National Borders Quotes

• Erasing national borders does not make people safer or more prosperous. It undermines democracy and trades away prosperity.

  Donald Trump

  People, Democracy, Doe

  "Trump's 'America First' Agenda Marks Sharp Break In U.S. Economic Policy". "Morning edition" with David Greene, www.npr.org. February 28, 2017.

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Human dignity is independent of national borders. We must always defend the interests of the poor and the persecuted in other countries.

  Kjell Magne Bondevik

  Country, Independent, Borders

  10 Copy quote

• Federal authorities do not have the manpower or the resources to protect America's international borders

  John Culberson

  America, Borders, Authority

  8 Copy quote

• Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must - at that moment - become the center of the universe.

  Elie Wiesel

  Inspirational, Motivational, Responsibility

  Elie Wiesel (2011). “From the Kingdom of Memory: Reminiscences”, p.170, Schocken

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• Maybe we are all prospective migrants. The lines of national borders on maps are artificial constructs, as unnatural to us as they are to birds flying overhead. Our first impulse is to ignore them.

  Mohsin Hamid

  Bird, Flying, Firsts

  "Now that I've finally been admitted to Britain it seems that everyone else suddenly wants to leave" by Mohsin Hamid, www.theguardian.com. August 5, 2008.

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• I see Lord Buddha in the 21st Century across national borders, across faith systems, across political ideologies, playing the role of a bridge to promote understanding to counsel patience and to enlighten us with tolerance and empathy.

  Narendra Modi

  Bridges, Empathy, Political

  4 Copy quote

• Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Whenever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must - at that moment - become the center of the universe.

  Elie Wiesel

  Inspirational, Life, Women

  Elie Wiesel (2011). “From the Kingdom of Memory: Reminiscences”, p.170, Schocken

  289 Copy quote

  Show source

• The Internet knows no national borders.

  Alan Dershowitz

  Borders, Internet, Knows

  4 Copy quote

• My loyalties will not be bound by national borders, or confined in time by one nation's history, or limited in the spiritual dimension by one language and culture. I pledge my allegiance to the damned human race, and my everlasting love to the green hills of Earth, and my intimations of glory to the singing stars, to the very end of space and time.

  Edward Abbey

  Love, Loyalty, Spiritual

  Edward Abbey, David Petersen (2003). “Confessions of a Barbarian: Selections from the Journals of Edward Abbey”, p.92, Big Earth Publishing

  80 Copy quote

  Show source

• You take a bunch of people who don't seem any different from you and me, but when you add them all together you get this sort of huge raving maniac with national borders and an anthem.

  Terry Pratchett

  People, Together, Different

  Terry Pratchett (2008). “Monstrous Regiment: (Discworld Novel 31)”, p.23, Random House

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Because national borders are eroding, because of the growth of non-state actors. It's a different kind of a world. We are tied down by a tiny little country - Iraq. It's amazing, given the disparity in military economic strength. It's a world where most of the big problems spill over national boundaries, and there are new kinds of actors and we're feeling our way as to how to deal with them.

  Brent Scowcroft

  Country, Military, Iraq

  Source: www.nytimes.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• If we allow the United States to set the precedent that national borders don't matter when it comes to the protection of people's information, other countries are watching. They're paying attention to our examples and what is normative behavior in terms of dealing with digital information.

  Edward Snowden

  Country, People, United States

  Source: www.thenation.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• In 88 poor countries for which we have data, in each and every one of the 88, the PPP for food shows that poor people can buy less food than you would expect from the PPP that the World Bank is using. The reason for this is obvious on reflection. It has to do with the fact that most foodstuffs are tradable commodities: basic foodstuffs, such as rice, flour and beans, can easily be conveyed across national borders and their prices will therefore roughly mirror the exchange rates among currencies.

  Thomas Pogge

  Country, Reflection, Mirrors

  Source: www.truth-out.org

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Though people could, in principle, cross national borders to reach places where their work is more highly rewarded, they are in fact prevented from doing so. As a result, huge differences also persist in the price of labor, as you can see when you get a haircut in rural India or hire a driver or babysitter in Bolivia. You can easily buy such services at one-fiftieth the price you would pay in London, Hamburg or Manhattan.

