Terry Pratchett Quotes

I shook hands with a friendly Arab. I still have my right arm to prove it.

If you move here from somewhere else, I often think if I move to Germany, for example, or if I move China and I go worship there I will understand and I'll be willing to give up a lot of my culture because I'm in somebody else's homeland. So I'm going to have to act German or Chinese, whatever that might mean.

In addition to the research, I enjoyed learning French and assimilating the culture of another country.

Now it is evident that a little insight into the customs of every people is necessary to insure a kindly communication; this, joined with patience and kindness, will seldom fail with the natives of the interior.

Immigration was a huge force in changing my outlook. I moved to America 30 years ago. I had to reassess my beliefs, especially about women's roles.

Every different social group that I encountered had its different set of rules, so you learn very quickly how to pick up the nuances and change yourself accordingly. When you are not from anywhere, you have to try to find what's universal. You are always trying to fit in.

It's difficult to identify why two cultures will react differently to the same sport.

I got over the whole British eating-with-hands phobia very quickly when I was working with Oxfam in Tanzania.

Cultural differences can be delicate situations we have to work within the respectful boundaries of.

I understand different cultures because I have travelled a lot.

I got to travel to some pretty awesome places, learn other people's customs, and see what works in their world differently than in ours.

We cannot just ape the west. What may be good in an alien country may be unpalatable in India.

I've been to so many parties in England and in America that's exactly like that, where you're kind of, like, seen as Other. When you're just living your life, and you have to adopt the Other in order to understand and navigate the society.

In Russia, as I sat there day after day wearing headphones, listening to the interpreter struggle to make our words relevant, I wondered if we could establish meaningful rapport with a nation that had never seen raisins dance in dark glasses on TV...never had a garage sale.

Muslims, who have a completely different value system, come to the West, then they should accept that there are certain basic values in the West intrinsic to our culture. Just as I wouldn't suggest that any Westerner walk down the streets of Saudi Arabia in a bikini.

The spirit of seeking understanding through personal contact with people of other nations and other cultures deserves the respect and support of all.

You're sort of forced to include this aspect of culture into your life whether it be for social reasons or business purposes.

You have to engage with people who are different from you and try to work with their thinking and their mind. That's a real challenge.

People have compact to go beyond our own culture and upbringing to a degree that I think we don't acknowledge enough really.

I think transcending our cultures is going to be extraordinarily necessary for our survival. I don't think we can carry our cultures through the keyhole of the stretch of the next millennium

Massive immigration brings with it cultures that are sometimes in contradiction with our values.

Many years ago Christian pioneers had to fight savage Indians. Today missionaries of these former cultures are being sent via the public schools to heathenize our children.

Acknowledged differences may create mutual respect, but hazy misunderstandings bring forth nothing but prejudice and rejection.

According to the law of custom, and perhaps of reason, foreign travel completes the education of an English gentleman.

The western nations of Europe, who now so immeasurably surpass their former savage progenitors, and stand at the summit of civilization, owe little or none of their superiority to direct inheritance from the old Greeks, though they owe much to the written works of that wonderful people.