Quotes about humanity
page 34

“The human capacity for burden is like bamboo- far more flexible than you'd ever believe at first glance.”

Source: My Sister's Keeper

“Can you take human form in daylight? (Talon)
Obviously so. Ever tried to answer a phone without opposable thumbs? (Vane)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon Night Embrace

Source: Night Embrace

“In the morning when thou risest unwillingly, let this thought be present - I am rising to the work of a human being. Why then am I dissatisfied if I am going to do the things for which I exist and for which I was brought into the world?”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

Source: Meditations

World

“Human history is a Gaian dream.”

Terence McKenna (1946–2000) American ethnobotanist

Dreams, History

“Life is merely terrible; I feel it as few others do. Often — and in my inmost self perhaps all the time — I doubt whether I am a human being.”

Franz Kafka (1883–1924) author

Life, Feeling, Time

“What are we? Humans? Or animals? Or savages?”

William Golding book Lord of the Flies

Source: Lord of the Flies

Animals

“Art is a personal act of courage, something one human does that creates change in another.”

Seth Godin (1960) American entrepreneur, author and public speaker

Art, Courage, Change, Personality

“Most humans manage to squander their free time, as free time makes them dysfunctional, lazy, and unmotivated—the busier they get, the more active they are at other tasks.”

Nassim Nicholas Taleb (1960) Lebanese-American essayist, scholar, statistician, former trader and risk analyst

Source: Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder

Time

“For me, I think the greatest achievements of science is to allow humanity to realize that our world is comprehensible. Through science, rational thinking, we can understand how the universe works.”

Jim Al-Khalili (1962) British theoretical physicist, author and broadcaster

World, Understanding, Thinking, Universe

“According to Dickens, the first rule of human nature is self-preservation and when I forgive him for writing a character as pathetic as Oliver Twist, I'll thank him for the advice.”

Melina Marchetta book On the Jellicoe Road

Source: On the Jellicoe Road

Forgiveness, Nature

“Sometimes, all it takes to become human again is someone who can see you that way, no matter how you present on the surface.”

Jodi Picoult book The Storyteller

Source: The Storyteller

Way

“Absurdity is one of the most human things about us: a manifestation of our most advanced and interesting characteristics.”

Thomas Nagel (1937) American philosopher

“I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race - that rarely do I ever simply estimate it.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

“We are not human beings on a spiritual journey. We are spiritual beings on a human journey.”

Stephen R. Covey (1932–2012) American educator, author, businessman and motivational speaker

Pierre Teilhard De Chardin, in The Phenomenon of Man [Le Phénomène Humain] (1955); Covey quotes this in Living the 7 Habits : Stories of Courage and Inspiration (2000), p. 47
Variant: We are not human beings on a spiritual journey. We are spiritual beings on a human journey.
A paraphrase of De Chardin's statement which has also become misattributed to Covey.
Misattributed
Variant: We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience.

“Moroi shied from the sunlight but as I watched Sydney, I knew without a doubt that humans had been made for the sun.”

Richelle Mead book The Fiery Heart

Source: The Fiery Heart

Sun

“There is a reason the word belonging has a synonym for want at its center; it is the human condition.”

Jodi Picoult (1966) Author

Source: Vanishing Acts

“Great art is the outward expression of an inner life in the artist, and this inner life will result in his personal vision of the world... The inner life of a human being is a vast and varied realm.”

Edward Hopper (1882–1967) prominent American realist painter and printmaker

1941 - 1967
Source: 'Statements by Four artists', Edward Hopper, in 'Reality' 1., Spring 1953, p. 8

Life, World, Art, Personality

“But you’re human, aren’t you? (Kat)
I’m human, except when I first wake up in the morning. Even I don’t want to be around myself then. (Kish)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Devil May Cry

“We are not mad. We are human. We want to love, and someone must forgive us for the paths we take to love, for the paths are many and dark, and we are ardent and cruel in our journey.”

Leonard Cohen (1934–2016) Canadian poet and singer-songwriter

Source: Leonard Cohen: Poems and Songs

Love, Forgiveness, Madness

“Repetition is important in the training not only of animals but also of humans." Yann Martel in Life of Pi, Page 25”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Source: Life of Pi

Life, Animals, Training

“Professors of humanities, with all their leftist fantasies, have little direct knowledge of American life and no impact whatever on public policy.”

Camille Paglia (1947) American writer

Source: Sex, Art and American Culture : New Essays (1992), p. ix

Life, Knowledge

“That's the thing about depression: A human being can survive almost anything, as long as she sees the end in sight. But depression is so insidious, and it compounds daily, that it's impossible to ever see the end.”

Elizabeth Wurtzel book Prozac Nation

Source: Prozac Nation

Depressing

“It has been my experience that most human stories are circular rather than linear. Regardless of the path we choose, we somehow end up where we commenced - in part, I suspect, because the child who lives in us goes along for the ride.”

