Welcome to our collection of thought-provoking quotes on the topic of strangers. The concept of strangers is fascinating, as it encompasses those we encounter in passing, whose stories we may never fully know, yet whose impact on our lives can be profound. Whether it’s a fleeting moment of connection with a stranger on the street or the sense of mystery surrounding someone new entering our lives, the idea of the unknown holds a unique allure.
In our exploration of strangers through these quotes, we delve into the complexities of human interaction, the beauty of chance encounters, and the inherent curiosity that drives us to understand those we have yet to meet. From profound reflections on the nature of strangerhood to whimsical musings on the unpredictability of life’s encounters, these quotes offer insight, inspiration, and perhaps even a sense of connection to the vast tapestry of humanity. Join us as we delve into the world of strangers and the myriad ways they shape our experiences and perceptions.
Dad’s funeral was standing room only; most in attendance were strangers to me. At the back, a lone Marine stood silently, then left. People told me he’d saved their life or helped them in their darkest hour. Ian Watson
One of the challenges in networking is everybody thinks it’s making cold calls to strangers. Actually, it’s the people who already have strong trust relationships with you, who know you’re dedicated, smart, a team player, who can help you. Reid Hoffman
Making movies is not rocket science. It’s about relationships and communication and strangers coming together to see if they can get along harmoniously, productively, and creatively. That’s a challenge. When it works, it’s fantastic and will lift you up. When it doesn’t work, it’s almost just as fascinating. Julia Roberts
If these men decided that they have to go in there and fight, I want them to send their own children and grandchildren. I want them to not send a bunch of strangers’ kids in there to fight and die. F. Murray Abraham
You can be tweeting strangers and saying, ‘Don’t say that,’ but are you saying that to your friends? How about your mom? Your boyfriend at the dinner table who says something homophobic? If you’re not saying the same things in person that you’re saying online, then what are your tweets doing? Luvvie Ajayi
Shoes tell you a lot about someone. Think of ‘Strangers on a Train.’ The first thing we see are Bruno’s shoes. We know right away that something is up. Lawrence Osborne
Very early on, you figure out that you put your self-esteem in the hands of strangers. There’s a different commodity. There’s the Helena Bonham Carter that everyone thinks they know, who really has nothing to do with me. But you just have to let that go. Helena Bonham Carter
You always hear that tragedies put sports in perspective, that they prove we shouldn’t care this much about the successes and failures of a bunch of wealthy strangers. I’m going the other way – sometimes, sports put everything else in perspective. Bill Simmons
People need to spread love towards strangers. We all bleed the same blood and we are all part of a global community now. Aloe Blacc
I haven’t lost faith in human nature and I haven’t decided to be less compassionate to strangers. Armistead Maupin
Indeed, Miss Manners has come to believe that the basic political division in this country is not between liberals and conservatives but between those who believe that they should have a say in the love lives of strangers and those who do not. Judith Martin
I’m fascinated how often and with what whole-heartedness people will risk their lives to perform acts of courage, sacrifice, and compassion for total strangers. Diane Ackerman
We don’t woo our wives with clubs. We don’t leave old folks on ice floes. And maybe the time has come to quit diving into rip tides to save people we don’t know. We’ve outgrown a lot of survival-of-the-fittest strategies, and risking our lives for strangers might be one of them. Christopher McDougall
I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to the idea that strangers know who I am. I don’t know if I want to. Lindsey Vonn
Whether our forebears were strangers who crossed the Atlantic or the Pacific or the Rio Grande, we are here only because this country welcomed them in and taught them that to be an American is about something more than what we look like, or what our last names are, or how we worship. Barack Obama
So much of a stand-up’s life is doing live radio and having to be funny and quick on the spot with these strangers, and sort of surgical in terms of how funny I can be in three minutes. Aisha Tyler
If two friends ask you to judge a dispute, don’t accept, because you will lose one friend; on the other hand, if two strangers come with the same request, accept because you will gain one friend. Saint Augustine
People often tell me that they have no idea how I can do standup. The idea of trying to make a large group of strangers laugh is, for many, absolutely petrifying – and it is – but there are ways of gradually developing the material that can ease the fear. Greg Davies