  Thomas Pogge

  Differences, People, Principles

  Source: www.truth-out.org

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• In fact, it seems to me that making strategic alliances across national borders in order to treat HIV among the world's poor is one of the last great hopes of solidarity across a widening divide.

  Paul Farmer

  Order, Lasts, Facts

  10 Copy quote

• "Every national border in Europe," El Eswad added ironically, "marks the place where two gangs of bandits got too exhausted to kill each other anymore and signed a treaty. Patriotism is the delusion that one of these gangs of bandits is better than all the others."

  Robert Anton Wilson

  Europe, Two, Patriotism

  Robert Anton Wilson (1982). “The Earth Will Shake: A Novel”, J P Tarcher

  70 Copy quote

  Show source

• Commodities such as gold and silver have a world market that transcends national borders, politics, religions, and race. A person may not like someone else's religion, but he'll accept his gold.

  Robert Kiyosaki

  Race, Gold, Borders

  14 Copy quote

• Globalization has considerably accelerated in recent years following the dizzying expansion of communications and transport and the equally stupefying transnational mergers of capital. We must not confuse globalization with "internationalism" though. We know that the human condition is universal, that we share similar passions, fears, needs and dreams, but this has nothing to do with the "rubbing out" of national borders as a result of unrestricted capital movements. One thing is the free movement of peoples, the other of money.

  Eduardo Galeano

  Dream, Money, Communication

  15 Copy quote

• When excesses such as lax lending standards become widespread and persist for some time, people are lulled into a false sense of security, creating an even more dangerous situation. In some cases, excesses migrate beyond regional or national borders, raising the ante for investors and governments. These excesses will eventually end, triggering a crisis at least in proportion to the degree of the excesses. Correlations between asset classes may be surprisingly high when leverage rapidly unwinds.

  Seth Klarman

  Creating, Dangerous Situations, Government

  11 Copy quote

• Earth Day is the first holy day which transcends all national borders, yet preserves all geographical integrities, spans mountains and oceans and time belts, and yet brings people all over the world into one resonating accord, is devoted to the preservation of the harmony in nature and yet draws upon the triumphs of technology, the measurement of time, and instantaneous communication through space.

  Margaret Mead

  Integrity, Ocean, Communication

  6 Copy quote

• But how can you speed up the transformation of society in a country as large as Russia? Those sounding the moral outcry are the ones who are trying to dictate their standards from the outside. Of course, that isn't the right way to go either. One cannot impose democracy from the other side of national borders, which is something we ourselves experienced during the communist era. The West's policies toward Eastern Europe, the Helsinki process - none of that really helped us.

  Vaclav Klaus

  Country, Russia, Europe

  "'The Past Is the Past'". Interview with Christian Neef and Jan Puhl, Renata Hanusova, www.spiegel.de. March 13, 2006.

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• Yet, Puerto Ricos economic convergence and political integration with the rest of the nation is in a state of arrest - even though the island has been within the national borders, political system and customs territory of the U.S. for a century.

  Dick Thornburgh

  Islands, Political, Borders

  87 Copy quote

• It takes 1,000 tons of water to produce 1 ton of grain. As water becomes scarce and countries are forced to divert irrigation water to cities and industry, they will import more grain. As they do so, water scarcity will be transmitted across national borders via the grain trade. Aquifer depletion is a largely invisible threat, but that does not make it any less real.

  Lester R. Brown

  Country, Real, Aquifers

  12 Copy quote

• The traditional boundaries between various fields of science are rapidly disappearing and what is more important science does not know any national borders. The scientists of the world are forming an invisible network with a very free flow of scientific information - a freedom accepted by the countries of the world irrespective of political systems or religions. ... Great care must be taken that the scientific network is utilized only for scientific purposes - if it gets involved in political questions it loses its special status and utility as a nonpolitical force for development.

  Sune Bergstrom

  Country, Taken, Science

  8 Copy quote