“The best definition of man is: a being that goes on two legs and is ungrateful.”
Variant translation: If I had to define man it would be: a biped, ungrateful.
Part 1, Chapter 8 (page 28)
Notes from Underground (1864)
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky155
Russian author 1821–1881Related quotes
“A man may be ungrateful but is less chargeable with ingratitude than his benefactor.”
François de La Rochefoucauld book Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims
Tel homme est ingrat, qui est moins coupable de son ingratitude que celui qui lui a fait du bien.
Maxim 96.
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665–1678)
Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) 32nd President of the United States
Radio Address to the New York Herald Tribune Forum http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=15828 (26 October 1939) <br class="br">1930s
Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900–2002) German philosopher
Man and Language (1966)
Context: Aristotle established the classical definition of man, according to which man is the living being who has logos. In the tradition of the West, this definition became canonical in a form which stated that man is the animal rationale, the rational being, distinguished from all other animals by his capacity for thought. Thus it rendered the Greek word logos as reason or thought. In truth, however, the primary meaning of this word is language.... The word logos means not only thought and language, but also concept and law.
George Orwell book Animal Farm
Variant: All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.
Source: Animal Farm