Quotes about humanity
page 27

“Beyond the reach of human rage
A drop of hell, a touch of strange…”

Stephen King book The Gunslinger

Source: The Gunslinger

Hell, Rage

“To write is human, to edit is divine.”

Stephen King (1947) American author

Source: On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

“We must laugh and cry, enjoy and suffer, in a word, vibrate to our full capacity … I think that’s what being really human means.”

Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880) French writer (1821–1880)

Thinking, Suffering, Cry

“Laughter is sunshine, it chases winter from the human face.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Variant: A smile is the same as sunshine; it banishes winter from the human countenance.
Source: Les Misérables

Laughter, Winter

“Genius is an exceedingly common human quality, probably natural to most of us.”

John Taylor Gatto (1935–2018) American teacher, book author

Nature

“For us there is no valid definition of socialism other than the abolition of the exploitation of one human being by another.”

Ernesto Che Guevara (1928–1967) Argentine Marxist revolutionary

Afro-Asian Conference (1965)
Context: For us there is no valid definition of socialism other than the abolition of the exploitation of one human being by another. As long as this has not been achieved, if we think we are in the stage of building socialism but instead of ending exploitation the work of suppressing it comes to a halt — or worse, is reversed — then we cannot even speak of building socialism.

“Any humane and reasonable person must conclude that if the ends, however desireable, are uncertain and the means are horrible and certain, these means must not be employed.”

Howard Zinn (1922–2010) author and historian

Source: Passionate Declarations: Essays on War and Justice

Personality

“I let myself feel good and sorry for myself, but only for a second. Daddy always said that the most useless of all human emotions was self-pity.”

Gabrielle Zevin (1977) American writer

Source: All These Things I've Done

Feeling

“A humanist has four leading characteristics — curiosity, a free mind, belief in good taste, and belief in the human race.”

E.M. Forster (1879–1970) English novelist

"George and Gide"
Two Cheers for Democracy (1951)

“The human heart has a way of making itself large again even after it's been broken into a million pieces.”

Robert James Waller The Bridges of Madison County

Source: The Bridges of Madison County

Way, Heart, Heartbreaking

“The more I see of the world, the more am i dissatisfied with it; and everyday confirms my belief of the inconsistencies of all human.”

Jane Austen book Pride and Prejudice

Source: Pride and Prejudice

World

“The lifetime of a human being is measured by decades, the lifetime of the Sun is a hundred million times longer. Compared to a star, we are like mayflies, fleeting ephemeral creatures who live out their lives in the course of a single day.”

Carl Sagan book Cosmos

Source: Cosmos

Star, Time, Sun

“An economic system which can only expand or expire must be false to all that is human.”

Edward Abbey book Desert Solitaire

Source: Desert Solitaire

Falseness

“Human society as a whole is a vast brainwashing machine whose semantic rules and sex roles create a social robot.”

Robert Anton Wilson book Prometheus Rising

Source: Prometheus Rising

Sex

“Long human words (the longer the better) were easy, unmistakable, and rarely changed their meanings… but short words were slippery, unpredictable, changing their meanings without any pattern.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Stranger in a Strange Land

Source: Stranger in a Strange Land

Change

“Anybody who has the courage to raise his eyes and look sanely at the awful human condition… must realize finally that tiny periods of temporary release from intolerable suffering is the most that any individual has the right to expect.”

Flann O'Brien (1911–1966) Irish writer

Courage, Suffering

“The story of human intimacy is one of constantly allowing ourselves to see those we love most deeply in a new, more fractured light. Look hard. Risk that.”

Cheryl Strayed book Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar

Source: Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar

Love, Light

“What would Jesus, or any human being who isn't an asshole, do?”

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

“Ignorance is a virus. Once it starts spreading, it can only be cured by reason. For the sake of humanity, we must be that cure.”

Neil deGrasse Tyson (1958) American astrophysicist and science communicator

“Human existence is so fragile a thing and exposed to such dangers that I cannot love without trembling.”

Simone Weil book Gravity and Grace

Source: Gravity and Grace

Love

“I am not going to change who I am. I am human and I know how to love, and be kind, and be compassionate to those who are weaker than me. Just because I have power doesn't mean I have to use it!”

Garth Nix book Superior Saturday

Source: Superior Saturday

Love, Change

“The only angels we need invoke are those of our better nature: reason, honesty, and love. The only demons we must fear are those that lurk inside every human mind: ignorance, hatred, greed, and, which is surely the devil's masterpiece.”

Sam Harris (1967) American author, philosopher and neuroscientist

Source: The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason

Love, Fear, Angels, Nature

“The control of the production of wealth is the control of human life itself.”

Hilaire Belloc (1870–1953) writer

Life, Wealth

“It knew that the earth goddess intended on razing all human civilization, and this city, which had stood ffor thousands of years, was saying back to her: You wanna dissolve this city, Dirt Face? Give it a shot.”

