Motivational Quotes

Humankind

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

Best Quotes about Humankind

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

Marshall, Thurgood

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

Kant, Immanuel

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

Murdoch, Iris

Morris, Desmond

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

Nietzsche, Friedrich

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

Shaw, George Bernard

After all there is but one race -- humanity.

Moore, George

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

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.

10.

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

Holmes, John Andrew

11.

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

Barry, Dave

12.

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

Twain, Mark

13.

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

Robert, Fulghum

14.

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

15.

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

Calvino, Italo

16.

It is peculiar to mankind to transcend mankind.

Schlegel, Friedrich

17.

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

18.

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

Twain, Mark

19.

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

20.

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

21.

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

Fuller, Buckminster

22.

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

Nietzsche, Friedrich

23.

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

Williams, Tennessee

24.

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

25.

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

Rogers, Will

26.

Man is an ape with possibilities.

Andrews, Roy Chapman

27.

Mankind is made great or little by its own will.

Schiller, Johann Friedrich Von

28.

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

Smith, Adam

29.

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

Sarraute, Nathalie

30.

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.

31.

The history of mankind is the history of ideas.

Mises, Ludwig Von

32.

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

33.

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

34.

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

35.

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

Churchill, Winston

36.

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

Doren, Carl Van

37.

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

38.

As the archeology of our thought easily shows, man is an invention of recent date. And one perhaps nearing its end.

Foucault, Michel

39.

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

40.

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.

41.

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

Beecher, Henry Ward

42.

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

43.

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

Gide, Andre

44.

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

45.

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.

46.

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

Mead, Margaret

47.

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

48.

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.

49.

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

Bible

50.

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