Motivational Quotes

Humankind

We all live under the same sky, but we don't all have the same horizon.

- Adenauer, Konrad

Best Quotes about Humankind

If you think that every bad thing that has been done on the face of the earth has been done by man, you're right -- but so has every good thing.

Man is God's highest present development. He is the latest thing in God.

Butler, Samuel

Out of timber so crooked as that from which man is made nothing entirely straight can be carved.

Kant, Immanuel

As the archeology of our thought easily shows, man is an invention of recent date. And one perhaps nearing its end.

Foucault, Michel

The human race was always interesting and we know by its past that it will always continue so, monotonously.

Twain, Mark

The decay of decency in the modern age, the rebellion against law and good faith, the treatment of human beings as things, as the mere instruments of power and ambition, is without a doubt the consequence of the decay of the belief in man as something more than an animal animated by highly conditioned reflexes and chemical reactions. For, unless man is something more than that, he has no rights that anyone is bound to respect, and there are no limitations upon his conduct which he is bound to obey.

Lippmann, Walter

Everyone is as God made him, and often a great deal worse.

Cervantes, Miguel De

The real man is one who always finds excuses for others, but never excuses himself.

Beecher, Henry Ward

Man is harder than iron, stronger than stone and more fragile than a rose.

Proverb, Turkish

10.

There is nothing on earth divine except humanity.

Landor, Walter Savage

11.

We say nothing essential about the cathedral when we speak of its stones. We say nothing essential about Man when we seek to define him by the qualities of men.

Saint-Exupery, Antoine De

12.

Let us ask ourselves; What kind of people do we think we are?

Reagan, Ronald

13.

There is no doubt: the study of man is just beginning, at the same time that his end is in sight.

Canetti, Elias

14.

We cannot despair of humanity, since we ourselves are human beings.

Einstein, Albert

15.

What is the use of this fuss about morality when the issue only involves a horse? The first and most difficult teaching of civilization concerns man's behavior to his inferiors. Make humanity gentle or reasonable toward animals, and strife or injustice between human beings would speedily terminate.

Mayhew, Dr Edward

16.

A human being is part of the whole, called by us 'universe,' a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest -- a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.

Einstein, Albert

17.

Of all the ways of defining man, the worst is the one which makes him out to be a rational animal.

France, Anatole

18.

To the eyes of a god, mankind must appear as a species of bacteria which multiply and become progressively virulent whenever they find themselves in a congenial culture, and whose activity diminishes until they disappear completely as soon as proper measures are taken to sterilize them.

Crowley, Aleister

19.

Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of the time he will pick himself up and continue on.

Churchill, Winston

20.

Man is a being in search of meaning.

Plato

21.

We are called to be architects of the future, not its victims.

Fuller, Buckminster

22.

When all is done, human life is, at the greatest and the best, but like a froward child, that must be played with and humored a little to keep it quiet till it falls asleep, and then the care is over.

Temple, Sir William

23.

As far as many statistical series that are related to activities of mankind are concerned, the date that divides human history into two equal parts is well within living memory. The world of today is as different from the world I was born in as that world was from Julius Caesar s. I was born in the middle of human history, to date, roughly. Almost as much has happened since I was born as happened before.

Boulding, Kenneth Ewart

24.

Mankind is made great or little by its own will.

Schiller, Johann Friedrich Von

25.

I would suggest that barbarism be considered as a permanent and universal human characteristic which becomes more or less pronounced according to the play of circumstances.

Weil, Simone

26.

If we consider the superiority of the human species, the size of its brain, its powers of thinking, language and organization, we can say this: were there the slightest possibility that another rival or superior species might appear, on earth or elsewhere, man would use every means at his disposal to destroy it.

Baudrillard, Jean

27.

Being reproached for giving to an unworthy person, Aristotle said, I did not give it to the man, but to humanity.

Johnson

28.

Our humanity is a poor thing, except for the divinity that stirs within us.

Bacon, Francis

29.

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.

Mencken, H. L.

30.

Humanity I love you because when you're hard up you pawn your intelligence to buy a drink

Cummings, E.E. (Edward. E.)

31.

Man has, as it were, become a kind of prosthetic God. When he puts on all his auxiliary organs, he is truly magnificent; but those organs have not grown on him and they still give him much trouble at times.

Freud, Sigmund

32.

Humans are amphibians -- half spirit and half animal. As spirits they belong to the eternal world, but as animals they inhabit time.

Lewis, C. S.

33.

Always observe how ephemeral and worthless human things are. Pass then through this little space of time conformably to nature, and end thy journey in content, just as an olive falls off when it is ripe, blessing nature who produced it, and thanking the tree on which it grew.

Aurelius, Marcus

34.

If man had created man, he would be ashamed of his performance.

Twain, Mark

35.

Considered logically this concept is not identical with the totality of sense impressions referred to; but it is an arbitrary creation of the human (or animal) mind.

Einstein, Albert

36.

The human race is a zone of living things that should be defined by tracing its confines.

Calvino, Italo

37.

Of mankind we may say in general they are fickle, hypocritical, and greedy of gain.

Machiavelli, Niccolo

38.

We're all of us guinea pigs in the laboratory of God. Humanity is just a work in progress.

Williams, Tennessee

39.

I am a member of the rabble in good standing.

Pegler, Westbrook

40.

Humanity is the virtue of a woman, generosity that of a man.

Smith, Adam

41.

Those who live in a world of human beings can only retrace their steps.

Sarraute, Nathalie

42.

After all there is but one race -- humanity.

Moore, George

43.

Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. [Genesis 3:5]

Bible

44.

How is it possible that a being with such sensitive jewels as the eyes, such enchanted musical instruments as the ears, and such fabulous arabesque of nerves as the brain can experience itself anything less than a god.

Watts, Alan W.

45.

Our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal.

Kennedy, John F.

46.

Man... knows only when he is satisfied and when he suffers, and only his sufferings and his satisfactions instruct him concerning himself, teach him what to seek and what to avoid. For the rest, man is a confused creature; he knows not whence he comes or whither he goes, he knows little of the world, and above all, he knows little of himself.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

47.

One of the oldest human needs is having someone wonder where you are when you don't come home at night.

Mead, Margaret

48.

There are two distinctive classes of people today, those who have personal computers, and those who have several thousand extra dollars apiece.

Barry, Dave

49.

I love men, not for what unites them, but for what divides them, and I want to know most of all what gnaws at their hearts.

Apollinaire, Guillaume

50.

In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute.