Motivational Quotes

Humankind

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

Best Quotes about Humankind

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

Sumner, Charles

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

Bible

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.

The Goddamn human race deserves itself, and as far as I'm concerned it can have it.

Janeway, Elizabeth

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

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

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

Man was nature's mistake --she neglected to finish him -- and she has never ceased paying for her mistake.

Hoffer, Eric

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.

God must love the common man, he made so many of them.

Lincoln, Abraham

10.

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

Caddy, Eileen

11.

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

12.

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.

13.

Man must realize his own unimportance before he can appreciate his importance.

Baumgardy, R. M.

14.

Man is a substance clad in shadows.

Sterling, John

15.

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

Smith, Adam

16.

Man is head, chest and stomach. Each of these animals operates, more often than not, individually. I eat, I feel, I even, although rarely, think. This jungle crawls and teems, is hungry, roars, gets angry, devours itself, and its cacophonic concert does not even stop when you are asleep.

Daumal, Rene

17.

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

18.

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

Da Vinci, Leonardo

19.

Mind and spirit together make up that which separates us from the rest of the animal world, that which enables a man to know the truth and that which enables him to die for the truth.

Hamilton, Edith

20.

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

Holmes, John Andrew

21.

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

Socrates

22.

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

23.

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

Williams, Tennessee

24.

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.

25.

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

Rogers, Will

26.

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

Doren, Carl Van

27.

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

28.

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

Dostoevsky, Fyodor

29.

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

30.

Man is an ape with possibilities.

Andrews, Roy Chapman

31.

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

32.

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

Twain, Mark

33.

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

Bacon, Francis

34.

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

Churchill, Winston

35.

Man is not only a contributory creature, but a total creature; he does not only make one, but he is all; he is not a piece of the world, but the world itself; and next to the glory of God, the reason why there is a world.

Donne, John

36.

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

37.

I teach you the Superman. Man is something that should be overcome.

Nietzsche, Friedrich

38.

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

39.

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

Einstein, Albert

40.

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

41.

Man is a useless passion.

Sartre, Jean-Paul

42.

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

Twain, Mark

43.

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

Calvino, Italo

44.

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

45.

We are all cells in the same body of humanity.

Pilgrim, Peace

46.

I wish I loved the Human Race; I wish I loved its silly face; I wish I liked the way it walks; I wish I liked the way it talks; And when I'm introduced to one I wish I thought What Jolly Fun!

Raleigh, Sir Walter

47.

I am a member of the rabble in good standing.

Pegler, Westbrook

48.

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

49.

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

Adenauer, Konrad

50.

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