles to safety.

No corner of the world is free from group scorn.

It is what people do not know that they persecute each other about.

There will always be those people who are just backward and ignorant. There will always be those people. They need somebody to feel superior to.

Extremists and populist movements are exploiting people's fear of those who are not like us. We can see the consequences in the form of terrorism and racially motivated violence.

Well, fear and homophobia are both pervasive.

Evil is the shadow of angel. Just as there are angels of light, support, guidance, healing and defense, so we have experiences of shadow angels. And we have names for them: racism, sexism, homophobia are all demons - but they're not out there.

There is nothing more dangerous than the conscience of a bigot.

People have evolved into something selfish, greedy and intolerant. People are unaccepting, because of religion, race, gender, sexual orientation... I've seen it in punk clubs, and I've seen it in the world.

Hate and mistrust are the children of blindness.