Quotes about humanity
page 30

“There is nothing for her beyond those gates," Gavriel said. "Do you think to bring her along like a talisman to remind you of your humanity? Or do you think sharing your damnation will lighten the burden of it?”

Holly Black book The Coldest Girl in Coldtown

Source: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown

Thinking

“Love and work are the cornerstones of our humanness.”

Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian neurologist known as the founding father of psychoanalysis

Love

“Dare I say I miss him? I do. I miss him. I still see him in my dreams. They are nightmares mostly, but nightmares tinged with love. Such is the strangeness of the human heart.”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Source: Life of Pi

Love, Dreams, Heart, Goodbye

“You are an infinite spiritual being having a temporary human experience.”

Wayne W. Dyer (1940–2015) American writer

“Everything is evil that humans can't control or conquer”

Melina Marchetta Finnikin of the Rock

Source: Finnikin of the Rock

Evil

“We tend to think human knowledge as progressive; because we know more and more, our parents and grandparents are back numbers. But a contrary theory is possible - that we simply recognize different things at different times and in different ways.”

Robertson Davies book The Rebel Angels

Source: The Rebel Angels

Way, Knowledge, Thinking, Parent

“That was when the world wasn't so big and I could see everywhere. It was when my father was a hero and not a human.”

Markus Zusak (1975) Australian author

Source: I Am the Messenger

World, For Father

“No matter what happens, you will always be Pack. Because you have that loyalty and restraint. Not human, not whatever, but Kate. Unique and different, but not separate.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Rises

Loyalty

“It's funny how you can forget everything except people loving you. Maybe that's why humans find it so hard getting over love affairs. It's not the pain they're getting over, it's the love.”

Melina Marchetta book On the Jellicoe Road

Source: On the Jellicoe Road

Love, Pain, People, Forgetting

“The only thing that guarantees an open-ended collaboration among human beings, the only thing that guarantees that this project is truly open-ended, is a willingness to have our beliefs and behaviors modified by the power of conversation.”

Sam Harris (1967) American author, philosopher and neuroscientist

Behavior

“When a person doesn't have gratitude, something is missing in his or her humanity. A person can almost be defined by his or her attitude toward gratitude.”

Elie Wiesel (1928–2016) writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor

Interview in O : The Oprah Magazine (November 2000)

Personality, Gratitude

“So how on earth can I bring a child into the world, knowing that such sorrow lies ahead, that it is such a large part of what it means to be human?
I'm not sure. That's my answer: I'm not sure.”

Anne Lamott (1954) Novelist, essayist, memoirist, activist

Source: Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year

World, Parting

“Finally, a human man saw me as intensely valuable. Just my luck he was happily married and thought I was a freak.”

Charlaine Harris Dead and Gone

Source: Dead and Gone

“A tattoo is a true poetic creation, and is always more than meets the eye. As a tattoo is grounded on living skin, so its essence emotes a poignancy unique to the mortal human condition.”

V. Vale (1942) American writer

Source: Modern Primitives: An Investigation of Contemporary Adornment and Ritual

Tattoo

“Someday I want to be rich. Some people get so rich they lose all respect for humanity. That's how rich I want to be.”

Rita Rudner (1953) American comedian

People

“There, in the tin factory, in the first moment of the atomic age, a human being was crushed by books.”

John Hersey book Hiroshima

Source: Hiroshima

Books, Age

“So I'm scared, because you're not just not human, you're not like anyone…. there's nobody like you in all the world and it's you I want. I want you and I hate wanting things and I especially hate admitting I want them.”

Holly Black book The Coldest Girl in Coldtown

Source: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown

Hate, World

“It's the sorrow you feel that allows you to crave love. Without the suffering, there would be no true pleasure. Without tears, no joy. Without deficiency, no longing. This is the secret of the human heart, Rom.”

Ted Dekker book Forbidden

Source: Forbidden

Love, Pleasure, Secret, Feeling

“You are using your own moral intuitions to authenticate the wisdom of the Bible - and then, in the next moment, you assert that we human beings cannot possibly rely upon our own intuitions to rightly guide us in the world.”

Sam Harris Letter to a Christian Nation

Source: Letter to a Christian Nation

Wisdom, World

“Life is full of screwups. You're supposed to fail sometimes. It's a required part of the human existance.”

Sarah Dessen book Along for the Ride

Variant: You're supposed to fail sometimes. It's a required part of the human existence
-Eli
Source: Along for the Ride

Life, Parting

“Death in anonymity is the ultimate insult to human dignity.”

