Quotations about Prejudice

We are each burdened with prejudice; against the poor or the rich, the smart or the slow, the gaunt or the obese. It is natural to develop prejudices. It is noble to rise above them. ~Author Unknown


Preconceived notions are the locks on the door to wisdom. ~Merry Browne


The test of courage comes when we are in the minority. The test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority. ~Ralph W. Sockman


What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other's folly - that is the first law of nature. ~Voltaire


Judge me all you want, just keep the verdict to yourself. ~From a Winston advertisement


Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people whom we personally dislike. ~Oscar Wilde


Judgements prevent us from seeing the good that lies beyond appearances. ~Wayne W. Dyer


Our thoughts are unseen hands shaping the people we meet. Whatever we truly think them to be, that's what they'll become for us. ~Richard Cowper


Prejudices are the chains forged by ignorance to keep men apart. ~Countess of Blessington


If we were to wake up some morning and find that everyone was the same race, creed and color, we would find some other causes for prejudice by noon. ~George Aiken


Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences. No one can eliminate prejudices - just recognize them. ~Edward Roscoe Murrow, 31 December 1955


It is never too late to give up our prejudices. ~Henry David Thoreau


One day our descendants will think it incredible that we paid so much attention to things like the amount of melanin in our skin or the shape of our eyes or our gender instead of the unique identities of each of us as complex human beings. ~Franklin Thomas


In overcoming prejudice, working together is even more effective than talking together. ~Ralph W. Sockman


Prejudice is all in your head. ~As seen on a button at evolvefish.com


A minority group has "arrived" only when it has the right to produce some fools and scoundrels without the entire group paying for it. ~Carl T. Rowan


Do not judge and you will never be mistaken. ~Jean Jacques Rousseau


If only closed minds came with closed mouths. ~As seen on a button at evolvefish.com


Our prejudices are like physical infirmities - we cannot do what they prevent us from doing. ~John Lancaster Spalding


Small is the number of people who see with their eyes and think with their minds. ~Albert Einstein


Somehow our devils are never quite what we expect when we meet them face to face. ~Nelson DeMille


Prejudice is the child of ignorance. ~William Hazlitt


You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist. ~Attributed to both Golda Meir and Indira Gandhi


Prejudices subsist in people's imagination long after they have been destroyed by their experience. ~Ernest Dimnet


I am an invisible man.... I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids - and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. ~Ralph Ellison, The Invisible Man, 1952


I have no color prejudices nor caste prejudices nor creed prejudices. All I care to know is that a man is a human being, and that is enough for me; he can't be any worse. ~Mark Twain


I think there's just one kind of folks. Folks. ~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird


If you judge people you have no time to love them. ~Mother Teresa


No man has ever been born a Negro hater, a Jew hater, or any other kind of hater. Nature refuses to be involved in such suicidal practices. ~Harry Bridges


O Lord, help me not to despise or oppose what I do not understand. ~William Penn


Let us have but one end in view, the welfare of humanity; and let us put aside all selfishness in consideration of language, nationality, or religion. ~John Comenius, 17th century philosopher