Quotes about Prejudice

We are constantly being surprised that people did things well before we were born.  We are constantly remarking on the fact that things are done well by people other than ourselves. "The Japanese are a remarkable little people," we say, as if we were doing them a favor. "He is an Arab, but you ought to hear him play the zither." Why "but"?

Your true spiritual nature is to trust. Your true spiritual nature is to respect. Your true spiritual nature is to love unconditionally. As you go through your life, however, things happen to you and you develop an ego as a reaction of the things that happen to you. People take advantage of your trust and you learn to trust a little less. While respect is natural, disrespect is also learned. Your loving heart is repeatedly broken and love is no longer unconditional. Is it any wonder that people develop prejudices and hatreds for those who are different?  Is it any wonder that religions fight against each other to obtain or defend spiritual conquests? Is it any wonder that nations should declare war, genocide and ethnic cleansing upon each other?

It is much more difficult to judge oneself than to judge others. If you succeed in judging yourself rightly, then you are indeed a man of true wisdom.

The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts.

From the very beginning- from the first moment, I may almost say- of my acquaintance with you, your manners, impressing me with the fullest belief of your arrogance, your conceit, and your selfish disdain of the feelings of others, were such as to form the groundwork of disapprobation on which succeeding events have built so immovable a dislike; and I had not known you a month before I felt that you were the last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed on to marry."

Prejudice is not a symptom of evil nor is it a symptom of stupidity, It is a symptom of ignorance.

So you call yourself religious?  Please don't do that if you're stuck in only one of the many traditions that manifest divine love.  When you've found connection and inspiration from many religions, then you probably know more about divine love, and less about prejudice, ego and fear.

Anti-Catholicism is the last respectable prejudice. You can't hate black people anymore, of course, and you can't hate homosexuals anymore, but you can hate all the Catholics you want.

Ignorance is the biggest deficit within humanity.

            “… ‘You’re making the ‘rational man’ mistake.’  He meant that we usually assume that science is a rational process, but it’s not.  When we’re presented with evidence that counters our prior beliefs, instead of the new evidence swaying us toward a new or revised belief, it tends to reaffirm our prior beliefs.  Well, I thought, that’s completely ridiculous.  It’s got to be a mistake.  Unfortunately, after witnessing precisely these reactions to the data for twenty years, I have reluctantly concluded that the ‘rational man’ hypothesis is indeed false.

            The technical term for one form of this irrational phenomena is the ‘confirmation bias.’  This psychological quirk causes evidence supporting your beliefs to be perceived as plausible, and evidence challenging your beliefs to be perceived as implausible.  Studies in social psychology have repeatedly demonstrated that journal reviewers invariably judge articles being submitted got publication according to their prior beliefs.  Those who agree with a hypothesis tend to judge a paper reporting positive results as an excellent piece of work, and those who disagree judge the very same paper and a flawed failure.  The former referees recommend publication and the latter don’t.  The final decision to publish is left up to the editor, so if the editor doesn’t happen to agree with the paper’s hypothesis then there’s a good chance it won’t appear on the journal.  And then the evidence doesn’t exist as far as the rest of the scientific community is concerned.  In science, this tends to create a genteel ‘good old boys’ club of acceptable ideas, while unacceptable ideas are consigned to the biker’s bar lounge on the wrong side of the tracks.  Fortunately, most scientists also tend to have high curiosity, so the club’s rules can change with sufficient persistence (and after the retirement of some of the older good old boys).

"Why is it sports is the only thing white people see us being successful at? I don't want to play football," he said. "I wanna be a lawyer."
"That's fine with me," I said, a little annoyed. "I've just never heard of a Negro lawyer, that's all. You've got to hear of these things before you can imagine them."
"Bullshit. You gotta imagine what's never been."

I said, "If I was a Negro girl—"
He placed his fingers across my lips so I tasted his saltiness. "We can't think of changing our skin," he said. "Change the world—that's how we gotta think."

Dachau is left standing because it must be. All the Dachaus -- all the Belsens, all the Buchenwalds, all the Auschwitzes -- all of it. They must remain standing because they are a monument to a moment in time when some men decided to turn the Earth into a graveyard. Into it they shoveled all of their reason, their logic, their knowledge...but worst of all, their consciences. And the moment we forget this, the moment we cease to be haunted by its remembrance, then we become the gravediggers. Something to think about, something to dwell on and remember...not only in the Twilight Zone, but wherever men walk God's Earth.

When evil men plot, good men must plan. When evil men burn and bomb, good men must build and bind. When evil men shout ugly words of hatred, good men must commit themselves to the glories of love. Where evil men would seek to perpetuate an unjust status quo, good men must seek to bring into being a real order of justice.

"If we do not learn to live together as friends, we will die apart as fools."

A child does not have to be taught how to be happy or the ways of love.  It is fear, hatred, and prejudice that have to be taught.  And from the condition of the world we can see that unfortunately there are some very good teachers.

“If you look for the bad in people expecting to find it, you surely will.”

One shouldn't expect privileges because of her sex. Neither should she adjust to prejudice.

Never try to reason the prejudice out of a man. It wasn't reasoned into him, and it cannot be reasoned out.

Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocre minds. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence and fulfills the duty to express the results of his thoughts in clear form.

Prejudice is the child of ignorance.

I am free of all prejudice. I hate everyone equally.

Prejudice is an opinion without judgment.

He that is possessed with a prejudice is possessed with a devil, and one of the worst kinds of devils, for it shuts out the truth, and often leads to ruinous error.

If we are to understand the animals with whom we share the world, we need to watch them, interact with them, without too much prejudice. Undestanding them, we may also understand ourselves a little more. By seeing what constrains and motivates our kindred we may, perhaps, discover what the morals and manners of the human beasts might be.

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.

I thought the following four [rules] would be enough, provided that I made a firm and constant resolution not to fail even once in the observance of them. The first was never to accept anything as true if I had not evident knowledge of its being so; that is, carefully to avoid precipitancy and prejudice, and to embrace in my judgment only what presented itself to my mind so clearly and distinctly that I had no occasion to doubt it. The second, to divide each problem I examined into as many parts as was feasible, and as was requisite for its better solution. The third, to direct my thoughts in an orderly way; beginning with the simplest objects, those most apt to be known, and ascending little by little, in steps as it were, to the knowledge of the most complex; and establishing an order in thought even when the objects had no natural priority one to another. And the last, to make throughout such complete enumerations and such general surveys that I might be sure of leaving nothing out.

The very ink with which history is written is merely fluid prejudice.

Prejudice is like a hair across your cheek. You can't see it, you can't find it with your fingers, but you keep brushing at it because the feel of it is irritating.

To be happy, one must rid oneself of prejudice, be virtuous, healthy, and have a capacity for enjoyment and for passion ...