Kathy Reichs book Break No Bones

Source: Break No Bones

Death

“I have striven not to laugh at human actions, not to weep at them, nor to hate them, but to understand them.”

Baruch Spinoza book Tractatus Theologico-Politicus

Source: Tractatus Theologico-Politicus

Hate, Understanding

“You assume that it has to be a male god who finds a human female attractive? How sexist is that?”

Rick Riordan book The Lightning Thief

Source: The Lightning Thief

God

“The most wonderful opportunity which life offers is to be human.”

Henry Miller (1891–1980) American novelist

Life

“What we lose in our great human exodus from the land is a rooted sense, as deep and intangible as religious faith, of why we need to hold on to the wild and beautiful places that once surrounded us.”

Barbara Kingsolver book Small Wonder

Source: Small Wonder

Faith, Beauty, Sense

“You see gods have great power, but only humans have creativity, the power to change history rather than simply repeat it. Humans can… how do you moderns say it… think outside the cup.”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

Source: The Red Pyramid

God, History, Thinking, Change

“It didn't pay to trust another human being. Humans didn't have it, whatever it took.”

Charles Bukowski book Ham on Rye

Source: Ham on Rye

“Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure; seldom can it happen that something is not a little disguised or a little mistaken.”

Jane Austen book Emma

Source: Emma

Truth

“Just a rat, she repeated to herself. After all, there were rats in the palace. Human and otherwise. Could be worse.”

Cinda Williams Chima (1952) Novelist

Source: The Demon King

“There are times when the human face and body can express the yearning of the heart so accurately that you can, as they say, read them like a book. Do not abandon me.”

Diane Setterfield book The Thirteenth Tale

Source: The Thirteenth Tale

Books, Time, Reading, Heart

“I'm only interested in stories that are about the crushing of the human heart.”

Richard Yates (1926–1992) Novelist, short story writer

Heart

“I do not understand how you humans can walk in shoes that are that tall.”
“Its my motto,” said Isabelle, with a sultry smile. “Nothing less than seven inches.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Source: City of Ashes

Smile, Shoe, Understanding

“We'll meet you here. Hopefully everyone will be in human form." A wry smile. "Though I'll warn you, he's not a whole lot more pleasant that way. At least as a wolf, he can't talk.”

Kelley Armstrong (1968) Canadian writer

Source: The Rising

Smile, Way, Wolf

“Only human beings can look directly at something, have all the information they need to make an accurate prediction, perhaps even momentarily make the accurate prediction, and then say that it isn't so.”

Gavin de Becker (1954) American engineer

Source: The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence

“The eternal problem of the human being is how to structure his waking hours”

Eric Berne book Games People Play: The Psychology of Human Relationships

Source: Games People Play

Problem

“You're trying to be tricky. What's morality?"
"It's the difference between what's right and what you can rationalize."
"Must be a human thing."
"Exactly.”

Christopher Moore (1957) American writer of comic fantasy

“More exists among human beings than can be answered by the simplistic question I'm hit with every day of my life: "Are you a man or a woman?”

Leslie Feinberg (1949–2014) activist and author known for authoring Stone Butch Blues

Life, Question

“Accident ruled every corner of the universe except the chambers of the human heart.”

David Guterson book Snow Falling on Cedars

Source: Snow Falling on Cedars (1994), Ch. 32, last page.

Universe, Heart

“You're probably wondering what's going to happen to you. That's easy. The same thing is going to happen to you that has happened to every other human being who has ever lived. You're going to die. We all die. That's just how it is.”

Ernest Cline book Ready Player One

Source: Ready Player One

“When any civilization is dust and ashes," he said, "art is all that's left over. Images, words, music. Imaginative structures. Meaning—human meaning, that is—is defined by them. You have to admit that.”

Margaret Atwood book Oryx and Crake

Source: Oryx and Crake

Art, Music, Imagination

“I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides.”

Elie Wiesel (1928–2016) writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor

Suffering

“So you see, Good and Evil have the same face; it all depends on when they cross the path of each individual human being.”

Paulo Coelho book The Devil and Miss Prym

Source: The Devil and Miss Prym

Evil, Dependency

“Books are the carriers of civilization… They are companions, teachers, magicians, bankers of the treasures of the mind. Books are humanity in print.”

Barbara W. Tuchman (1912–1989) American historian and author

Variant: Books are... companions, teachers, magicians, bankers of the treasures of mind. Books are humanity in print.

Books, Teachers

“You are human, you will make mistakes, and it’s one of the most beautiful things about being human, but you must learn from your mistakes, otherwise your life will have a lot of unnecessary pain.”

