Strangers

person who is unknown to another person or group

Strangers are people whom one does not know, and may in particular be outsiders, foreigners, or newcomers.

You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. ~ Exodus 22:21
I told you when I came I was a stranger. ~ Leonard Cohen
Alphabetized by author or source.

Quotes

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  • ALIEN, n. An American sovereign in his probationary state.
    • Ambrose Bierce, The Cynic's Dictionary (1906); republished as The Devil's Dictionary (1911).
  • The Nordic language recognized four orders of foreignness. The first is the otherlander, or utlanning, the stranger that we recognize as being a human of our world, but of another city or country. The second is the framling - Demosthenes merely drops the accent from the Nordic framling. This is the stranger that we recognize as human, but of another world. The third is the raman, the stranger that we recognize as human, but of another species. The fourth is the true alien, the varelse, which includes all the animals, for with them no conversation is possible. They live, but we cannot guesswhat purposes or causes make them act. They might be intelligent, they might be self-aware, but we cannot know it.
  • I told you when I came I was a stranger.
  • It's you my love, you who are the stranger.
  • Farewell to ye all! In the land of the stranger I rise or I fall.
    • Davy Crockett (att.), Col. Crockett's Exploits and Adventures in Texas (1836), Ch. 2
  • Therefore love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
  • The alien who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower.
  • The stranger is simply a friend I haven't met yet.
  • Oh my soul, be prepared for the coming of the Stranger.
    Be prepared for him who knows how to ask questions.
  • We die to each other daily.
    What we know of other people
    Is only our memory of the moments
    During which we knew them. And they have changed since then.
    To pretend that they and we are the same
    Is a useful and convenient social convention
    Which must sometimes broken. We must also remember
    That at every meeting we are meeting a stranger.
  • But foreign should not be defined in geographical terms. Then it would have no meaning except territorial or tribal patriotism. To me that alone is foreign which is foreign to truth, foreign to Atman.
    • Ram Swarup quoted in : Sita Ram Goel. How I Became a Hindu (1982, enlarged 1993) ISBN 81-85990-05-0 (ch. 7) [1]
  • He wanted them to meet as the completest of strangers — strangers-across-the-seas — all the more strangers because they knew each other already. He wanted them to meet far from their friends and relatives — in a place without a past, without history, free, really free, two people coming together with the utter freedom of strangers.
  • For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
  • People far too easily neglect or abuse us, as soon as we become intimate with them. To live pleasantly, one must almost always remain a stranger in the crowd.
 
As I look around at these strangers in town, I guess the only stranger is me. ~ Jeff Lynne
  • As I look around at these strangers in town, I guess the only stranger is me.
    As I see what they've done to this place that I love, shame is all that I feel.
  • I have been a stranger in a strange land.
    • Moses, Exodus 2:22 (KJV)
    • I have been a stranger in a foreign land.
      • Jewish Publication Society translation (1985; 1999)
  • You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
 
Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. ~ Paul of Tarsus
 
The bosom of America is open to receive not only the Opulent and respectable Stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all Nations And Religions; whom we shall wellcome to a participation of all our rights and previleges, if by decency and propriety of conduct they appear to merit the enjoyment. ~ George Washington
  • Ants and savages put strangers to death.
  • The stranger has no friend, unless it be a stranger.
    • Saadi, Gulistan (1258), tr. James Ross, Ch. 3, story 28
  • He will deal harshly by a stranger who has not been himself often a traveller and stranger.
    • Saadi, Gulistan (1258), tr. James Ross, Ch. 3, story 28
  • He had a bitter pain in his heart, for he knew that she was still a stranger to him and his hungry love was destined ever to remain unsatisfied.
  • All colors and blends of Americans have somewhat the same tendencies. It's a breed — selected out by accident. And so we're overbrave and overfearful — we're kind and cruel as children. We're overfriendly and at the same time frightened of strangers.
  • The bosom of America is open to receive not only the Opulent and respectable Stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all Nations And Religions; whom we shall wellcome to a participation of all our rights and previleges, if by decency and propriety of conduct they appear to merit the enjoyment.
    • George Washington, letter to the members of the Volunteer Association and other Inhabitants of the Kingdom of Ireland who have lately arrived in the City of New York (December 2, 1783), John C. Fitzpatrick, ed., The Writings of George Washington (1938), vol. 27, p. 254.
  • Passing stranger! you do not know how longingly I look upon you,
    You must be he I was seeking, or she I was seeking, (it comes to me
    as of a dream,)
    I have somewhere surely lived a life of joy with you,
  • Among the Indians officers are appointed even for foreigners, whose duty is to see that no foreigner is wronged. Should any of them lose his health, they send physicians to attend him, and take care of him otherwise, and if he dies they bury him, and deliver over such property as he leaves to his relatives. The judge also decides cases in which foreigners are concerned, with the greatest care, and come down sharply on those who take unfair advantage of them.
    • Megasthenes, quoted in Ibn Warraq - Defending the West [2007]

See also

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