Humanity should question itself, once more, about the absurd and always unfair phenomenon of war, on whose stage of death and pain only remains standing the negotiating table that could and should have prevented it.
—Pope John Paul II (1920–2005) Polish Catholic Religious Leader
You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individuals. To that end, each of us must work for our own improvement and, at the same time, share a general responsibility for all humanity, our particular duty being to aid those to whom we think we can be most useful.
—Marie Curie (1867–1934) Polish-born French Physicist, Chemist
The best security for civilization is the dwelling, and upon properly appointed and becoming dwellings depends, more than anything else, the improvement of mankind.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive.
—The 14th Dalai Lama (b.1935) Tibetan Buddhist Religious Leader, Civil Rights Leader, Philosopher, Author
The real man is one who always finds excuses for others, but never excuses himself.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
I am human and let nothing human be alien to me.
—Terence (c.195–159 BCE) Roman Comic Dramatist
All humanity is one undivided and indivisible family, and each one of us is responsible for the misdeeds of all the others. I cannot detach myself from the wickedest soul.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
Human nature loses its most precious quality when it is robbed of its sense of things beyond, unexplored and yet insistent.
—Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) English Mathematician, Philosopher
If we think we have ours and don’t owe any time or money or effort to help those left behind, then we are a part of the problem rather than the solution to the fraying social fabric that threatens all Americans.
—Marian Wright Edelman (b.1939) American Civil Regrets Advocate, Humanitarian, Lawyer
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.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
The race of man, while sheep in credulity, are wolves for conformity.
—Carl Clinton Van Doren (1885–1950) American Critic, Historian
The proper study of mankind is woman.
—Henry Adams (1838–1918) American Historian, Man of Letters
Man is more interesting than men. God made him and not them in his image. Each one is more precious than all.
—Andre Gide (1869–1951) French Novelist
The secret of a person’s nature lies in their religion and what they really believes about the world and their place in it.
—James Anthony Froude (1818–94) British Historian, Novelist, Biographer, Editor
Everything is determined, the beginning as well as the end, by forces over which we have no control. It is determined for the insect, as well as for the star. Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
Man is the unnatural animal, the rebel child of nature, and more and more does he turn himself against the harsh and fitful hand that reared him.
—H. G. Wells (1866–1946) English Novelist, Historian, Social Thinker
Provision for others is a fundamental responsibility of human life.
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) American Head of State
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.
—Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) English Occultist, Mystic, Magician
Humans are amphibians—half spirit and half animal. As spirits they belong to the eternal world, but as animals they inhabit time.
—C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) Irish-born British Academic, Author, Literary Scholar
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.
—Unknown
Hell is a giant banquet room with tables filled with every possible good thing to eat and drink. The people are all seated at the banquet tables, but they are all starving, emaciated, skin on skeleton figures. They are chained in such a way that they can reach out and pick up the food, but the chains prevent them from bringing the food to their mouth. In the ultimate cruelty, they are dying of starvation with food in their hands.
Surprisingly, the Heaven is also a giant banquet room with tables filled with all the same, wonderful, choices as before. And just as before, the people are all chained so that they can pick up the food, but can’t bring it to their mouth. However, in this banquet room, the people are all healthy. They are laughing, singing and enjoying themselves. The difference? In Heaven, they have realized that although they cannot feed themselves, the chains allow them to feed each other.
—Anonymous
If I were asked to give what I consider the single most useful bit of advice for all humanity it would be this: Expect trouble as an inevitable part of life and when it comes, hold you head high, look it squarely in the eye and say, “I will be bigger than you. You cannot defeat me.”
—Ask Ann Landers (1918–2002) American Advice Columnist
Wherever humanity has made that hardest of all starts and lifted itself out of mere brutality is a sacred spot.
—Willa Cather (1873–1947) American Novelist, Writer
Mutability of temper and inconsistency with ourselves is the greatest weakness of human nature.
