Motivational Quotes

Humankind

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.

Best Quotes about Humankind

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.

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

Adenauer, Konrad

I wish I loved the Human Race; I wish I loved its silly face; I wish I liked the way it walks; I wish I liked the way it talks; And when I'm introduced to one I wish I thought What Jolly Fun!

Raleigh, Sir Walter

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

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

Foucault, Michel

Mankind must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.

King Jr. Martin Luther

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

Lincoln, Abraham

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

Barry, Dave

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

10.

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.

11.

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

12.

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

Williams, Tennessee

13.

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

Robert, Fulghum

14.

We are all cells in the same body of humanity.

Pilgrim, Peace

15.

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

16.

There is nothing on earth divine except humanity.

Landor, Walter Savage

17.

The man who is forever disturbed about the condition of humanity either has no problems of his own or has refused to face them.

Miller, Henry

18.

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

19.

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

20.

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

Holmes, John Andrew

21.

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

22.

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

23.

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.

24.

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

Sarraute, Nathalie

25.

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

Bacon, Francis

26.

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

27.

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

Einstein, Albert

28.

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.

29.

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

Calvino, Italo

30.

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

31.

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

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

32.

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

33.

I am a member of the rabble in good standing.

Pegler, Westbrook

34.

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

Nietzsche, Friedrich

35.

After all there is but one race -- humanity.

Moore, George

36.

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

Kant, Immanuel

37.

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

38.

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.

39.

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

Dante Alighieri

40.

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

Murdoch, Iris

41.

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

Dostoevsky, Fyodor

42.

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

Baumgardy, R. M.

43.

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

Canetti, Elias

44.

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

Shaw, George Bernard

45.

Mankind is made great or little by its own will.

Schiller, Johann Friedrich Von

46.

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

Sumner, Charles

47.

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

Doren, Carl Van

48.

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

49.

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

50.

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

Nietzsche, Friedrich