Quotes about humanity
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“The human body is an amazing organism. It can go from dead tired to completely alert in a terrified blink.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Questing Beast

“Every human activity can be put at the service of the divine and of love. We should all exercise our gift to build community.”

Jean Vanier (1928–2019) Canadian humanitarian

Source: Community And Growth

Love, Exercises, Communication

“Chickens can do many things, but they cannot make sophisticated deals with humans.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Eating Animals

Source: Eating Animals

“The human body has limitations; the human spirit is boundless.”

Dean Karnazes (1962) American distance runner

Source: Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner

“You can love a person dear to you with a human love, but an enemy can only be loved with divine love.”

Leo Tolstoy book War and Peace

Source: War and Peace

Love, Personality

“All media work us over completely. They are so pervasive in their personal, political, economic, aesthetic, psychological, moral, ethical, and social consequences that they leave no part of us untouched, unaffected, unaltered. The medium is the message. Any understanding of social and cultural change is impossible without a knowledge of the way media work as environments. All media are extensions of some human faculty – psychic or physical.”

Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980) Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar-- a professor of English literature, a literary critic, and a …

Source: 1960s, The Medium is the Message (1967), p. 26
Source: The Medium is the Massage

Way, Understanding, Knowledge, Change

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

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

“Love is that condition in the human spirit so profound that it allows me to survive, and better than that, to thrive with passion, compassion, and style.”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

Love, Passion

“The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it. Power is what all messiahs really seek: not the chance to serve. This is true even of the pious brethren who carry the gospel to foreign parts.”

H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer

369
Popular version of the first sentence: "The urge to save humanity is almost always a false-front for the urge to rule it."
1940s–present, Minority Report : H.L. Mencken's Notebooks (1956)
Source: Minority Report

Chance, Parting, Falseness

“I'm just another stupid human.”

Markus Zusak (1975) Australian author

Variant: No, I'm not a saint, Sophie. I'm just another stupid human.
Source: I Am the Messenger

Stupidity

“Perfect love has a breath of poetry which can exalt the relations of the least-instructed human beings.”

George Eliot book Silas Marner

Source: Silas Marner

Love, Perfection

“As is the generation of leaves, so is that of humanity.
The wind scatters the leaves on the ground, but the live timber
Burgeons with leaves again in the season of spring returning.
So one generation of men will grow while another dies.”

Homér Iliad

VI. 146–149 (tr. R. Lattimore); Glaucus to Diomed.
Alexander Pope's translation:
: Like leaves on trees the race of man is found,
Now green in youth, now withering on the ground:
Another race the following spring supplies,
They fall successive, and successive rise:
So generations in their course decay;
So flourish these, when those are past away.
Iliad (c. 750 BC)
Source: The Iliad

Men, Spring, Season

“It struck her all at once that dealing with other human beings was an awful lot of work.”

Anne Tyler book Back When We Were Grownups

Source: Back When We Were Grownups

“Art is the human disposition of sensible or intelligible matter for an aesthetic end.”

James Joyce book A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Notebook entry, Paris (28 March 1903), printed in James Joyce: Occasional, Critical and Political Writing (2002) edited by Kevin Barry [Oxford University Press, 2002, ISBN 0-192-83353-7], p. 104
Source: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Art, Intelligence

“God gave the Angels wings and humans chocolate.
Mrs. Miracle”

Debbie Macomber (1948) American writer

Source: Mrs. Miracle

God, Angels

“To live and let live, without clamor for distinction or recognition; to wait on divine love; to write truth first on the tablet of one's own heart - this is the sanity and perfection of living, and my human ideal.”

Mary Baker Eddy (1821–1910) religious leader

Love, Truth, Waiting, Heart

“I guess there isn’t a rule book for what might be unacceptable to do to another human being.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Source: Mockingjay

Books

“The half-human was the hottest thing he'd ever gotten anywhere near. And he'd cozied up to a lightning strike once or twice before.”

Jessica Bird book Dark Lover

Source: Dark Lover

“We are all good friends. Friendship is what endures. Shared ideals, respect for the whole character of a human being.”

E.L. Doctorow Ragtime

Source: Ragtime

Friendship

“Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.”

Douglas Adams book Last Chance to See

Source: Last Chance to See

Learning, Funny

“I never use the words HUMANIST or HUMANITARIAN, as it seems to me that to be human is to be capable of the most heinous crimes in nature.”

Gregory Maguire book Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

Source: Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

Nature

“I'm human. That's how humans spend their time, doing shitty things.”

Nick Hornby book How to Be Good

Source: How to Be Good

Time

“When you become fully responisble for your life, you can become fully human; once you become human, you may discover what it mens to be a warrior.”

Dan Millman (1946) American self help writer

Life, Men

“A man does what he must — in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers, and pressures — and that is the basis of all human morality.”

