International Understanding Quotes

Move beyond the educated elite, and the great majority in most countries outside Europe don't speak English.

A good man, though he will value his own countrymen, yet will think as highly of the worthy men of every nation under the sun.

The scorn of our formidable neighbor who does not know us is our America’s greatest danger …. Through ignorance it might even come to lay hands on us. Once it does know us, it will remove it’s hands out of respect.

Baseball was a metaphor for America, both here and in terms of how it was understood by the rest of the world.

The language of football is universal. You don't need to speak the local lingo in order to be able to communicate with a ball.

While we welcome people of all faiths in America we cannot be so naive as to expect all countries to do the same. But we cannot allow their cultural mores to snuff out our religious freedoms or the freedom of women to have equal rights.

I wholeheartedly believe that travel leads to open minds and contributes to a better cultural understanding and acceptance of people from around the world.

I'm a military baby, so I kind of always see the world as one; we just have different colours, and we're from different places in the world.

One of my fondest memories from childhood is of looking at a globe with my father. "What's the biggest country?" he'd ask me and my sister. We'd spin the globe around and guess. . . . The globe brought me a sense of wonder and adventure. I wanted to go to those other places and see how people did things differently. And, many years later, when I did visit other countries, I took my father's interest and fascination with me. When we plant the seeds of fascination and respect for other people, we are teaching tolerance and peace.

Without translation, I would be limited to the borders of my own country. The translator is my most important ally. He introduces me to the world.

A man's feet should be planted in his country, but his eyes should survey the world.

Our artistes should be allowed to go to Pakistan just as we welcome their artistes.

We [the USA] do have a big nation's problem. We have the problem of a nation that's got two oceans, oceans on either side. People come from all across the globe and want to live here and they want to work here and they want to invest here. And that's a good thing. And they make up this country. But as a people, we [americans] are not highly skilled in languages. We're not highly skilled in knowledge of other cultures. And that's a problem.

Many have asked me, 'Why have a film festival in the middle of a war?' But they have it backwards. The question is, 'Why have a war in the middle of a film festival?'

I'm sure that President [Lyndon] Johnson would never have pursued the war in Vietnam if he'd ever had a Fulbright [scholarship] to Japan, or say Bangkok, or had any feeling for what these people are like and why they acted the way they did. He was completely ignorant.

Every American should be forced to live outside the United States for a year or two. Americans should be forced to see how ridiculous they appear to the rest of the world! They should listen to someone else's version of themselves--to anyone else's version! Every country knows more about America than Americans know about themselves! And Americans know absolutely nothing about any other country!

Today our books are numberless, and one man cannot master them in a lifetime. Now that the sea-waves are dashing upon our shores, unless we keep pace with the times and acquire Western learning, we shall be left in the lurch.

Some critics complain that Gary Hart doesn't have any experience in foreign policy. But that's not true. Why, just yesterday he had breakfast at the International House of Pancakes.

I was born in France, but I would have been happy to have been born in Senegal or in Romania or Japan. I don't care. This planet is both so small and so big, but I'm part of it.

I never was interested in politics. I'm quite unable to work up any kind of belligerent feeling. Just as I'm about to feel belligerent about some country I meet a decent sort of chap. We go out together and lose any fighting thoughts or feelings.

I‘ve said it once and I will say it again, why can‘t everyone just speak English? The Americans give it a bit of a go — why can‘t other nations?

I was born and raised in China, Mandarin is my first language, and I definitely know America. I think that will be my strength, to try and bring the two worlds together.

Major actions by courageous and wise men will be necessary to avoid our continuing to blunder into the space age like unenlightened and selfish idiots.

You should be a person inside the world with knowledge of your terrain. And if you lock yourself into the 2,000-by-3,000-square-mile, lower-48 box of the United States, you're going to be frustrated by its limitations. You gotta think outside the box.

Education is the best means-probably the only means-by which nations can cultivate a degree of objectivity about each other's behavior and intentions. It is the means by which Russians and Americans can come to understand each others' aspirations for peace and how the satisfactions of everyday life may be achieved.