Quotes About Humanity

A war doesn't merely kill off a few thousand or a few hundred thousand young men. It kills off something in a people that can never be brought back. And if a people goes through enough wars, pretty soon all that's left is the brute, the creature that we—you and I and others like us—have brought up from the slime.

Mankind in the aggregate I have found to be brutish, ignorant and unkind, whether those qualities were covered by the coarse tunic of the peasant of the white and purple toga of a senator. And yet in the weakest of men, in moments when they are alone and themselves, I have found veins of strength like gold in decaying rock; in the cruelest of men, flashes of tenderness and compassion; and in the vainest of men, moments of simplicity and grace.

Man differs more from man than man from beast

You can't live a perfect day unless you do something for someone who will never be able to repay you.

So in a way, the more you kiss with lips, the more human you are.

We're all damaged in our own way. Nobody's perfect. I think we're all somewhat screwy. Every single one of us.

Can we be in touch with our own life unfolding? Can we rise to the occasion of our own humanity? Can we take on the challenges we meet, even seeking them out to test ourselves, to grow, to act in a principled way, to be true to ourselves, to find our own way, and ultimately not only have it but, more importantly, live it?

the true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and sense in which he has attained liberation from the self." Einstein

you think of meditation as any way in which we engage in (1) systematically regulating our attention and energy (2) thereby influencing and possibly transforming the quality of our experience (3) in the service of realizing the full range of our humanity and of (4) our relationships to others and the world. Ultimately

Can we simply address what it means to be human? What is available to us in this brief moment when the universe lifts up in the form of a human sentient body and being and we live out our seventy, eighty, or ninety years (if that) and then dissolve back into the undifferentiated ocean of potential?

My religion is kindness. THE DALAI LAMA

The possibility of attaining harmony in communication applies to large collections of people, such as nations, governments, and even to political parties, as well as to individuals, once they realize the price of treating the other as the enemy, and therefore less than human.

The practice of mindfulness involves finding, recognizing, and making use of that in us which is already okay, already beautiful, already whole by virtue of our being human—and drawing upon it to live our lives as if it really mattered how we stand in relationship to what arises, whatever it is.

How will that eventually be a contribution to humanity? That is truly our common goal. Can we contribute something to education through cultivating emotional balance? As His Holiness often says, we cannot have outer peace without inner peace. We cannot have an outer disarmament without inner disarmament. If we want to have a harmonious society, it has to begin with and within each of us.

Tears are not a sign of weakness. They are a sign of compassion.

I do have faith in humanity but I don't have faith in humans.

The sad reality of Mankind: Faith is the currency people trade in, through their ego and selfish ways.

No matter how hard we try, we are at best imperfect people. When we allow sin, we allow our imperfections to show.

Strike from mankind the principle of faith and men would have no more history than a flock of sheep.

Love is what we were borne with. Fear is what we learned here.

The universe is my country and the human family is my tribe.

People are generally irrational, unreasonable and selfish. They deserve to be loved, anyway.

The whole world is one family.

My activism did not spring from being black...The racial injustice that was present in this country during my youth was a challenge to my belief in the oneness of the human family.