John F. Kennedy book Profiles in Courage

1964 Memorial Edition, p. 266 http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Research-Aids/Ready-Reference/JFK-Quotations/Profiles-in-Courage-quotations.aspx Variant: A man does what he must — in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures — and that is the basis of all human morality. Source: Pre-1960, Profiles in Courage (1956) Context: The courage of life is often a less dramatic spectacle than the courage of a final moment; but it is no less a magnificent mixture of triumph and tragedy. A man does what he must — in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers, and pressures — and that is the basis of all human morality. In whatever area in life one may meet the challenges of courage, whatever may be the sacrifices he faces if he follows his conscience — the loss of his friends, his fortune, his contentment, even the esteem of his fellow men — each man must decide for himself the course he will follow. The stories of past courage can define that ingredient — they can teach, they can offer hope, they can provide inspiration. But they cannot supply courage itself. For this each man must look into his own soul. Context: For without belittling the courage with which men have died, we should not forget those acts of courage with which men — such as the subjects of this book — have lived. The courage of life is often a less dramatic spectacle than the courage of a final moment; but it is no less a magnificent mixture of triumph and tragedy. A man does what he must — in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers, and pressures — and that is the basis of all human morality. In whatever area in life one may meet the challenges of courage, whatever may be the sacrifices he faces if he follows his conscience — the loss of his friends, his fortune, his contentment, even the esteem of his fellow men — each man must decide for himself the course he will follow. The stories of past courage can define that ingredient — they can teach, they can offer hope, they can provide inspiration. But they cannot supply courage itself. For this each man must look into his own soul.

Personality, For Men

“It’s against the rules of humanity to believe there is nothing we can do.”

Melina Marchetta Finnikin of the Rock

Source: Finnikin of the Rock

“The worth of a human being lies in the ability to extend oneself, to go outside oneself, to exist in and for other people.”

Milan Kundera book Laughable Loves

Source: Laughable Loves

People

“The most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.
So as a prelude whites must be made to realise that they are only human, not superior. Same with Blacks. They must be made to realise that they are also human, not inferior.”

Steve Biko (1946–1977) anti-apartheid activist in South Africa

Statement quoted in the Boston Globe (25 October 1977)
Context: Even today, we are still accused of racism. This is a mistake. We know that all interracial groups in South Africa are relationships in which whites are superior, blacks inferior. So as a prelude whites must be made to realize that they are only human, not superior. Same with blacks. They must be made to realize that they are also human, not inferior.

“To make someone wait: the constant prerogative of all power, "age-old pastime of humanity".”

Roland Barthes book A Lover's Discourse: Fragments

Source: A Lover's Discourse: Fragments

Age, Waiting

“Most world religions denounced war as a barbaric waste of human life. We treasured the teachings of these religions so dearly that we frequently had to wage war in order to impose them on other people.”

Jon Stewart (1962) American political satirist, writer, television host, actor, media critic and stand-up comedian

Life, War, People, World

“The appreciation of pleasure can be the anchor of humanity.”

Elizabeth Gilbert (1969) American writer

Pleasure

“I decided it is better to scream. Silence is the real crime against humanity.”

Nadezhda Mandelstam (1899–1980) Russian writer and educator

Source: Hope Against Hope

Silence

“To be mortal is the most basic human experience, and yet man has never been able to accept it, grasp it, and behave accordingly. Man doesn't know how to be mortal. And when he dies, he doesn't even know how to be dead.”

Milan Kundera book Immortality

Source: Immortality

Dead

“And when you're young you want to fit in. Hell, I still want to fit in with certain humans, but as you get older you get a little more discriminating.”

Carrie Fisher book Wishful Drinking

Source: Wishful Drinking

Hell

“Human beings are remarkable - at what we can learn to live with. If we couldn't get strong from what we lose, and what we miss, and what we want and can't have, then we couldn't ever get strong enough, could we? What else makes us strong?”

John Irving book The Hotel New Hampshire

Source: The Hotel New Hampshire

Strong, Learning

“What is history but the story of how politicians have squandered the blood and treasure of the human race?”

Thomas Sowell (1930) American economist, social theorist, political philosopher and author

History

“I like my human experience served up with a little silence and restraint. Silence makes experience go further and, when it does die, gives it that dignity common to a thing one had touched and not ravished.”

Djuna Barnes (1892–1982) American Modernist writer, poet and artist

Silence

“Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities, because, as has been said, 'it is the quality which guarantees all others.”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

In Great Contemporaries, "Alfonso XIII" (1937).
The 1930s

Courage

“Human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but… life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves.”

Gabriel García Márquez (1927–2014) Colombian writer

Life, Birth

“But when we consider how small after all the cup of human enjoyment is, how soon overflowed with tears, how easily drained to the dregs in our quenchless thirst for infinity, we shall not blame ourselves for making so much of the tea-cup.”

Kakuzo Okakura book The Book of Tea

Source: The Book of Tea

Tear, Tea

“The Night World isn't a place. It's all around us. The creatures of Night World are beautiful and deadly and irresitable to humans. Your best friend could be one-so could your crush.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

World, Beauty, Night

“Human beings, as I know better than most, can get used to anything. Over time, even the unthinkable gradually wears a little niche for itself in your mind and becomes just something that happened.”