Salem houses present to you a serene and dignified front, gracious yet reserved, not thrusting forward their choicest treasures to the eyes of passing strangers; but behind the walls of the houses, enclosed from public view, lie cherished gardens, full of the beauty of life. Alice Morse Earle
But they who give straight judgements to strangers and to those of the land and do not transgress what is just, for them the city flourishes and its people prosper. Hesiod
The Four Levels of Comedy: Make your friends laugh, Make strangers laugh, Get paid to make strangers laugh, and Make people talk like you because it’s so much fun. Jerry Seinfeld
If you age with somebody, you go through so many roles – you’re lovers, friends, enemies, colleagues, strangers; you’re brother and sister. That’s what intimacy is, if you’re with your soulmate. Cate Blanchett
When a dog barks at the moon, then it is religion; but when he barks at strangers, it is patriotism! David Starr Jordan
Bedouin ways were hard even for those brought up to them, and for strangers, terrible: a death in life. T. E. Lawrence
The tabernacle of unity hath been raised; regard ye not one another as strangers. Baha’u’llah
The philosophy of the common man is an old wife that gives him no pleasure, yet he cannot live without her, and resents any aspersions that strangers may cast on her character. George Santayana
It’s a Gen X thing to be okay with going unnoticed or unrated or untouched. To be free from strangers’ expectations, or anger. People got angry at me when I stopped making music because it seemed I was devaluing everything. David Berman
Fear makes strangers of people who would be friends. Shirley MacLaine
Theater is my temple and my religion and my act of faith. Strangers sit in a room together and believe together. Harvey Fierstein
I’m hopefully touring with Colin Baker next year in Perfect Strangers. I have performed with Sylvia Simms in poetry and music evenings. I would love to do those for the rest of my career – they are so fun and witty. Louise Jameson
On this shrunken globe, men can no longer live as strangers. Adlai Stevenson I
People say New Yorkers can’t get along. Not true. I saw two New Yorkers, complete strangers, sharing a cab. One guy took the tires and the radio; the other guy took the engine. David Letterman
My column launched while I was in the bone marrow transplant unit. And I remember waking up the next morning and opening my inbox and seeing hundreds of emails from strangers all around the world. Suleika Jaouad
Because of my capacity for listening to strangers’ tales, or the details of their lives, my patience with their food and their crotchets, my curiosity that borders on nosiness, I am told that anyone traveling with me experiences an unbelievable tedium, and this is why I choose to travel alone. Paul Theroux
Venting your anger on anyone – especially complete strangers – is not a winning tactic. Be especially sweet to bartenders and people serving you food. Elin Hilderbrand
Happiness grows at our own firesides, and is not to be picked in strangers’ gardens. Douglas William Jerrold
One of the things that I miss about Canada is that even the strangers, you have an immediate rapport, there’s just an understanding that we’re all good people, let’s be nice to each other. And Kiwis have that. I find the Kiwis have that. Evangeline Lilly
I’m really interested in the collaborative thing. It’s what makes it scary because you never know what it’s going to end up like. But you hope. You put yourself in the hands of the best people you can find, and you’re completely dependent on the kindness of strangers and their commitment. It’s like this mutual delusion. Meryl Streep
My fellow Americans, we are and always will be a nation of immigrants. We were strangers once, too. Barack Obama
It’s weird how people who are the least close to me or who’ve never even met me purport to be experts on the real me; and then, sadly, there are those who could be in touch with me but prefer to gossip with strangers about me instead. Vanna Bonta
I’m not interested in promoting myself or revealing to total strangers anything about me. That’s not my job. Tom Lehrer
But, sir, they have written me down upon the history of the country as worthy of expulsion, and in no unkindness I must tell them that for all future time my self-respect requires that I shall pass them as strangers. Preston Brooks
Never far from my thoughts are memories of being a little girl in Queens, N.Y., our family of five crowded in a small one-bedroom apartment, struggling to learn English and survive a new life in a new country, America. We humbly and gratefully still recall the kindnesses shown by strangers and neighbors who became new friends. Elaine Chao
On airplanes, strangers confide in me the most deepest, darkest secrets. And I think they think I’ll understand. And I generally do understand. John Waters
I want to live in a place where strangers rush to help someone in distress. Ian Mcewan
