Motivational Quotes

Humankind

That man is the noblest creature may also be inferred from the fact that no other creature has yet contested this claim.

- Lichtenberg, Georg C.

Best Quotes about Humankind

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

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

France, Anatole

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

Murdoch, Iris

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

To be human is to keep rattling the bars of the cage of existence hollering, What's it for?

Robert, Fulghum

Human beings, for all their pretensions, have a remarkable propensity for lending themselves to classification somewhere within neatly labeled categories. Even the outrageous exceptions may be classified as outrageous exceptions!

Reichmann, W.J.

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

Adenauer, Konrad

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

Barry, Dave

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

10.

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

Fuller, Buckminster

11.

Man is a substance clad in shadows.

Sterling, John

12.

That man is the noblest creature may also be inferred from the fact that no other creature has yet contested this claim.

Lichtenberg, Georg C.

13.

I have found little that is good about human beings on the whole. In my experience most of them are trash, no matter whether they publicly subscribe to this or that ethical doctrine or to none at all. That is something that you cannot say aloud, or perhaps even think.

Freud, Sigmund

14.

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.

15.

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

Kant, Immanuel

16.

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

Johnson

17.

Man is more interesting than men. God made him and not them in his image. Each one is more precious than all.

Gide, Andre

18.

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

Mead, Margaret

19.

Man is an ape with possibilities.

Andrews, Roy Chapman

20.

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

21.

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

22.

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

23.

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

Einstein, Albert

24.

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

25.

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.

26.

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

Rolf, Ida P.

27.

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.

28.

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

29.

It is peculiar to mankind to transcend mankind.

Schlegel, Friedrich

30.

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.

31.

There is nothing on earth divine except humanity.

Landor, Walter Savage

32.

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

Rogers, Will

33.

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

Lincoln, Abraham

34.

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.

35.

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

Machiavelli, Niccolo

36.

After all there is but one race -- humanity.

Moore, George

37.

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

38.

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

Proverb, Turkish

39.

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

Nietzsche, Friedrich

40.

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

41.

Man is a being in search of meaning.

Plato

42.

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

43.

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

Twain, Mark

44.

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

Marshall, Thurgood

45.

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

Beecher, Henry Ward

46.

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

Holmes, John Andrew

47.

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

Baumgardy, R. M.

48.

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.

49.

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

50.

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