Rhonda Byrne book The Magic

Source: The Magic

Life, Pain, Beauty, Learning

“All these words, words like 'evil' and 'vicious', they meant nothing to Nature. Yes, evil was a human invention.”

John Marsden book Tomorrow, When the War Began

Source: Tomorrow, When the War Began

Nature, Evil

“Every human being must be viewed according to what it is good for. For not one of us, no, not one, is perfect. And were we to love none who had imperfection, this world would be a desert for our love.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

Love, World, Perfection

“The human heart is my school.”

Anne Rice book The Vampire Armand

Source: The Vampire Armand

School, Heart

“Finally, she mused that human existence is as brief as the life of autumn grass, so what was there to fear from taking chances with your life?”

Mo Yan book Red Sorghum

Source: Red Sorghum: A Novel of China (1986/1987)

Life, Fear, Autumn, Grass

“It is a very natural human trait to destroy that which frightens us.”

Laurell K. Hamilton book Guilty Pleasures

Source: Guilty Pleasures

Nature

“The problem with people is that they're only human.”

Bill Watterson (1958) American comic artist

People, Problem

“I had rather be shut up in a very modest cottage with my books, my family and a few old friends, dining on simple bacon, and letting the world roll on as it liked, than to occupy the most splendid post, which any human power can give.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

Letter to Alexander Donald (7 February 1788)
1780s
Source: Letters of Thomas Jefferson

Books, World, Family

“To know and feel all this and not have the words to express it makes a human a grave of his own thoughts.”

John Donne (1572–1631) English poet

Feeling

“It takes too much imagination to see the sorrows of people we take for happy. Their real battles take place, like those of the stars, in some realm of light imperceptible to the human eye. It is a feat of the mind to guess another's heart.”

Andrew Sean Greer (1970) Novelist, short story writer

Source: Confessions Of Max Tivoli

Happiness, People, Imagination, Star

“My old tutor used to say that the hearts of Nephilim were like the hearts of angels: They felt every human pain, and never healed”

Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire

Source: City of Heavenly Fire

Pain, Angels, Heart

“This inhuman place makes human monsters.”

Stephen King book The Shining

Variant: Sometimes human places, create inhuman monsters.
Source: The Shining 1977

“With reasonable men, I will reason; with humane men I will plead; but to tyrants I will give no quarter, nor waste arguments where they will certainly be lost.”

William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879) American journalist

Vol. I, p. 188
William Lloyd Garrison 1805-1879 (1885)

Men

“Human beings are the only creatures that allow their children to come back home.”

Bill Cosby (1937) American actor, comedian, author, producer, musician, activist

Children, Home

“I am certain that a Sewing Machine would relieve as much human suffering as a hundred Lunatic Asylums, and possibly a good deal more.”

Margaret Atwood book Alias Grace

Source: Alias Grace (1996)

Suffering

“Love is lust made meaningful. Hope is hunger made human.”

R. Scott Bakker book The Warrior Prophet

Ajencis, The Third Analytic of Men
Source: The Warrior Prophet (2005)

Love, Hunger, Hope

“Not an ugly color, Nanny thought. Just not a human color.”

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

Color

“The sweetness and generosity and politeness and gentleness and humanity of the French had shown me how lovely life can be if one takes time to be friendly.”

Julia Child My Life in France

Source: My Life in France

Love, Life, Time

“Then again, Solomon was human. And that meant he was flawed (Go on, take a look at yourself in the mirror. A good long look, if you can bear it. See? Flawed's putting it mildly, isn't it?)”

Jonathan Stroud book The Ring of Solomon

Source: The Ring of Solomon

“The price of hating other human beings is loving oneself less.”

Eldridge Cleaver (1935–1998) American activist

"On Becoming"
1960s, Soul on Ice (1968)

Love, Hate

“Imagine what could be accomplished if only the human race would shed its humanity.”

Max Brooks book World War Z

Source: World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

Imagination

“You'll never have a quiet world till you knock the patriotism out of the human race.”

George Bernard Shaw Heartbreak House

O'Flaherty V.C. (1919)
1910s
Source: Heartbreak House

World

“I do not need the written code of a spiritual belief to act like a decent human being.”

Jim Butcher book Changes

Source: Changes

“The revolution is made through human beings, but individuals must forge their revolutionary spirit day by day”

Ernesto Che Guevara (1928–1967) Argentine Marxist revolutionary

“Sure, it was your idea and your fly, but he caught the big fish. Remember, fairness is a human idea largely unknown in nature.”

