Motivational Quotes

Humankind

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

Best Quotes about Humankind

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

Foucault, Michel

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

Churchill, Winston

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

Calvino, Italo

Of mankind we may say in general they are fickle, hypocritical, and greedy of gain.

Machiavelli, Niccolo

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

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

Gide, Andre

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

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

Einstein, Albert

10.

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

11.

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

Sumner, Charles

12.

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

Butler, Samuel

13.

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

14.

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

Barry, Dave

15.

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

Hoffer, Eric

16.

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.

17.

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

18.

I am human and let nothing human be alien to me.

Terence

19.

We all live under the same sky, but we don't all have the same horizon.

Adenauer, Konrad

20.

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.

21.

There is nothing on earth divine except humanity.

Landor, Walter Savage

22.

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.

23.

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

24.

It is peculiar to mankind to transcend mankind.

Schlegel, Friedrich

25.

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

Socrates

26.

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

Bible

27.

I am a member of the rabble in good standing.

Pegler, Westbrook

28.

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

29.

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

Proverb, Turkish

30.

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

31.

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

Bacon, Francis

32.

The law of humanity ought to be composed of the past, the present, and the future, that we bear within us; whoever possesses but one of these terms, has but a fragment of the law of the moral world.

Quinet, Edgar

33.

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.

34.

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

Lincoln, Abraham

35.

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

36.

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

Beecher, Henry Ward

37.

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

38.

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

Mead, Margaret

39.

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

Johnson

40.

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

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

41.

Dahlberg, Edward

42.

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

Rogers, Will

43.

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

Smith, Adam

44.

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

Fuller, Buckminster

45.

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

46.

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

47.

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

48.

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

Wilde, Oscar

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.

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

Nietzsche, Friedrich