James Lee Burke (1936) Novelist, short story writer

Source: The Glass Rainbow

Parting

“In that high place in the darkness the two oddly sensitive human atoms held each other tightly and waited. In the mind of each was the same thought. "I have come to this lonely place and here is this other," was the substance of the thing felt.”

Sherwood Anderson book Winesburg, Ohio

Source: Winesburg, Ohio

Waiting

“Yes, men are pigs. Except your brother, of course. He's actually a decent human being. Almost a woman.

-Jillian's mother”

Gena Showalter (1975) American writer

Source: Catch a Mate

Men

“All of us started normal. All of us started out as functioning human beings with the potential to do almost anything we wanted, but somewhere along the paths of our lives, we got lost.”

James Frey book A Million Little Pieces

page 332
Source: A Million Little Pieces (2003)
Context: All of us started out normal. All of us started out as functioning human beings with the potential to do almost anything we wanted, but somewhere along the paths of our lives we got lost. Though we are here at this Clinic trying to find our way back, we all know that most of us will never get there. Things like the fight allow us to dream, and take us away from here, and allow us to imagine what the normal World must be like and how normal people must live in it.

“Our great human adventure is the evolution of consciousness. We are in this life to enlarge the soul, liberate the spirit, and light up the brain.”

Tom Robbins book Wild Ducks Flying Backward

Source: Wild Ducks Flying Backward

Life, Soul, Light

“Entertainment is a sacred pursuit when done well. When done well, it raises the quality of human life.”

Michael Chabon (1963) Novelist, short story writer, essayist

Life

“Along with the idea of romantic love, she was introduced to another--physical beauty. Probably the most destructive ideas in the history of human thought. Both originated in envy, thrived in insecurity, and ended in disillusion.”

Toni Morrison book The Bluest Eye

Source: The Bluest Eye

Love, Beauty, History, Idea

“They're fanatics. It's like expecting humanity from a falling rock. It's not going to have a fit of compassion and not crack your skull open.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Slays

“She is a real bookworm. I think she lives on print. Her whole house is full of books - looks as if she likes them better than human company.”

Cornelia Funke Inkheart trilogy

Source: Inkheart

Books, Thinking, Housing

“The human heart is a strange vessel. Love and hatred can exist side by side.”

Scott Westerfeld (1963) American science fiction writer

Love, Heart

“Human madness is oftentimes a cunning and most feline thing. When you think it fled, it may have but become transfigured into some still subtler form.”

Herman Melville (1818–1891) American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet

Source: Moby-Dick or, The Whale

Thinking, Madness

“Demons don't understand human hearts, not well. They see through a distorted glass and show you what you desire, but warped and wrong. Use that wrongness to push yourself out of the dream. Life is loss, Alexander, but it's better than this.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire

Source: City of Heavenly Fire

Life, Dreams, Understanding, Loss

“After a traumatic experience, the human system of self-preservation seems to go onto permanent alert, as if the danger might return at any moment.”

Judith Lewis Herman (1942) American psychiatrist

Source: Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence - From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror

“I feel guilty for being a member of the human race.”

Jack Kerouac book Big Sur

Source: Big Sur (1962)

Feeling

“A blade of grass is a commonplace on Earth; it would be a miracle on Mars. Our descendants on Mars will know the value of a patch of green. And if a blade of grass is priceless, what is the value of a human being?”

Carl Sagan book Pale Blue Dot

Source: Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space

Grass

“But I didn't understand then. That I could hurt somebody so badly she would never recover. That a person can, just by living, damage another human being beyond repair.”

Haruki Murakami (1949) Japanese author, novelist

South of the Border, West of the Sun

Understanding, Hurt, Personality, Depressing

“Human sympathy has its limits, and we were contented to let all their tragic arguments fade with the city lights behind.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby

Source: The Great Gatsby

Light

“Until you have done something for humanity,” wrote the great American educator Horace Mann, “you should be ashamed to die.”

Christopher Hitchens Mortality

Source: Mortality

Education

“Language is the armory of the human mind, and at once contains the trophies of its past and the weapons of its future conquests.”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English poet, literary critic and philosopher

Past, Future

“Can't you recognize the human in the inhuman?”

Ray Bradbury book The Martian Chronicles

Source: The Martian Chronicles

“The human bones are but vain lines dawdling, the whole universe a blank mold of stars.”

Jack Kerouac book The Dharma Bums

Source: The Dharma Bums

Star, Universe

“you can’t use logic on human behavior.”

Jeff Lindsay book Dearly Devoted Dexter

Source: Dearly Devoted Dexter

Behavior

“The news of life is carried via telephone. A baby's birth, a couple engaged, a tragic car accident on a late night highway - most milestones of the human journey, good or bad, are foreshadowed by the sound of a ringing.”

Mitch Albom (1958) American author

Source: The First Phone Call from Heaven

Life, Cars, Birth, Baby

“Humans were built to look back; that's why we have that swivel joint in our necks”

Stephen King book 11/22/63

Source: 11/22/63

“The entire history of human desire takes about seventy minutes to tell. Unfortunately, we don’t have that kind of time.”

