“Whatever misanthropists may say, ingrates and the perverse are exceptions in the human species.”

— Napoleon I of France

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

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Napoleon I of France259

French general, First Consul and later Emperor of the French 1769–1821

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Steve Stewart-Williams (1971)

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“Zoocentricism, that stage of solidarity in which the entire sentient universe is contemplated, universal consideration and love, is as yet too difficult for human consciousness. Human philosophy, which has been so slow in discovering the solidarity of the human species, is to-day, except in its Oriental manifestations, as reluctant to recognize other species in its ethical contemplations as were dominant human groups in less advanced stages of aggregation reluctant to recognize the solidarity of the hominine species.”

J. Howard Moore (1862–1916)

Source: Better-World Philosophy: A Sociological Synthesis (1899), The Social Ideal, p. 144

“It is not a pain to give to ingrates, but it is an intolerable one to be obliged to a dishonest man.”

François de La Rochefoucauld book Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims

Ce n'est pas un grand malheur d'obliger des ingrats, mais c'en est un insupportable d'être obligé à un malhonnête homme.
Variant translation: It is not a great misfortune to be of service to ingrates, but it is an intolerable one to be obliged to a dishonest man.
Maxim 317.
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665–1678)

“For the first time in history, the human species as a whole has gone into politics. Everyone is in the act, and there is no telling what may come of it.”

Saul Bellow (1915–2005) Canadian-born American writer

To Jerusalem and Back: A Personal Account (1976), p. 38
General sources

“How are you, doctor, that is what we say when we do not wish to play the weakling, we say Fine, even though we may be dying, and this is commonly known as taking one's courage in both hands, a phenomenon that has only been observed in the human species.”

José Saramago book Blindness

Source: Blindness (1995), p. 32

“Things may be fitting to be done, which are not fitting to be boasted of; for by the perverse judgment of the world, that often becomes the subject of censure, which is, in truth, not only innocent but laudable. What can be more innocent than the indulgence of a natural appetite? Or what more laudable than the propagation of our species?”

Henry Fielding (1707–1754) English novelist and dramatist

“When it comes to the traits we consider most important in a long-term mate, human beings are largely monomorphic. This is one of the most significant findings of these studies; however, it is easily overlooked when the discussion becomes fixated on traits that people consider less important but where sex differences are found. By shining a spotlight on these traits, we may create an inaccurate picture of our species, even though the differences are real. Our picture of human nature may be built on a foundation of exceptions to the rule. The rule — the fact that males and females in our species are surprisingly similar in many ways — may be relegated to the background. By taking genuine differences and then exaggerating their importance, our picture of our evolved nature may become a caricature: It may contain a recognizable grain of truth but distort its object.”

Steve Stewart-Williams (1971)

Source: The Ape that Kicked the Hornet's Nest (2013), p. 267

“There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult.”

Warren Buffett (1930) American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist

“Every time that I fill a high office, I create a hundred discontented men and an ingrate.”

Louis XIV of France (1638–1715) King of France and Navarra, from 1643 to 1715

Toutes les fois que je donne une place vacante, je fais cent mécontents et un ingrat.
Quoted in Voltaire, Le Siècle de Louis XIV (1751), ch.26

“Sodomy is as old as the human species.”

William S. Burroughs book Junkie

Junkie (1953)

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