Eddie Izzard Quotes

I cannot see anything but disaster in delaying to let the natives know that if the English government is non—aggressive it is so from a sense of justice, and from no want of power.

Imperialism dies hard, especially when there are people making money.

There is no nation on earth that wasn’t built on a conquest.

The history of an oppressed people is hidden in the lies and the agreed-upon myth of its conquerors.

The white man expelled the Indian, took his possessions, developed the unexplored resources, and now he devotes a portion of his accumulations to establish institutions where the red man learn the secret and method of his power.

When the Missionaries arrived, the Africans had the Land and the Missionaries had the Bible. They taught us how to pray with our eyes closed. When we opened them, they had the land and we had the Bible.

When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said "Let us pray." We closed our eyes. When we opened them, we had the Bible and they had the land.

The great powers claim that whatever they possess is theirs by right, but whatever we, the smaller countries possess is negotiable.

It was not through democratic methods that Britain bagged India.

There has been in England a gradual and progressive system of assuming the management of affairs entirely and exclusively proper to Scotland, as if we were totally unworthy of having the management of our own concerns.

Hawaii is ours. As I look back upon the first steps in this miserable business and as I contemplate the outrage, I am ashamed of the whole affair.

White men come in like a river. They told us that they only wanted a little land. But we knew better.

Advocating the expansion of the powers of the state is treason to mankind

The United States is a monster that would like to devour all the weak nations, particularly the Muslim countries, in order to establish its hegemony

The ancients, by their system of colonization, made themselves friends all over the known world; the moderns have sought to make subjects, and therefore have made enemies.

Exploitation and oppression is not a matter of race. It is the system, the apparatus of world-wide brigandage called imperialism, which made the Powers behave the way they did. I have no illusions on this score, nor do I believe that any Asian nation or African nation, in the same state of dominance, and with the same system of colonial profit-amassing and plunder, would have behaved otherwise.

While [European] national cultures were concocted to distinguish one economic unit of capital from another, civilizational thinking was invented to unify these cultures against their colonial consequences. Islamic, Indian, or African civilizations were invented contrapuntally by Orientalism…in order to match, balance and thus authenticate ‘Western Civilization’.

Those Oriental people work like dogs. They work their hearts out. They are workers non-stop. They sleep beside their machines. That's why they're successful in life. I went to Seoul, South Korea, I went to Taipei, Taiwan. I went to Tokyo, Japan. That's why these people are so hard workers (sic). I'm telling you, the Oriental people, they're slowly taking over

Colonies ought to be Emunctories or Sinkes of States; to drayne away the filth.

Colonialism is the cousin of slavery.

It's the oldest story in human existence. We've colonized someone or been colonized throughout human history. It's amazing how fast we comply and try to get a life out of that.

If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans.

Gauguin is creepy - let's just face it. He goes off into the Pacific, and he's looking at these young girls, and the colonial gaze: It's just really problematic.

Being a foreigner - especially a white and relatively wealthy one - in poor, underdeveloped countries is inherently fraught.

Thankfully, the time where you buy and sell other countries and populations is over.