Tana French In the Woods

Source: In the Woods

Time

“If that is what this world is, what humans are… There is no future. Understanding and faith… If you take those away, all that's left is fear. I can't accept immoral methods or giving up.”

Masashi Kishimoto book Naruto

Source: Naruto, Band 11

World, Fear, Faith, Understanding

“And there it was again. Another religion turned against itself. Another edifice constructed by the human mind, decimated by human nature.”

Arundhati Roy book The God of Small Things

Source: The God of Small Things

Religion, Nature

“Human beings were invented by water as a device for transporting itself from one place to another.”

Tom Robbins book Another Roadside Attraction

Source: Another Roadside Attraction

Water

“The propagandist's purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human.”

Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English writer

The Olive Tree (1936)

People, Forgetting

“Without stories, we wouldn't be human beings at all”

Philip Pullman His Dark Materials trilogy

Source: His Dark Materials

“All human errors are impatience, the premature breaking off of what is methodical, an apparent fencing in of the apparent thing.”

Franz Kafka book The Zürau Aphorisms

2
Variant translation: All human errors are impatience, a premature breaking off of methodical procedure, an apparent fencing-in of what is apparently at issue.
The Zürau Aphorisms (1917 - 1918)

Error

“A human being in perfection ought always to preserve a calm and peaceful mind and never to allow passion or a transitory desire to disturb his tranquility.”

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797–1851) English novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer

Source: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Peace, Passion, Perfection

“Human beings can withstand a week without water, two weeks without food, many years of homelessness, but not loneliness. It is the worst of all tortures, the worst of all sufferings.”

Paulo Coelho book Eleven Minutes

Source: Eleven Minutes

Food, Suffering, Water, Loneliness

“Humans, not places, make memories.”

Ama Ata Aidoo (1942) Novelist, poet

Memory

“The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for whites or women for men.”

Alice Walker (1944) American author and activist

Foreword to The Dreaded Comparison: Animal Slavery and Human Slavery (1996) by Marjorie Spiegel, p. 14 http://books.google.com/books?ei=je4zTPjrBcmTnQfXmMCLBA&ct=result&id=8u_tAAAAMAAJ&dq=dreaded+comparison+%22exist+for+their+own%22&q=%22exist+for+their+own%22.

Women, Men, People, World

“My dear, I used to think I was serving humanity… and I pleasured in the thought. Then I discovered that humanity does not want to be served; on the contrary it resents any attempt to serve it. So now I do what pleases myself.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Stranger in a Strange Land

Source: Stranger in a Strange Land

Pleasure, Thinking

“The human mind is a delusion generator, not a window to trurh.”

Scott Adams (1957) cartoonist, writer

Source: God's Debris: A Thought Experiment

“This is a classic story of the friendship between humans and cats. Yes. I got in a lie right from the start!”

Hiro Mashima (1977) Japanese manga artist

Source: Fairy Tail, Vol. 1

Friendship, Lie, Cats

“[…] even in the cruelest human being there can exist a flower of good. Maybe just the tiniest blossom, in need of water and sunlight, but a flower just the same.”

Meg Cabot book Shadowland

Source: Shadowland

Flowers, Water

“This is good, life must continue, we are fighting barbarians, but we must remain human.”

David Benioff book City of Thieves

Source: City of Thieves

Life, Fight

“The human heart was undeniably the stupidest organ in the body.”

Francine Pascal (1938) American writer

Heart

“No matter what race we are, what ethnic background, sexual orientation, or what views we may have, we are all human. Unfortunately, not all humans see it that way.”

Erin Gruwell book The Freedom Writers Diary

Source: The Freedom Writers Diary

Way

“Stealing money from humans is rewarding both financially and spiritually.”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: Dreams of a Dark Warrior

Money

“Surround yourself with human beings, my dear James. They are easier to fight for than principles.”

Ian Fleming book Casino Royale

Source: Casino Royale (1953), Ch. 20 : The Nature Of Evil
Context: "Surround yourself with human beings, my dear James. They are easier to fight for than principles."
He laughed. "But don't let me down and become human yourself. We would lose a wonderful machine."

Fight

“If all we've got to look forward to is disloyalty and treachery, why do we even make friends?"
"Again, human nature. Hoping for the best is what drives us.”

Gena Showalter (1975) American writer

Source: Intertwined

Hope, Nature

“It was the hat. He looked sweet in the hat. How could a man in a fuzzy blue hat have used human bones to pave his roads?”

Jennifer Egan A Visit from the Goon Squad

Source: A Visit from the Goon Squad

“I know the human being and the fish can coexist peacefully.”

George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States

Speech in Saginaw, Michigan (29 September 2000), http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-553138.html referring to a widely reported dispute in the Klamath region of Oregon between farmers with irrigation rights and Native Americans with fishing rights. 2000s, 2000

Fish