Motivational Quotes

Humankind

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

- Barry, Dave

Best Quotes about Humankind

Man is a substance clad in shadows.

Sterling, John

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

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

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

There is nothing on earth divine except humanity.

Landor, Walter Savage

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

Churchill, Winston

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.

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

Robert, Fulghum

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

Janeway, Elizabeth

10.

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

Calvino, Italo

11.

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

Nietzsche, Friedrich

12.

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

Barry, Dave

13.

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

Johnson

14.

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

15.

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

16.

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

17.

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

Murdoch, Iris

18.

Man is a useless passion.

Sartre, Jean-Paul

19.

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

20.

Man is God's highest present development. He is the latest thing in God.

Butler, Samuel

21.

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

Doren, Carl Van

22.

Mankind is made great or little by its own will.

Schiller, Johann Friedrich Von

23.

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

Bible

24.

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

Rolf, Ida P.

25.

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.

26.

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

Canetti, Elias

27.

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

Gide, Andre

28.

Man is a being in search of meaning.

Plato

29.

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

30.

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

Twain, Mark

31.

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

Lincoln, Abraham

32.

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

33.

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

34.

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

35.

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

Einstein, Albert

36.

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

Marshall, Thurgood

37.

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.

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.

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.

40.

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

41.

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

42.

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

Wilde, Oscar

43.

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

44.

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.

45.

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

Kant, Immanuel

46.

It is peculiar to mankind to transcend mankind.

Schlegel, Friedrich

47.

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