Motivational Quotes

Humankind

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

- Bacon, Francis

Best Quotes about Humankind

It is peculiar to mankind to transcend mankind.

Schlegel, Friedrich

Mankind are animals that makes bargains, no other animal does this.

Smith, Adam

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

The world of men is dreaming, it has gone mad in its sleep, and a snake is strangling it, but it can't wake up.

Lawrence, D. H.

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

Have you ever watched a crab on the shore crawling backward in search of the Atlantic Ocean, and missing? That's the way the mind of man operates.

Mencken, H. L.

As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world -- that is the myth of the atomic age -- as in being able to remake ourselves.

Gandhi, Mahatma

Mankind is not a circle with a single center but an ellipse with two focal points of which facts are one and ideas the other.

Hugo, Victor

[Three classes of people]: Those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.

Da Vinci, Leonardo

10.

The course of human history is determined, not by what happens in the skies, but by what takes place in our hearts.

Kent, Sir Arthur

11.

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.

12.

In our civilization, men are afraid that they will not be men enough and women are afraid that they might be considered only women.

Reik, Theodor

13.

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

Butler, Samuel

14.

Man only likes to count his troubles, but he does not count his joys.

Dostoevsky, Fyodor

15.

We are all cells in the same body of humanity.

Pilgrim, Peace

16.

Man who is he? Too bad, to be the work of God: Too good for the work of chance!

Lessing, Doris

17.

Man is no longer an artist, he has become a work of art.

Nietzsche, Friedrich

18.

The secret of a person's nature lies in their religion and what they really believes about the world and their place in it.

Froude, James A.

19.

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

Williams, Tennessee

20.

A human being is a single being. Unique and unrepeatable.

Caddy, Eileen

21.

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

22.

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.

23.

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

Twain, Mark

24.

Mark how fleeting and paltry is the estate of man--yesterday in embryo, tomorrow a mummy or ashes. So for the hairsbreadth of time assigned to thee, live rationally, and part with life cheerfully, as drops the ripe olive, extolling the season that bore it and the tree that matured it.

Antonius, Marcus

25.

Man is a creature made at the end of the week's work when God was tired.

Twain, Mark

26.

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

27.

People can be divided into two classes: those who go ahead and do something, and those who sit still and inquire,why wasn't it done the other way?

Holmes, Oliver Wendell

28.

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

Einstein, Albert

29.

The simplest single-celled organism oscillates to a number of different frequencies, at the atomic, molecular, sub-cellular, and cellular levels. Microscopic movies of these organisms are striking for the ceaseless, rhythmic pulsation that is revealed. In an organism as complex as a human being, the frequencies of oscillation and the interactions between those frequencies are multitudinous.

Leonard, George

30.

The man who is forever disturbed about the condition of humanity either has no problems of his own or has refused to face them.

Miller, Henry

31.

We ought to think that we are one of the leaves of a tree, and the tree is all humanity. We cannot live without the others, without the tree.

Casals, Pablo

32.

Man, became man through work, who stepped out of the animal kingdom as transformer of the natural into the artificial, who became therefore the magician, man the creator of social reality, will always stay the great magician, will always be Prometheus bringing fire from heaven to earth, will always be Orpheus enthralling nature with his music. Not until humanity itself dies will art die.

Fischer, Ernst

33.

The race of man, while sheep in credulity, are wolves for conformity.

Doren, Carl Van

34.

There is nothing on earth divine except humanity.

Landor, Walter Savage

35.

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

Reagan, Ronald

36.

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

Sarraute, Nathalie

37.

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

Bacon, Francis

38.

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

Barry, Dave

39.

It is well to remember that the entire population of the universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others.

Holmes, John Andrew

40.

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

Machiavelli, Niccolo

41.

After all there is but one race -- humanity.

Moore, George

42.

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

Bible

43.

Human affairs are not serious, but they have to be taken seriously.

Murdoch, Iris

44.

There are realities we all share, regardless of our nationality, language, or individual tastes. As we need food, so do we need emotional nourishment: love, kindness, appreciation, and support from others. We need to understand our environment and our relationship to it. We need to fulfill certain inner hungers: the need for happiness, for peace of mind for wisdom.

Walters, J. Donald

45.

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

46.

If the human race wishes to have a prolonged and indefinite period of material prosperity, they have only got to behave in a peaceful and helpful way toward one another

Churchill, Winston

47.

No man really knows about other human beings. The best he can do is to suppose that they are like himself.

Steinbeck, John

48.

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

Twain, Mark

49.

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

50.

An effective human being is a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Rolf, Ida P.