Quotes About Humanity

As a professor in two fields, neurology and psychiatry, I am fully aware of the extent to which man is subject to biological, psychological and sociological conditions. But in addition to being a professor in two fields I am a survivor of four camps - concentration camps, that is - and as such I also bear witness to the unexpected extent to which man is capable of defying and braving even the worst conditions conceivable.

For what then matters is to bear witness to the uniquely human potential at its best, which is to transform a personal tragedy into a triumph, to turn one's predicament into a human achievement.

As for the concept of collective guilt, I personally think that it is totally unjustified to hold one person responsible for the behavior of another person or a collective of persons.

el sufrimiento humano actúa como un gas en una cámara vacía; el gas se expande por completo y regularmente por todo el interior, con independencia de la capacidad del recipiente. Análogamente, cualquier sufrimiento, fuerte o débil, ocupa la conciencia y el alma entera del hombre. De donde se deduce que el «tamaño» del sufrimiento humano es absolutamente relativo. Y a la inversa, la cosa más menuda puede generar las mayores alegrías.

Armastus on ülim eesmärk, milleni inimene võib jõuda.

Each of us has his own inner concentration camp... We must deal with, with forgiveness and patience-as full human beings, as we are and what we will become.

There are two races of men in this world, but only these two—the "race" of the decent man and the "race" of the indecent man.

Wouldn't it suffice just to refer to decent people? It is true that they form a minority. More than that, they always will remain a minority. And yet I see therein the very challenge to join the minority. For the world is in a bad state, but everything will become still worse unless each of us does his best. So, let us be alert-alert in a twofold sense: Since Auschwitz we know what man is capable of. And since Hiroshima we know what is at stake.

What matters is not the features of our character or the drives and instincts per se, but rather the stand we take toward them. And the capacity to take such a stand is what makes us human beings.

Aber wenn es auch nur ein einziger gewesen wäre – er genügte als Zeuge dafür, daß der Mensch innerlich stärker sein kann als sein äußerliches Schicksal, und nicht nur im Konzentrationslager.

Si, como hombre adulto, debió usted sufrir el infierno del campo de concentración, o, como dice la Biblia, apurar hasta las heces el cáliz del dolor, y fue capaz de superar todo esto sin odio y con amor a la humanidad, es usted una prueba viva de Dios.

Los que estuvimos en campos de concentración recordamos a los hombres que iban de barracón en barracón consolando a los demás, dándoles el último trozo de pan que les quedaba. Puede que fueran pocos en número, pero ofrecían pruebas suficientes de que al hombre se le puede arrebatar todo salvo una cosa: la última de las libertades humanas -la elección de la actitud personal ante un conjunto de circunstancias- para decidir su propio camino.

Our thoughts, feelings, desires and actions are being robotized; 'life' is coming to mean feeding apparatuses and being fed by them. In short: Everything is becoming absurd. So where is there room for human freedom?

Nossos pensamentos, sentimentos, desejos e ações estão sendo robotizados; 'vida' passa a significar aparelhos de alimentação e ser alimentados por eles. Em resumo: tudo está se tornando absurdo. Então, onde há espaço para a liberdade humana?

According to what he tells us himself, Mrs. Fryxell used to say of Napoleon: 'I wish he could be punished for all his slaughter by having to go through a childbirth for every human being who was shot on his account'. (A. Fryxell: Min historias historia).

Those who are hated are always more human than those who hate them.

Non ignora mali, miseris succurrere disco.

sunt lacrimae rerum et mentem

O Achates, where in the world is there a country, or any place in it, unreached by our suffering? Look; there is Priam. Even here high merit has its due; there is pity for a world's distress, and a sympathy for short lived humanity.

if so great be thy yearning to know of our sorrows

In fact, for all of us it is this open-hearted affirmation that my life is the same as yours that moves us forward much faster than when we believe that others' lives are orderly and peaceful and only ours is chaotic and full of bumps.

Nevertheless, the fact remained, it was impossible to dislike any one if one looked at them.

Behind the cotton wool is hidden a pattern; that we—I mean all human beings—are connected with this; that the whole world is a work of art; that we are parts of the work of art. Hamlet or a Beethoven quartet is the truth about this vast mass that we call the world. But there is no Shakespeare, there is no Beethoven; certainly and emphatically there is no God; we are the words; we are the music; we are the thing itself.

Indeed there has never been any explanation of the ebb and flow in our veins--of happiness and unhappiness.