Young adults love to play games and they’re thirsty for social interaction, but a lot of bar and restaurant experiences are quite unsatisfactory on the social level. What young people need is a place that has the feel of an unhosted party where they find themselves interacting with like-minded strangers. Nolan Bushnell
The exercise of democracy begins as exercise, as walking around, becoming familiar with the streets, comfortable with strangers, able to imagine your own body as powerful and expressive rather than a pawn. Rebecca Solnit
My everyday life in which I do exactly the same things as everyone else should not inspire people, and yet I am constantly congratulated by strangers for simply existing. Stella Young
When I joined Nirvana, I was the fifth or sixth drummer – I don’t know if they’d ever had a drummer they were totally happy with. And they were strangers. There was never much of a deeper connection outside of the music. Dave Grohl
The best fights don’t occur between strangers. They occur between friends who trust each other. Chuck Palahniuk
My faith is a huge part of my life. I don’t force it into my music, but it’s in my experiences, so it comes through. People pick up on what they want to pick up on, but any way strangers connect to a song that I wrote is awesome. Tori Kelly
Strangers are exciting, their mystery never ends. But, there’s nothing like looking at your own history in the faces of your friends. Ani DiFranco
Bringing out your vulnerable side and shedding your privacy in front of complete strangers is so very difficult, but when you are into the performance, the relief and release is so extraordinary that you get addicted. Sushant Singh Rajput
Going to a restaurant is one of my keenest pleasures. Meeting someplace with old and new friends, ordering wine, eating food, surrounded by strangers, I think is the core of what it means to live a civilised life. Adam Gopnik
The more I traveled the more I realized that fear makes strangers of people who should be friends. Shirley MacLaine
A city like London is sociable in a sense that there are people gathering in bars and restaurants, concerts and lectures. Yet you can partake of all these experiences and never say hello to anyone new. And one of the things that all religions do is take groups of strangers into a space and say it is OK to talk to each other. Alain de Botton
Actors are no strangers to self-doubt, fear, and rejection. Monica Raymund
For this reason, strangers are not really conceived as individuals, but as strangers of a particular type: the element of distance is no less general in regard to them than the element of nearness. Georg Simmel
Talk to strangers. They’re never who you think they are at first. Jen Sincero
According to FBI statistics for 2008, only 22 percent of murder victims were killed by strangers. More than 30 percent were slain by family members, boyfriends, and girlfriends. Nearly half of all murders were committed by friends, neighbors, and casual acquaintances. Alafair Burke
I once accidentally ‘replied all’ and sent an email complaining about my then-boyfriend to a bunch of strangers. It was meant for my friend who was a bride, but I ended up addressing her entire wedding party. Her marriage lasted; my relationship didn’t. Faith Salie
We need to be smarter than our smart phones and realize the people we are with are more important than the people we aren’t with, and way more important than the strangers we hope will tweet and like and share and Instagram whatever we’re sending out into the cybersphere. Regina Brett
The best teacher is an audience. The ideal performance is when that group of strangers sitting in the dark gets energy from the group in the light and sends energy back to us. When it really works, a perfect circle is formed. Glenda Jackson
It seems to me that terrestrial beings, as they become more autonomous, psychologically richer, shut themselves up in a way against one another, and at the same time gradually become strangers to the cosmic environment and currents, impenetrable to one another, and incapable of exteriorizing themselves. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Soon the child learns that there are strangers, and ceases to be a child. Max Muller
We can bring positive energy into our daily lives by smiling more, talking to strangers in line, replacing handshakes with hugs, and calling our friends just to tell them we love them. Brandon Jenner
If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world. Francis Bacon
We sometimes encounter people, even perfect strangers, who begin to interest us at first sight, somehow suddenly, all at once, before a word has been spoken. Fyodor Dostoevsky
Family jokes, though rightly cursed by strangers, are the bond that keeps most families alive. Stella Benson
If a natural disaster strikes your community, reach out to your friends, neighbors, and complete strangers. Lend a helping hand. Marsha Blackburn
I looked in the audience. There were no strangers. Everybody was singing and cheering and hugging. That was a beautiful picture to look at. Celine Dion
I would say that my fatal flaw, as a human being, is that I need people to like me, and if they don’t like me, I will obsess over it – and try to change my personality until they like me – even if they don’t like me for reasons that have nothing to do with me, and even if they’re strangers. Damon Lindelof
Admiration and familiarity are strangers. George Sand
Kids naturally tend to be a bit camera shy, especially in front of strangers. Maverick Carter
When strangers start acting like neighbors… communities are reinvigorated. Ralph Nader
Good things happen when you meet strangers. Yo-Yo Ma
Religion and art spring from the same root and are close kin. Economics and art are strangers. Nathaniel Hawthorne
Never lose sight of the fact that the most important yardstick of your success will be how you treat other people – your family, friends, and coworkers, and even strangers you meet along the way. Barbara Bush
Sometimes you have to get to know someone really well to realize you’re really strangers. Mary Tyler Moore
I probably get strangers coming up to me two or three times a week to just say something nice. I get more than my share of compliments as I walk through my daily life. I’m not having to show off or make a point about how good I am at doing something. I think I’ve always kind of been that way. Eddie Vedder
I don’t care what a lot of anonymous strangers think about restaurants. Ruth Reichl
Someone said to me at a party once, ‘Oh, yeah, you’re a comedian? Then how come you’re not funny now?’ And I just wanted to say, ‘Well, I’m just going to take this conversation we’re having and then repeat that to strangers, and then that’s the joke. You’re the joke later.’ Mike Birbiglia
I’ve lost count of the number of times that I’ve been approached by strangers wanting to tell me that they think I’m brave or inspirational, and this was long before my work had any kind of public profile. Stella Young
Our very lives depend on the ethics of strangers, and most of us are always strangers to other people. Bill Moyers
In terms of the most unique thing we do socially, my vote goes to something we invented alongside cities – we have lots of anonymous interactions and interactions with strangers. That has shaped us enormously. Robert Sapolsky
For me, there are no my people and strangers, no bad people and good people. All people are equal for me. Viktor Yanukovych
Permission marketing turns strangers into friends and friends into loyal customers. It’s not just about entertainment – it’s about education. Permission marketing is curriculum marketing. Seth Godin
There are no strangers here; Only friends you haven’t yet met. William Butler Yeats
It’s good to remember that in crises, natural crises, human beings forget for awhile their ignorances, their biases, their prejudices. For a little while, neighbors help neighbors and strangers help strangers. Maya Angelou
The part that always shocked me was the inter-community violence among the chimps: the patrols and the vicious attacks on strangers that lead to death. It’s an unfortunate parallel to human behavior – they have a dark side just as we do. We have less excuse, because we can deliberate, so I believe only we are capable of true calculated evil. Jane Goodall
Do your work for six years; but in the seventh, go into solitude or among strangers, so that the memory of your friends does not hinder you from being what you have become. Leo Szilard
And if strangers come to supper they shall be served with more according as they have need. Robert Grosseteste
When I came to Johannesburg from the countryside, I knew nobody, but many strangers were very kind to me. I then was dragged into politics, and then, subsequently, I became a lawyer. Nelson Mandela
I’m the person who will go to a wedding and switch the place cards around because I don’t want to sit next to someone I don’t know, because I’m so bad at chatting to strangers. Sharon Horgan
Men always talk about the most important things to perfect strangers. In the perfect stranger we perceive man himself; the image of a God is not disguised by resemblances to an uncle or doubts of wisdom of a mustache. Gilbert K. Chesterton
You can’t change the world alone – you will need some help – and to truly get from your starting point to your destination takes friends, colleagues, the good will of strangers and a strong coxswain to guide them. William H. McRaven
I marketed pens – on the phone. But the beauty of the gig was that you had to call these strangers and say, ‘Hi, how ya doing?’ You made up a name, like, ‘Hey, it’s Edward Quartermaine from California. You’re eligible to receive this grandfather clock or a trip to Tahiti.’ You promise them all these things if they buy a gross of pens. Johnny Depp
We lie more to strangers than we lie to co-workers. Extroverts lie more than introverts. Men lie eight times more about themselves than they do other people. Women lie more to protect other people. Pamela Meyer
A good life depends on the strength of our relationships with family, friends, neighbours, colleagues and strangers. David Lammy
When I finally returned home after my five-week hospitalization, I could feel the stares of strangers on my bald head and thinning eyebrows. Everywhere I went, cancer spoke for me before I could say the first word. Suleika Jaouad
