
Source: Power and Innocence (1972), Ch. 11 : The Humanity of the Rebel
Source: The Doctrine of the Mean
Source: Power and Innocence (1972), Ch. 11 : The Humanity of the Rebel
“Myth: There’s conflict between selfish free markets and a benevolent world of human sympathy.”
Source: Doing Virtuous Business (Thomas Nelson, 2011), p. 10.
“The need to raise itself above humanity is humanity’s prime characteristic.”
Es ist der Menschheit eigen, dass sie sich über die Menschheit erheben muss.
“Ideas,” Lucinde and the Fragments, P. Firchow, trans. (1991) § 21
“Inhumanity, n. One of the signal and characteristic qualities of humanity.”
Source: The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary
George C. Homans (1962), "Autobiographical introduction", in: Sentiments & activities; essays in social science https://archive.org/stream/sentimentsactivi00homa#page/34/mode/2up, p. 35
“Perfectibility is one of the most unequivocal characteristics of the human species.”
Vol. 1, bk. 1, ch. 2
Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793)
Source: Physics and Politics http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext03/phypl10.txt (1869), Ch. 5
Context: I wish the art of benefiting men had kept pace with the art of destroying them; for though war has become slow, philanthropy has remained hasty. The most melancholy of human reflections, perhaps, is that, on the whole, it is a question whether the, benevolence of mankind does most good or harm. Great good, no doubt, philanthropy does, but then it also does great evil. It augments so much vice, it multiplies so much suffering, it brings to life such great populations to suffer and to be vicious, that it is open to argument whether it be or be not an evil to the world, and this is entirely because excellent people fancy that they can do much by rapid action — that they will most benefit the world when they most relieve their own feelings; that as soon as an evil is seen "something" ought to be done to stay and prevent it.
“There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult.”