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
Man is a beautiful machine that works very badly.
—H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American Journalist, Literary Critic
Consider your breed; you were not made to live like beasts, but to follow virtue and knowledge.
—Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) Italian Poet, Philosopher
A man’s nature runs either to herbs or weeds; therefore let him seasonably water the one and destroy the other.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
The course of human history is determined, not by what happens in the skies, but by what takes place in our hearts.
—Arthur A. Kent (1873–1949) American Inventor, Businessman
Man has demonstrated that he is master of everything—except his own nature.
—Henry Miller (1891–1980) American Novelist
Only on paper has humanity yet achieved glory, beauty, truth, knowledge, virtue, and abiding love.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
Humanity is never so beautiful as when praying for forgiveness, or else forgiving another.
—Jean Paul (1763–1825) German Novelist, Humorist
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.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
Man never made any material as resilient as the human spirit.
—Bernard Williams (1929–2003) English Philosopher
Now I believe I can hear the philosophers protesting that it can only be misery to live in folly, illusion, deception and ignorance, but it isn’t—it’s human.
—Desiderius Erasmus (c.1469–1536) Dutch Humanist, Scholar
I sometimes think that God in creating man somewhat overestimated his ability.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
If the human race wishes to have a prolonged and indefinite period of material prosperity, they have only got to behave in a peaceful and helpful way toward one another.
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
All people are a single nation.
—The Holy Quran Sacred Scripture of Islam
Men feel that cruelty to the poor is a kind of cruelty to animals. They never feel that it is an injustice to equals; nay it is treachery to comrades.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
Zeal without humanity is like a ship without a rudder, liable to be stranded at any moment.
—Owen Feltham (1602–1668) English Essayist
Every man has a sane spot somewhere.
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94) Scottish Novelist
Human nature is so constituted that is we take absolutely no notice of anger or abuse, the person indulging in it will soon weary of it and stop.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
Our doctrine of equality and liberty and humanity comes from our belief in the brotherhood of man, through the fatherhood of God.
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) American Head of State, Lawyer
But although denying that we have a special position in the natural world might seem becomingly modest in the eye of eternity, it might also be used as an excuse for evading our responsibilities. The fact is that no species has ever had such wholesale control over everything on earth, living or dead, as we now have. That lays upon us, whether we like it or not, an awesome responsibility. In our hands now lies not only our own future, but that of all living creatures with whom we share the earth.
—David Attenborough (b.1926) English Naturalist, Broadcaster
Know then thyself, presume not God to scan,
The proper study of Mankind is Man.
Placed on this isthmus of a middle state,
A being darkly wise and rudely great.
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744) English Poet
Computers are incredibly fast, accurate, and stupid. Human beings are incredibly slow, inaccurate, and brilliant. Together they are powerful beyond imagination.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
After all there is but one race—humanity.
—George Moore (1852–1933) Irish Writer
Three classes of people: Those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.
—Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Polymath, Painter, Sculptor, Inventor, Architect
We are members of one great body planted by nature in a mutual love, and fitted for a social life. We must consider that we were born for the good of the whole.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other. A solemn consideration, when I enter a great city by night, that everyone of those darkly clustered houses encloses it’s own secret that every room in every one of them encloses its own secret that every beating heart in the hundreds of thousands of breasts there, is, in some of it’s imaginings, a secret to the heart nearest it!
—Charles Dickens (1812–70) English Novelist
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.
—Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) British Children’s Books Writer, Short story, Novelist, Poet, Journalist
The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power.
—Alexander Hamilton (c.1757–1804) American Federalist Politician, Statesman
The proper study of mankind is woman.
—Henry Adams (1838–1918) American Historian, Man of Letters
We win justice quickest by rendering justice to the other party.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader