Differences Quotes

“If they don't see it's wrong, if they don't say it's wrong, it can happen again. It could happen to you; it could happen to me.”
― Elle McNicoll, A Kind of Spark

“Basta uno sguardo per amarsi. Del resto, non si ama mai così bene come quando ci si conosce male.”
― Christelle Dabos, A Winter's Promise

“Somehow each of the three bears figured out exactly what was comfortable for them. And yet despite the obvious differences, they did not try to impose their preferences on the rest of the family. And if we can take a lesson from that, maybe that would make our society a bit more bearable.”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough

“Despite all the talk of diversity and division--of red and blue states, of black and white and brown people, of rich and poor, gay and straight--Paul believed that Americans were shockingly similar. How can we be so different, thought Paul, if we all know the lyrics to the same one thousand songs?”
― Sherman Alexie, War Dances

“Differences are not a failure of humanity, differences are a test of our humanity.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Honor He Wrote: 100 Sonnets For Humans Not Vegetables

“I’ve learned that even people who are — who see the world differently from you, they love something. And if we take the time to share what we love with one another, we can see each other’s humanity, and we can feel each other’s value. And if we can connect in a real way, that’s what we need to accompany each other, because some of what is going to be asked is that you just let me be. You know. As relocation and all of this stuff happens, some people are going to choose something other than what you would choose. And to accompany them is to just understand what they love, and respect it. So I think let’s take the time to connect through love, and stick with each other as we practice our own liberation, our own liberated stance on this thing, which will not always be the answer we want to hear, but it’ll be someone practicing freedom. And that’s the part we have to respect.”
― Colette Pichon Battle

“Eriku is a free verse. Passion, energy, and rhythm. But Akio... Akio is waka, carefully composed, controlled, polished, and elegant. There is something timeless about him. Everything would be---and was---so easy with Eriku. But he doesn't challenge me enough. Not like Akio does. Love is so many things. And for me, it's a push and a pull.”
― Emiko Jean, Tokyo Dreaming

“Research by psychologist Nicki Crick shows that boys are more physically aggressive..... Girls, in contrast, are more "relationally" aggressive; they try to hurt their rivals' relationships, reputations, and social status-- for example, by using social media to make sure other girls know who is intentionally being left out. When you add it all up, there's no overall sex difference in total aggression, but there's a large and consistent sex difference in the preferred ways of harming others.”
― Greg Lukianoff & Jonathan Haidt, The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting up a Generation for Failure

“The generation born between 1995 and 2012, called iGen (or sometimes Gen Z), is very different from the Millennials, the generation that preceded it. According to Jean Twenge, an expert in the study of generational differences, one difference is that iGen is growing up more slowly. On average, eighteen-year-olds today have spent less time unsupervised and have hit fewer developmental milestones on the path to autonomy (such as getting a job or a driver's license), compared with eighteen-year-olds in previous generations.”
― Greg Lukianoff & Jonathan Haidt, The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting up a Generation for Failure

“As Zen practitioners might say. two people looking at the same mountain are not seeing the same mountain, and so poetic "worldliness" can take an infinite number of versions: the sensibility of an individual artist is as distinct as a fingerprint.”
― Tony Hoagland, The Art of Voice: Poetic Principles and Practice

“We are experiencing changes across the full spectrum of our experience: to our bodies, our diet, our sleep, and so much more. many of these changes have come so fast and furious that we should not be surprised when they create damage that is difficult to undo.”
― Heather E. Heying, A Hunter-Gatherer's Guide to the 21st Century: Evolution and the Challenges of Modern Life

“...modernity is doing something to us at a deeply fundamental level, and the fact that we don't understand it is alarming.”
― Heather E. Heying, A Hunter-Gatherer's Guide to the 21st Century: Evolution and the Challenges of Modern Life

“Of course, each belief must have its biblical support, and it must strengthen the faith of others to be valid, but if we are supposed to not cause one another to stumble, then why are we CONDEMNING each other for different but legitimate Christian beliefs? I hope conservatives don’t condemn/limit feminists and feminists do not condemn/limit conservatives!”
― Lucy Carter, Feminism and Biblical Hermeneutics

“Make love the driver of all truth, and whether there is consensus of knowledge or not, there'll always be consensus of heart.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Dervish Advaitam: Gospel of Sacred Feminines and Holy Fathers

“Honor He Wrote Sonnet 78

Two is better than one,
Seven billion is better than two.
It's okay to collide on occasion so long as,
We're by each other when we are in doo-doo.
Every time we hold hands, magic happens,
This ain't the magic of our ignorant ancestors.
I am talkin' about the mortal magic of diversity,
The power that comes to life when we're together.
Remember this simple principle my friend,
Those who fall together, fly together.
Arms are just arms when separated,
But shield when held together.
We are a blessing when we stand together.
When divided, we are our worst nightmare.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Honor He Wrote: 100 Sonnets For Humans Not Vegetables

