Insularity Quotes

• Insularity is the foundation of ethnocentrism and intolerance; when you only know of those like yourself, it is easy to imagine that you are alone in the world or alone in being good and right in the world. Exposure to diversity, on the contrary, is the basis for relativism and tolerance; when you are forced to face and accept the Other as real, unavoidable, and ultimately valuable, you cannot help but see yourself and your 'truths' in a new - and trouble - way.

  David Eller

  Real, Diversity, Tolerance

  8 Copy quote

• Western societies from ancient Athens to imperial Rome to the French republic rarely collapsed because of a shortage of resources or because foreign enemies proved too numerous or formidable in arms - even when those enemies were grim Macedonians or Germans. Rather, in times of peace and prosperity there arose an unreal view of the world beyond their borders, one that was the product of insularity brought about by success, and an intellectual arrogance that for some can be the unfortunate byproduct of an enlightened society.

  Victor Davis Hanson

  Views, Rome, Intellectual Arrogance

  14 Copy quote

• What's wrong with "the new elite?" Forget cultural insularity or smugness. The main problem with the "new elite" is that they're not an elite at all. That is, they aren't particularly smart, or competent.

  Glenn Reynolds

  Smart, Political, Smugness

  7 Copy quote

• There is a insularity within American fiction even for adults. It's very tough for books in translation in the US.

  Laila Lalami

  Book, Adults, Fiction

  Source: www.bostonglobe.com

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• I love love. I love having a lover and being one. The insularity of passion. I love it. I love the way it blurs the distinction between everyone who isn't one's lover.

  Tom Stoppard

  Passion, Way, Lovers

  Tom Stoppard (2014). “The Real Thing”, p.45, Faber & Faber

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• If [black] nationalism could create a strong and effective insularity, deliver on its promise of self-respect, then the hurt it might cause well-meaning whites, or the inner turmoil it caused people like me, would be of little consequence.

  Barack Obama

  Strong, Hurt, Self

  60 Copy quote

• For all the insularity of the old guard, Pittsburgh was always an open and democratic town.

  Annie Dillard

  Cities, Pittsburgh, Towns

  Annie Dillard (2016). “An American Childhood”, p.69, Canongate Books

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• The Englishman's strong point is his vigorous insularity; that of the American his power of adaptation. Each of these attitudes has its perils. The Englishman stands firmly on his feet, but he who merely does this never advances. The American's disposition is to step forward even at the risk of a fall.

  Thomas Wentworth Higginson

  Strong, Attitude, Fall

  5 Copy quote