Motivational Quotes

Humankind

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

Best Quotes about Humankind

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

If, presume not to God to scan; The proper study of Mankind is Man. Plac'd on this isthmus of a middle state, a being darkly wise, and rudely great.

Pope, Alexander

It's funny. All you have to do is say something nobody understands and they'll do practically anything you want them to.

Caulfield, Holden

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

Marshall, Thurgood

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

Fuller, Buckminster

Mankind must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.

King Jr. Martin Luther

But remember please, the Law by which we live, we are not built to comprehend a lie, we can neither love nor pity nor forgive. If you make a slip in handling us you die.

Kipling, Rudyard

The best security for civilization is the dwelling, and upon properly appointed and becoming dwellings depends, more than anything else, the improvement of mankind.

Disraeli, Benjamin

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

Calvino, Italo

10.

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

Twain, Mark

11.

One has but to observe a community of beavers at work in a stream to understand the loss in his sagacity, balance, co-operation, competence, and purpose which Man has suffered since he rose up on his hind legs. He began to chatter and he developed Reason, Thought, and Imagination, qualities which would get the smartest group of rabbits or orioles in the world into inextricable trouble overnight.

Thurber, James

12.

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

France, Anatole

13.

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

Reagan, Ronald

14.

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

15.

I am human and let nothing human be alien to me.

Terence

16.

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

Twain, Mark

17.

There is nothing on earth divine except humanity.

Landor, Walter Savage

18.

The law of humanity ought to be composed of the past, the present, and the future, that we bear within us; whoever possesses but one of these terms, has but a fragment of the law of the moral world.

Quinet, Edgar

19.

What constitutes a real, live human being is more of a mystery than ever these days, and men -- each one of whom is a valuable, unique experiment on the part of nature -- are shot down wholesale.

Hesse, Hermann

20.

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

21.

Though man is the only beast that can write, he has small reason to be proud of it. When he utters something that is wise it is nothing that the river horse does not know, and most of his creations are the result of accident.

Dahlberg, Edward

22.

People can be divided into three classes, the few who make things happen, the many who watch things happen, and the overwhelming majority who have no idea what has happened.

23.

I am not an Athenian, nor a Greek, but a citizen of the world.

Socrates

24.

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

Bible

25.

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

Rolf, Ida P.

26.

Mankind is made great or little by its own will.

Schiller, Johann Friedrich Von

27.

The true grandeur of humanity is in moral elevation, sustained, enlightened and decorated by the intellect of man.

Sumner, Charles

28.

It's great to be great, but it's greater to be human.

Rogers, Will

29.

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

Proverb, Turkish

30.

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

31.

Human beings are the only animals of which I am thoroughly and cravenly afraid.

Shaw, George Bernard

32.

There are two kinds of people in the world -- those you love, and those you don't understand.

33.

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

34.

Man's only true happiness is to live in hope of something to be won by him. Reverence something to be worshipped by him, and love something to be cherished by him, forever.

Ruskin, John

35.

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

Bacon, Francis

36.

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

37.

Cruelty has a Human Heart, And jealousy a Human Face; Terror the Human Form Divine, And secrecy the Human Dress. The Human Dress is forged Iron, The Human Form a Fiery Forge, The Human Face a Furnace seal d, The Human Heart its hungry gorge.

Blake, William

38.

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

Cervantes, Miguel De

39.

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

Butler, Samuel

40.

We are, to put it mildly, in a mess, and there is a strong chance that we shall have exterminated ourselves by the end of the century. Our only consolation will have to be that, as a species, we have had an exciting term of office.

Morris, Desmond

41.

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

Smith, Adam

42.

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.

43.

I am a member of the rabble in good standing.

Pegler, Westbrook

44.

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

45.

Man is stark mad; he cannot make a flea, and yet he will be making gods by the dozens.

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

46.

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

Twain, Mark

47.

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

48.

Man is a substance clad in shadows.