Motivational Quotes

Humankind

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

Best Quotes about Humankind

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 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.

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

Hoffer, Eric

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

Janeway, Elizabeth

Be tolerant of the human race. Your whole family belongs to it -- and some of your spouse's family does too.

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

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

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

Terence

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

10.

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.

11.

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

Caddy, Eileen

12.

But remember please, the Law by which we live, we are not built to comprehend a lie, we can neither love nor pity nor forgive. If you make a slip in handling us you die.

Kipling, Rudyard

13.

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

14.

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

15.

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

16.

It is peculiar to mankind to transcend mankind.

Schlegel, Friedrich

17.

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

18.

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.

19.

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

20.

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

Twain, Mark

21.

Man is a substance clad in shadows.

Sterling, John

22.

As far as many statistical series that are related to activities of mankind are concerned, the date that divides human history into two equal parts is well within living memory. The world of today is as different from the world I was born in as that world was from Julius Caesar s. I was born in the middle of human history, to date, roughly. Almost as much has happened since I was born as happened before.

Boulding, Kenneth Ewart

23.

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

Sumner, Charles

24.

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

25.

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

Holmes, John Andrew

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.

Lippmann, Walter

28.

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

Beecher, Henry Ward

29.

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

Doren, Carl Van

30.

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

31.

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

Smith, Adam

32.

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

Rolf, Ida P.

33.

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

Shaw, George Bernard

34.

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

Proverb, Turkish

35.

Man is a creature made at the end of the week's work when God was tired.

Twain, Mark

36.

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.

37.

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

38.

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

Adenauer, Konrad

39.

The course of human history is determined, not by what happens in the skies, but by what takes place in our hearts.

Kent, Sir Arthur

40.

No man really knows about other human beings. The best he can do is to suppose that they are like himself.

Steinbeck, John

41.

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

Da Vinci, Leonardo

42.

Man is a useless passion.

Sartre, Jean-Paul

43.

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

Gide, Andre

44.

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

Rogers, Will

45.

There is nothing on earth divine except humanity.

Landor, Walter Savage

46.

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

Bacon, Francis

47.

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

48.

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

Canetti, Elias

49.

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

50.

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

Lessing, Doris