Rick Riordan The Mark of Athena

Source: The Mark of Athena

“Our flaws are what makes us human. If we can accept them as part of who we are, they really don't even have to be an issue.”

Ellen DeGeneres (1958) American stand-up comedian, television host, and actress

Source: Seriously... I'm Kidding

Parting

“We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right. Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy and transform our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

1960s, Letter from a Birmingham Jail (1963)
Context: I had also hoped that the white moderate would reject the myth concerning time in relation to the struggle for freedom. I have just received a letter from a white brother in Texas. He writes: "All Christians know that the colored people will receive equal rights eventually, but it is possible that you are in too great a religious hurry. It has taken Christianity almost two thousand years to accomplish what it has. The teachings of Christ take time to come to earth." Such an attitude stems from a tragic misconception of time, from the strangely irrational notion that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills. Actually, time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively. More and more I feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right. Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy and transform our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity.

Men, God, Hate, People

“When did we stop being people, being human?”

Malorie Blackman book Knife Edge

Source: Knife Edge

People

“All human behavior, all human motivations, all man’s hopes and fears, were heavily colored and largely controlled by mankind’s tragic and oddly beautiful pattern of reproduction.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Stranger in a Strange Land

Source: Stranger in a Strange Land

Fear, Beauty, Hope, Color

“Art, as I see it, is any human activity which doesn’t grow out of either of our species’ two basic instincts: survival and reproduction.”

Scott McCloud (1960) American cartoonist

Source: Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art

Art

“Welcome to the human race. Nobody controls his own life, Ender. The best you can do is choose to fill the roles given you by good people, by people who love you.”

Orson Scott Card (1951) American science fiction novelist

Love, Life, People

“The problem isn't to learn to love humanity, but to learn to love those members of it who happen to be at hand.”

Samuel R. Delany book Dhalgren

Source: Dhalgren

Love, Problem, Learning

“You know what they say: When people start burning books they'll soon burn human beings.”

Cornelia Funke Inkheart trilogy

Source: Inkheart

People, Books

“It's choice that makes us human.”

Jodi Picoult (1966) Author

Source: Vanishing Acts

“They're animals, all right. But why are you so goddam sure that makes us human beings?”

Stephen King book The Long Walk

Source: The Long Walk

Animals

“I believe there's a calling for all of us. I know that every human being has value and purpose. The real work of our lives is to become aware. And awakened. To answer the call.”

Oprah Winfrey (1954) American businesswoman, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist

“One of the most important resources that a garden makes available for use, is the gardener's own body. A garden gives the body the dignity of working in its own support. It is a way of rejoining the human race.”

Wendell Berry (1934) author

Way, Support

“Denial, they say, stands for"Don't even notice I am lying." Human beings are the only animals who are happily lied to by our own minds about what is actually happening around us.”

Cesar Millan (1969) Mexican - American dog trainer and television personality

Source: Be the Pack Leader: Use Cesar's Way to Transform Your Dog . . . and Your Life

Lying, Animals

“Avoidable human misery is more often caused not so much by stupidity as by ignorance, particularly our ignorance about ourselves.”

Carl Sagan book The Demon-Haunted World

Source: The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

Stupidity

“The real poetry and beauty in life comes from an intense relationship with reality in all its aspects. Realism is in fact the ideal we must aspire to, the highest point of human rationality.”

Robert Greene book The 50th Law

Source: The 50th Law

Life, Beauty, Reality

“… The human perception of this energy first begins with a heightened sensitivity to beauty.”

James Redfield book The Celestine Prophecy

Source: The Celestine Prophecy

Beauty

“She's you, without your conscience, or your feelings. She's you without your humanity."
"You're saying she's a mood swing?"
He shrugged. "Or maybe you're her mood swing."
"Don't even joke about that.”

Derek Landy (1974) Irish children's writer

Source: Death Bringer

Feeling, Mood

“I simply regard romantic comedies as a subgenre of sci-fi, in which the world created therein has different rules than my regular human world.”

Mindy Kaling book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

Source: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

World

“And those who saw, it did surprise,
Such drops could fall from human eyes.”

George Gordon Byron (1788–1824) English poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement

“I feel that the essence of dance is the expression of mankind — the landscape of the human soul.”

Martha Graham (1894–1991) American dancer and choreographer

I Am A Dancer (1952)
Source: Blood Memory
Context: I feel that the essence of dance is the expression of mankind — the landscape of the human soul. I hope that every dance I do reveals something of myself or some wonderful thing a human being can be.

Feeling, Soul, Dance

“Death isn't funny. Then why are there so many jokes about death? Jill, with us — us humans — death is so sad that we must laugh at it.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Stranger in a Strange Land

Source: Stranger in a Strange Land

Death, Sadness