Motivational Quotes

Humankind

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

Best Quotes about Humankind

Man is a being in search of meaning.

Plato

I sometimes think that God in creating man somewhat overestimated his ability.

Wilde, Oscar

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

Mead, Margaret

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

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

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.

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

Murdoch, Iris

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

Proverb, Turkish

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

10.

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.

11.

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

12.

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

Nietzsche, Friedrich

13.

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

14.

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

Dostoevsky, Fyodor

15.

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

16.

Man is an ape with possibilities.

Andrews, Roy Chapman

17.

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

Hoffer, Eric

18.

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

19.

Man is a beautiful machine that works very badly.

Mencken, H. L.

20.

There is nothing on earth divine except humanity.

Landor, Walter Savage

21.

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.

22.

It is peculiar to mankind to transcend mankind.

Schlegel, Friedrich

23.

The history of mankind is the history of ideas.

Mises, Ludwig Von

24.

I am a member of the rabble in good standing.

Pegler, Westbrook

25.

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

26.

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.

27.

The age of chivalry has gone; the age of humanity has come.

Sumner, Charles

28.

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

Barry, Dave

29.

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.

30.

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

Bible

31.

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

Smith, Adam

32.

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.

33.

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

Rolf, Ida P.

34.

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly.

Heinlein, Robert

35.

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

36.

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

Bacon, Francis

37.

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

Einstein, Albert

38.

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

Twain, Mark

39.

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

Johnson

40.

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

41.

After all there is but one race -- humanity.

Moore, George

42.

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

Socrates

43.

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

Sumner, Charles

44.

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

45.

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

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

46.

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

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

47.

Man is a useless passion.

Sartre, Jean-Paul

48.

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

49.

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

Baumgardy, R. M.

50.

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