“Difference & Discrimination (The Sonnet)

There ain't no difference that can't be conquered,
Except for those that are rooted in inhumanity.
A bigot's emphasis on their supremacy over others,
Is not a difference in opinion but clinical insanity.
Nobody is inferior to nobody in this world of ours,
Except for those who think of others as such.
Neither ancestry nor luxury defines a character,
Conduct alone defines character, above all fuss.
Say, discrimination is not a difference in opinion,
It's an act that sets animals apart from humans.
Free speech is a phenomenon of human society,
Hate speech is an act of stoneage barbarians.
Let us distinguish differences from discrimination,
Then celebrate differences while treating discrimination.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Honor He Wrote: 100 Sonnets For Humans Not Vegetables

“Consensus of Heart (The Sonnet)

Place truth at the feet of love,
Intellect at the feet of integration.
Place belief at the feet of harmony,
Stubbornness at the feet of ascension.
Place tradition at the feet of expansion,
Individuality at the feet of collectivity.
Place knowledge at the feet of warmth,
Patriotism at the feet of world community.
Place differences at the feet of unity,
Rebellion at the feet of accountability.
Place serenity at the feet of social uplift,
Practicality at the feet of dignity 'n equality.
Whether there is consensus of head or not,
Let us first ensure consensus of the heart.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Dervish Advaitam: Gospel of Sacred Feminines and Holy Fathers

“Agreeing to disagree is not the threat. The threat is our unwillingness to do it.”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough

“People don’t like when others live differently.”
― Kate Stradling, The Legendary Inge

“It’s depressing that people are different. Everyone should be one person, who should then kill itself in hand-to-hand combat.”
― Tao Lin, Eeeee Eee Eeee

“East Coast oysters are brinier, more mineral. West Coasts are plumper, creamier, sweeter. They're even physically different. One has a flat cup, the other tends to be deeper.”
― Stephanie Danler, Sweetbitter

“Few women would prefer an unemployed and rudderless man to an ambitious and successful one, all other things being even roughly equal; and few men would choose an obese, unattractive, and dull woman over a shapely, beautiful, sharp one.”
― Robert Wright, The Moral Animal: Why We Are the Way We Are - The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology

“She cannot know him. Not truly... And though she knows that's the case for everyone, for no one can exist within another's mind or skin, it's how far apart they are in their history, their beliefs, that ultimately matters. After all, it's the distance of separation that creates the impact.”
― Gian Sardar, Take What You Can Carry

“Oh yes! I'll do this - for you together and invite conflict - because I want you to think about what the world would be like if we all worked to understand people who are different than we are.”
― Lynda Mullaly Hunt, One for the Murphys

“There was such powerlessness in difference, which created, it seemed, not just a barrier to success but also a barrier to love. Who could stand it?”
― Emily Rapp Black, Frida Kahlo and My Left Leg

“...although confederations are meant to attract and collaborate with allies, the word confederation, although correlated with uniting allies, seems to be more so connected with making enemies. It’s just an elementary math and logic problem---7.9 billion people are in the world population, so it is mathematically supported that it would be improbable for all 7.9 billion people to agree with each other. In addition, “confederation” actually seems to add to division, because confederations are alliances where people with same/similar interests are united and organized, and in order for there to be an alliance of people with same/similar interests, there has to be people with interests that differ from theirs. Otherwise, they should not have made an alliance dedicated to one particular interest. If everyone agreed with them, they wouldn’t need to create an alliance.”
― Lucy Carter, The Reformation

“Female orgasm seems poorly designed as a pair-bonding mechanism, but it is perfectly designed as a discriminatory system that separates the men from the boys.”
― Geoffrey Miller, The Mating Mind: How Sexual Choice Shaped the Evolution of Human Nature

“Change happens to a lot of people. That's why the divorce rate is so high!”
― Steven Magee

“When you have watched someone from childhood, you know them. You know what they came with, even if you don’t like it. Young children don’t pretend to be something they are not. They don’t even know how to. They only know what they are.”
― Donna Goddard, Nanima: Spiritual Fiction

“The sexual division of labor refers to women and men making different and complementary contributions to the household economy. Though the specific activities of each sex vary by culture, the gendered division of labor is a human universal. It is therefore assumed to have appeared well before modern humans started spreading across the globe sixty thousand to seventy thousand years ago.”
― Richard W. Wrangham, Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human