John Gierach (1946) American sportswriter

Source: Death, Taxes, and Leaky Waders: A John Gierach Fly-Fishing Treasury

Idea, Nature, Fish, Flying

“Anyone who says he knows God's intention is showing a lot of very human ego.”

Michael Crichton book Next

Source: Next

God

“The Human Species could have been great but instead we became satisfied with lights on our tennis shoes.”

George Carlin (1937–2008) American stand-up comedian

Shoe, Light

“Spiritual realization is theoretically the easiest thing and in practice the most difficult thing there is. It is the easiest because it is enough to think of God. It is the most difficult because human nature is forgetfulness of God.”

Frithjof Schuon (1907–1998) Swiss philosopher

Source: Spiritual Perspectives And Human Facts

God, Nature, Thinking, Forgetting

“Humanity can be roughly divided into three sorts of people - those who find comfort in literature, those who find comfort in personal adornment, and those who find comfort in food;”

Elizabeth Goudge (1900–1984) English fiction writer

Source: Little White Horse

People, Food, Literature, Personality

“He won't be one of those girlishly pretty men with curly gold hair… He'll be dark, dangerous, too. Brave, certainly, but not without flaws. I like my heroes human.”

Nora Roberts (1950) American romance writer

Source: Enchanted

Men

“It is always of interest to know what strikes another human being as remarkable.”

Graham Greene book The Ministry of Fear

Source: The Ministry of Fear

“I'm just saying -- you can't prevent other people from disappointing you. It's bound to happen at some point. We're all only human. What you can do is decide how you're going to deal with it.”

Sara Shepard (1973) Author

People, Disappointment

“The basic fact about human existence is not that it is a tragedy, but that it is a bore. It is not so much a war as an endless standing in line. The objection to it is not that it is predominantly painful, but that it is lacking in sense.”

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

Baltimore Evening Sun (9 August 1926)
1920s
Source: A Mencken Chrestomathy

Pain, War, Sense

“Most important and most vulnerable of human emotions; Love.”

Paulo Coelho book Brida

Source: Brida

Love

“As far as he was concerned, there were only two good positions for a human. A female on her back. And a male facedown not breathing.”

Jessica Bird book Dark Lover

Source: Dark Lover

“So you want me to go to a human orgy, where I will not be welcome, and you want us to leave before I get to enjoy myself? ~Eric Northman”

Charlaine Harris book Living Dead in Dallas

Source: Living Dead in Dallas

“I didn't want a world in which I had to choose between blind human babies and tortured monkey ones. To be frank, that's the sort of choice I expect science to protect me from, not give me.”

Karen Joy Fowler book We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

Source: We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

World, Science, Baby

“His calls for justice were lost at the mercy of the wind and human indifference.”

Isabel Allende book Daughter of Fortune

Source: Daughter of Fortune

Justice, Indifference

“The highest activity a human being can attain is learning for understanding, because to understand is to be free.”

Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) Dutch philosopher

Understanding, Learning

“There's so much nonsense about human inconstancy and the transience of all emotions. I've always thought that a feeling which changes never existed in the first place.”

Ayn Rand (1905–1982) Russian-American novelist and philosopher

Feeling, Change

“Sometimes this human stuff is slimy and pathetic… but better to feel it and talk about it and walk through it than to spend a lifetime being silently poisoned.”

Anne Lamott (1954) Novelist, essayist, memoirist, activist

Feeling

“Scenery is fine — but human nature is finer.”

John Keats (1795–1821) English Romantic poet

Letter to Benjamin Bailey (March 13, 1818)
Letters (1817–1820)

Nature

“Is the system going to flatten you out and deny you your humanity, or are you going to be able to make use of the system to the attainment of human purposes?”

Joseph Campbell The Power of Myth

Episode 1, Chapter 12
The Power of Myth (1988)
Context: This is the threat to our lives. We all face it. We all operate in our society in relation to a system. Now is the system going to eat you up and relieve you of your humanity or are you going to be able to use the system to human purposes? … If the person doesn't listen to the demands of his own spiritual and heart life and insists on a certain program, you're going to have a schizophrenic crack-up. The person has put himself off center. He has aligned himself with a programmatic life and it's not the one the body's interested in at all. And the world's full of people who have stopped listening to themselves.

“There was beauty in the idea of freedom, but it was an illusion. Every human heart was chained by love.”

Cassandra Clare book Lady Midnight

Source: Lady Midnight

Love, Beauty, Idea, Freedom

“To be whole. To be complete. Wildness reminds us what it means to be human, what we are connected to rather than what we are separate from.”

Terry Tempest Williams (1955) American writer