Motivational Quotes

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.

Best Quotes about Humankind

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

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

There is nothing on earth divine except humanity.

Landor, Walter Savage

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

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

Gide, Andre

Man is a beautiful machine that works very badly.

Mencken, H. L.

How is it possible that a being with such sensitive jewels as the eyes, such enchanted musical instruments as the ears, and such fabulous arabesque of nerves as the brain can experience itself anything less than a god.

Watts, Alan W.

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

Beecher, Henry Ward

What constitutes a real, live human being is more of a mystery than ever these days, and men -- each one of whom is a valuable, unique experiment on the part of nature -- are shot down wholesale.

Hesse, Hermann

10.

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

11.

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

Rolf, Ida P.

12.

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

Sumner, Charles

13.

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

14.

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

15.

Man is a being in search of meaning.

Plato

16.

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

Doren, Carl Van

17.

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

Murdoch, Iris

18.

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

19.

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

Butler, Samuel

20.

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

21.

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

22.

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

Lessing, Doris

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.

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

Cervantes, Miguel De

25.

Humanity is the virtue of a woman, generosity that of a man.

Smith, Adam

26.

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

27.

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.

28.

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

Shaw, George Bernard

29.

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.

30.

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

Smith, Adam

31.

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

Bacon, Francis

32.

The human race was always interesting and we know by its past that it will always continue so, monotonously.

Twain, Mark

33.

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

Einstein, Albert

34.

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

Caddy, Eileen

35.

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

36.

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

Churchill, Winston

37.

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

Robert, Fulghum

38.

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

Holmes, John Andrew

39.

It is peculiar to mankind to transcend mankind.

Schlegel, Friedrich

40.

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

41.

Man is a substance clad in shadows.

Sterling, John

42.

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

43.

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

Machiavelli, Niccolo

44.

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

45.

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

Foucault, Michel

46.

Of all the ways of defining man, the worst is the one which makes him out to be a rational animal.

France, Anatole

47.

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.

48.

Man is a useless passion.