Quotes About Humanity

But people can be cruel in lots of ways, some very subtle.

That's one of the amazing things great books like this do—they don't just get you to see the world differently, they get you to look at people, the people all around you, differently.

You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive.

If every single person in this room made it a rule that wherever you are, whenever you can, you will try to act a little kinder than is necessary—the world really would be a better place.

Often we feel the need to say that a book isn't just about a particular time or place but is about the human spirit. People say this of Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, or Night by Elie Wiesel, or A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah.

Not feeling well is no excuse for forgetting that there are other people in the world.

The Lizard Cage by Karen Connelly.

Irène Némirovsky's Suite Française

Ishmael Beah's memoir of his life as a boy soldier in Sierra Leone, A Long Way Gone.

Here we meet, on the page, naked and unadorned: shorn of class, race, gender, sexual identity, age and nationality.

Part of what makes a human being a human being is the imperfections. Like, you wouldn't give a robot my ears. You just wouldn't do that.

Everyone is flawed in their own interesting and individual ways. Our flaws help define our character.

he objected to work, but that the world being the harsh place it is he had to suffer his lot like the rest of humanity.

Politics are about preserving relationships at the end of the day, and it has nothing to do with the greater good for humanity. It's just all about business.

There are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before.

Nothing is far and nothing is near, if one desires. The world is little, people are little, human life is little. There is only one big thing desire.

That irregular and intimate quality of things made entirely by the human hand.

I daily discover so much baseness and ingratitude among mankind that I almost blush at being of the same species, and could quit the stage without regret, was it not for some gentle, generous souls like my dear Peggy. Benedict

Wat zou er trouwens veranderen als er op andere planeten ook mensen woonden? Ik heb nooit gehoord dat de Europeanen zich minder eenzaam voelden, toen Columbus ontdekte dat Amerika bestond er dat er daar ook mensen waren.

Wetenschap is de titanische poging van het menselijk intellect zich uit zijn kosmische isolement te verlossen door te begrijpen

Kortom: net als altijd in het leven, een soort specifiek gemiddelde van ellende.

Ik geloof soms dat de koppigheid waarmee mensen aan tradities vasthouden, voldoende is om iedere hoop op te geven dat de mensheid door rationele maatregelen gelukkiger zal worden.

Op dit moment gaat een tipje van de sluier omhoog die over het hele leven ligt: dat ik altijd en in alles weerloos, machteloos en vervangbaar als een atoom ben en dat alle bewustzijn, alle wil, hoop en vrees alleen maar manifestaties zijn van het mechanisme waarvolgens de menselijke moleculen zich bewegen in de peilloze kosmische materiedamp.

Omdat men zal weten dat over de mens niets te bewijzen valt, dat er van hem in doen en laten, in wezen en verschijning, in heden en verleden, nog geen schim valt te bekennen van wat hij is en is geweest. Wij zijn niets anders dan de strandvonders van ons eigen leven, brokstukken verzamelend langs de zee der vergetelheid. In onze hand lopen wij met de verroeste spijkers van een groot, gezonken schip - en wij denken dat dit oudroest een horloge is.