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English Essayist, Poet, Playwright, Politician
Man has demonstrated that he is master of everything—except his own nature.
—Henry Miller (1891–1980) American Novelist
The traveler’s-eye view of men and women is not satisfying. A man might spend his life in trains and restaurants and know nothing of humanity at the end. To know, one must be an actor as well as a spectator.
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English Humanist, Pacifist, Essayist, Short Story Writer, Satirist
I’m quite sure that … I have no race prejudices, and I think I have no color prejudices nor caste prejudices nor creed prejudices. Indeed, I know it. I can stand any society. All that I care to know is that a man is a human being—that is enough for me he can’t be any worse.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
Like a kick in the butt, the force of events wakes slumberous talents.
—Edward Hoagland (b.1932) American Essayist, Novelist
There is an electric fire in human nature tending to purify—so that among these human creatures there is continually some birth of new heroism. The pity is that we must wonder at it, as we should at finding a pearl in rubbish.
—John Keats (1795–1821) English Poet
We win justice quickest by rendering justice to the other party.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
Man is an animal that makes bargains; no other animal does this—one dog does not change a bone with another.
—George Goodman (b.1930) American Economist, Author
When men can no longer be theists, they must, if they are civilized, become humanists.
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974) American Journalist, Political Commentator, Writer
The principle of the brotherhood of man is narcissistic… for the grounds for that love have always been the assumption that we ought to realize that we are the same the whole world over.
—Germaine Greer (b.1939) Australia Academic, Journalist, Scholar, Writer
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.
—John Ruskin (1819–1900) English Writer, Art Critic
The human race is a zone of living things that should be defined by tracing its confines.
—Italo Calvino (1923–85) Italian Novelist, Essayist, Journalist
Man is by nature a political animal.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
What is called an acute knowledge of human nature is mostly nothing but the observer’s own weaknesses reflected back from others.
—Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–99) German Philosopher, Physicist
Man is emphatically a proselytizing creature.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
Man is harder than iron, stronger than stone and more fragile than a rose.
—Turkish Proverb
The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
In every child who is born, under no matter what circumstances, and of no matter what parents, the potentiality of the human race is born again.
—James Agee (1909–55) American Journalist, Poet, Screenwriter, Film Critic
I hate mankind, for I think of myself as one of the best of them, and I know how bad I am.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
If man had created man, he would be ashamed of his performance.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
Man is a useless passion.
—Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–80) French Philosopher, Playwright, Novelist, Screenwriter, Political Activist
Notice I did not say what people can do—what we can do is merely a consequence of what we can be.
—Max De Pree (1924–2017) American Businessman
What makes you think that human beings are sentient and aware? There’s no evidence for it. Human beings never think for themselves, they find it too uncomfortable. For the most part, members of our species simply repeat what they are told – and become upset if they are exposed to any different view. The characteristic human trait is not awareness but conformity, and the characteristic result is religious warfare. Other animals fight for territory or food; but, uniquely in the animal kingdom, human beings fight for their beliefs. The reason is that beliefs guide behavior, which has evolutionary importance among human beings. But at a time when our behavior may well lead us to extinction, I see no reason to assume we have any awareness at all. We are stubborn, self-destructive conformists. Any other view of our species is a self-congratulatory delusion.
—Michael Crichton (1942–2008) American Novelist, Film Producer, Film Director, Screenwriter
The true greatness of a nation is founded on principles of humanity.
—Thomas Paine (1737–1809) American Nationalist, Author, Pamphleteer, Radical, Inventor
In the old times men carried out their rights for themselves as they lived, but nowadays every baby seems born with a social manifesto in its mouth much bigger than itself.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Wild animals never kill for sport. Man is the only one to whom the torture and death of his fellow creatures is amusing in itself.
—James Anthony Froude (1818–94) British Historian, Novelist, Biographer, Editor
Teach this triple truth to all: A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity.
—Buddhist Teaching