Richard Siken (1967) American poet

History, Time

“Art is the child of Nature; yes,
Her darling child, in whom we trace
The features of the mother's face,
Her aspect and her attitude,
All her majestic loveliness
Chastened and softened and subdued
Into a more attractive grace,
And with a human sense imbued.
He is the greatest artist, then,
Whether of pencil or of pen,
Who follows Nature.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) American poet

Kéramos http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/lit/poetry/TheCompletePoeticalWorksofHenryWadsworthLongfellow/chap22.html, st. 29.

Art, Nature, Sense

“Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. At best, he is a tolerable subhuman who has learned to wear his shoes, bathe, and not make messes in the house.”

Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) American science fiction author

Shoe, Mathematics, Learning, Housing

“Ford carried on counting quietly. This is about the most aggressive thing you can do to a computer, the equivalent of going up to a human being and saying "Blood… blood… blood… blood…”

Douglas Adams The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy pentalogy

Source: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“I hate witches. Humans had the right idea, burning them at the stake.”

Charlaine Harris book Dead to the World

Source: Dead to the World

Hate, Idea

“Religion is a monumental chapter in the history of human egotism.”

William James (1842–1910) American philosopher, psychologist, and pragmatist

Religion, History

“An ideal culture is one that makes a place for every human gift”

Margaret Mead (1901–1978) American anthropologist

“There is always more misery among the lower classes than there is humanity in the higher.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

“Literature is humanity talking to itself.”

Norman Rush (1933) American writer

Literature

“It means the third rail has seven hundred volts of direct current running through it. Touch it and you're human popcorn”

James Patterson (1947) American author

“There are certain mortal moments and minutes that matter. Certain hingepoints in the history of each human. Some seconds are so decisive they shrink the soul, while others are spent, so as to stretch the soul.”

Neal A. Maxwell (1926–2004) Mormon leader

Soul, History, Decision

“The two most important phrases in the human language are "If only" and "Maybe someday". Our past mistakes and our unrequited longings. The things we regret and the things we yearn for. That's what makes us who we are.”

Will Ferguson (1964) Canadian writer, especially humor about Canada

Source: Happiness

Past

“Great beauty is often perceived by human senses as pain.”

Susan Kay (1952) British writer

Pain, Beauty, Sense

“To be rooted is perhaps the most important and least recognized need of the human soul.”

Simone Weil (1909–1943) French philosopher, Christian mystic, and social activist

Soul

“She only felt that the candle would burn better, the packing go easier, the world be happier, if she could give and receive some human love.”

E.M. Forster book A Room with a View

Source: A Room with a View

Love, World

“It may be argued that the past is a country from which we have all emigrated, that its loss is part of our common humanity.”

Salman Rushdie (1947) British Indian novelist and essayist

"Imaginary Homelands (1992)
Source: Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism 1981-1991
Context: It may be argued that the past is a country from which we have all emigrated, that its loss is part of our common humanity. Which seems to be self-evidently true; but I suggest that the writer who is out-of-country and even out-of-language may experience this loss in an intensified form. It is made more concrete for him by the physical fact of discontinuity, of his present being in a different place from his past, of his being "elsewhere"… human beings do not perceive things whole; we are not gods but wounded creatures, cracked lenses, capably only of fractured perceptions. Partial beings, in all the senses of that phrase. Meaning is a shaky edifice we build out of scraps, dogmas, childhood injuries, newspaper articles, chance remarks, old films, small victories, people hated, people loved; perhaps it is because of our sense of what is the case is constructed from such inadequate materials that we defend it so fiercely, even to the death.

Loss, Past, Parting, Country

“Mundane humans create distinctions between themselves, distinctions that seem ridiculous to any Shadowhunter. Their distinctions are based on race, religion, national identity, any of a dozen minor and irrelevant markers. ~ Valentine”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Source: City of Ashes

Religion

“If my work has a theme, I suspect it is a simple one: that most human beings are inescapably alone, and therein lies their tragedy.”

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

“Poseidon held out his arms and gave me a hug. I realized, a little embarrassed, that I'd never actually hugged my dad before. He was warm—like a regular human—and he smelled of a salty beach and fresh sea air.”

Rick Riordan book The Last Olympian

Source: The Last Olympian

Sea

“human relationships simply aren't
durable.
I think back to the women in
my life.
they seem non-existent.”

Charles Bukowski book Love Is a Dog from Hell

Source: Love Is a Dog from Hell

Life, Women, Thinking

“Being a wizard gives you more power than most, but it doesn't change your heart. We're all human. We're all of us equally naked before the jaws of pain.”

Jim Butcher book White Night

Source: White Night

Pain, Change, Heart

“.. we wear the mask that grins and lies,
it hides our cheeks and shades our eyes-
this debt we pay to human guile;
with torn and bleeding hearts we smile.”

Paul Laurence Dunbar book The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar

We Wear The Mask, in the 1913 collection of his work, The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar.
Context: We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.

Why should the world be over-wise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.

We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask!