Motivational Quotes

Humankind

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

Best Quotes about Humankind

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.

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

Einstein, Albert

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.

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

Rolf, Ida P.

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

Doren, Carl Van

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

Twain, Mark

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

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

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

Janeway, Elizabeth

10.

Antonius, Marcus

11.

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

Twain, Mark

12.

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.

13.

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

Bible

14.

Man who is he? Too bad, to be the work of God: Too good for the work of chance!

Lessing, Doris

15.

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

16.

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

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

17.

After all there is but one race -- humanity.

Moore, George

18.

Consider your breed; you were not made to live like beasts, but to follow virtue and knowledge.

Dante Alighieri

19.

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

Da Vinci, Leonardo

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.

Man is a beautiful machine that works very badly.

Mencken, H. L.

22.

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

Cervantes, Miguel De

23.

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

Mead, Margaret

24.

There are two kinds of men who never amount to much -- those who cannot do what they are told and those who can do nothing else.

Curtis, Cyrus H. K

25.

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

26.

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

27.

There is no doubt: the study of man is just beginning, at the same time that his end is in sight.

Canetti, Elias

28.

The simplest single-celled organism oscillates to a number of different frequencies, at the atomic, molecular, sub-cellular, and cellular levels. Microscopic movies of these organisms are striking for the ceaseless, rhythmic pulsation that is revealed. In an organism as complex as a human being, the frequencies of oscillation and the interactions between those frequencies are multitudinous.

Leonard, George

29.

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

Barry, Dave

30.

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

31.

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

Sumner, Charles

32.

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

Dostoevsky, Fyodor

33.

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

Nietzsche, Friedrich

34.

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

35.

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

Reagan, Ronald

36.

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

Churchill, Winston

37.

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

Holmes, John Andrew

38.

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

39.

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

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.

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

42.

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

43.

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

44.

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

Wilde, Oscar

45.

There is nothing on earth divine except humanity.

Landor, Walter Savage

46.

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.

47.

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

Caddy, Eileen

48.

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

Baumgardy, R. M.

49.

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

50.

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

Lincoln, Abraham