Motivational Quotes

Humankind

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

Best Quotes about Humankind

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.

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

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.

It's funny. All you have to do is say something nobody understands and they'll do practically anything you want them to.

Caulfield, Holden

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

Kant, Immanuel

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

Hoffer, Eric

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

Fuller, Buckminster

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

Barry, Dave

Humans are amphibians -- half spirit and half animal. As spirits they belong to the eternal world, but as animals they inhabit time.

Lewis, C. S.

10.

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

Cervantes, Miguel De

11.

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

12.

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

13.

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

14.

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

15.

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.

16.

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.

17.

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

Churchill, Winston

18.

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

Reagan, Ronald

19.

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

Sumner, Charles

20.

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

21.

Mankind is made great or little by its own will.

Schiller, Johann Friedrich Von

22.

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

Nietzsche, Friedrich

23.

We are all cells in the same body of humanity.

Pilgrim, Peace

24.

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

25.

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

Marshall, Thurgood

26.

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

Holmes, John Andrew

27.

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

Rolf, Ida P.

28.

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

Proverb, Turkish

29.

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

30.

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

31.

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

32.

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

33.

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

34.

There are two kinds of people in the world -- those you love, and those you don't understand.

35.

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

Murdoch, Iris

36.

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

Beecher, Henry Ward

37.

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

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.

Man is an ape with possibilities.

Andrews, Roy Chapman

40.

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

Da Vinci, Leonardo

41.

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

Smith, Adam

42.

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