“We all want things we can't have. Being a decent human being is accepting that.”
Source: The Collector
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John Fowles120
British writer 1926–2005Related quotes
Joyce Brothers (1927–2013) Joyce Brothers
The Successful Woman : How You Can Have a Career, a Husband, and a Family — and Not Feel Guilty About It (1988), p. 18
“Being a decent human being will require effort and energy…”
David Nicholls book One Day
Source: One Day
Adam Roberts book Jack Glass: The Story of a Murderer
Part 2, Chapter 13, “Of Multitudes” (p. 240).
Jack Glass (2012)
Pierre Teilhard De Chardin (1881–1955) French philosopher and Jesuit priest
This is attributed to Pierre Teilhard de Chardin in The Joy of Kindness (1993), by Robert J. Furey, p. 138; but it is attributed to G. I. Gurdjieff in Beyond Prophecies and Predictions: Everyone's Guide To The Coming Changes (1993) by Moira Timms, p. 62; neither cite a source. It was widely popularized by Wayne Dyer, who often quotes it in his presentations, crediting it to Chardin, as does Stephen Covey in Living the 7 Habits : Stories of Courage and Inspiration (2000), p. 47. Such statements could be considered paraphrases of Hegel's dictum that matter is spirit fallen into a state of self-otherness. Or any number of thousands of similarly vague quotes by hundreds of predecessors.
Disputed
Variant: We are not human beings on a spiritual journey. We are spiritual beings on a human journey.
Variant: We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience.
Nkosi Johnson (1989–2001) South African child AIDS activist
Closing lines of his address to the 13th International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa, in July 2000. <br class="br">Source: Nkosi's speech at Nkosi's Haven http://www.nkosi.iafrica.com/index.html
“We human beings have a remarkable way of growing accustomed to things.”
Arthur Golden book Memoirs of a Geisha
Source: Memoirs of a Geisha