„Thus I live in the world rather as a spectator of mankind than as one of the species.“

No. 1 (1 March 1711).
The Spectator (1711–1714)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021.

Joseph Addison226

politician, writer and playwright 1672 - 1719

Related quotes

„What I mean by living to one's-self is living in the world, as in it, not of it: it is as if no one know there was such a person, and you wished no one to know it: it is to be a silent spectator of the mighty scene of things, not an object of attention or curiosity in it; to take a thoughtful, anxious interest in what is passing in the world, but not to feel the slightest inclination to make or meddle with it.“

— William Hazlitt English writer 1778 - 1830

"On Living to One's-Self"
Table Talk: Essays On Men And Manners http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Essays/TableHazIV.htm (1821-1822)

World, Feeling, Personality

„I would rather live in a world where my life is surrounded by mystery than live in a world so small that my mind could comprehend it.“

— Harry Emerson Fosdick American pastor 1878 - 1969

Source: Riverside Sermons (1958), p. 22

Life, World

„I would much rather have a living husband with no job and no gold than a dead one.“

— Nick Drake (poet) British writer 1961

ibid
The Rahotep series, Book 3: Egypt: The Book of Chaos (2011)

Dead

„The most interesting thing in nature is that two species exist, only two species, which are expansionist: mankind and insects. All other species are territorial. The insect is a devourer, an expander, it keeps on expanding so much and it doesn’t even care. And mankind is like that, as well… The two species which are going to end up fighting over the world are going to be insects and human beings.“

— Guillermo del Toro Mexican film director 1964

Lo que más interesante es en la naturaleza existen dos especies, unicamente dos especies que son expansionistas: el hombre y los insectos. Las demás especies son territoriales. El insecto es devorador, expansionista, hasta que se siegue expandiendo y no le importa. Y el hombre es así... las dos especies que van a acabar peleándose por el mundo van a ser insectos y hombres.
Interview with Guillermo del Toro. http://www.filmoteca.com/sec4/guidtoro.htm

World, Nature, Fight

„I would rather spend one lifetime with you, than face all the ages of this world alone.“

— John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

Source: The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring

World, Age

„The creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifications and thus adds his contribution to the creative act.“

— Marcel Duchamp French painter and sculptor 1887 - 1968

Quote from The Writings of Marcel Duchamp (Marchand du Sel) e.d. Michel Sanouille and Elmer Peterson, New York 1973, pp. 139-140
posthumous
Context: The spectator experiences the phenomenon of transmutation; through the change from inert matter into a work of art, an actual transubstantiation has taken place... All in all, the creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work into contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifications and thus adds his contribution to the creative act.

World

„One can best be judged by the life they live rather than the words they speak.“

— RJ Intindola (Gandolfo)

1999

Life

„It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but rather the one most adaptable to change.“

— Charles Darwin British naturalist, author of "On the origin of species, by means of natural selection" 1809 - 1882

The earliest known appearance of this basic statement is a paraphrase of Darwin in the writings of Leon C. Megginson, a management sociologist at Louisiana State University. [[Megginson, Leon C., Lessons from Europe for American Business, Southwestern Social Science Quarterly, 1963, 44(1), 3-13, p. 4]] Megginson's paraphrase (with slight variations) was later turned into a quotation. See the summary of Nicholas Matzke's findings in "One thing Darwin didn't say: the source for a misquotation" http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/one-thing-darwin-didnt-say at the Darwin Correspondence Project. The statement is incorrectly attributed, without any source, to Clarence Darrow in Improving the Quality of Life for the Black Elderly: Challenges and Opportunities : Hearing before the Select Committee on Aging, House of Representatives, One Hundredth Congress, first session, September 25, 1987 (1988).
Misattributed

Intelligence, Change

„It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but rather the one most adaptable to change.“

— Clarence Darrow American lawyer and leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union 1857 - 1938

As quoted in Improving the Quality of Life for the Black Elderly: Challenges and Opportunities : Hearing before the Select Committee on Aging, House of Representatives, One Hundredth Congress, first session, September 25, 1987 (1988)
This quote's earliest known source is from Leon C. Megginson (see Charles Darwin)
Misattributed

Intelligence, Change

„Thus the sum of things is ever being renewed, and mortal creatures live dependent one upon another. Some species increase, others diminish, and in a short space the generations of living creatures are changed and, like runners, pass on the torch of life.“
Sic rerum summa novatur semper, et inter se mortales mutua vivunt. augescunt aliae gentes, aliae minuuntur, inque brevi spatio mutantur saecla animantum et quasi cursores vitai lampada tradunt.

— Lucretius Roman poet and philosopher -94 - -55 BC

Sic rerum summa novatur
semper, et inter se mortales mutua vivunt.
augescunt aliae gentes, aliae minuuntur,
inque brevi spatio mutantur saecla animantum
et quasi cursores vitae lampada tradunt.
Book II, line 75 (tr. Rouse)
De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things)

Life, Change, Dependency