Quotes About Humanity

We are but one of the multitude, in no respect better than any other in it.

The great source of both the misery and disorders of human life, seems to arise from over-rating the difference between one permanent situation and another...

to feel much for others and little for ourselves, that to restrain our selfish, and to indulge our benevolent affections, constitutes the perfection of human nature; and can alone produce among mankind that harmony of sentiments and passions in which consists their whole grace and propriety.

To feel much for others and little for ourselves; to restrain our selfishness and exercise our benevolent affections, constitute the perfection of human nature.

Upon the whole, I have always considered him, both in his lifetime and since his death, as approaching as nearly to the idea of a perfectly wise and virtuous man, as perhaps the nature of human frailty will permit.

but the beast was man, had always been man.

As J. G. Ballard pointed out, civilization is just a thin, fragile veneer over the law of the jungle: Better you than me. Better your kid than my kid.

There were no monsters on Dutch Island, but the beast was man, had always been man.

In the last moments of his life Ciro realized that a truly good man is a rarity, a speck of gold in a mountain of slag.

Hear the sum of the whole matter in the compass of one brief word — every art possessed by man comes from Prometheus.

I beg you, alight and join your sorrow with mine: misfortune wanders everywhere, and settles now upon one and now upon another.

Give me an answer which is plain to understand.

I put men first in pity, then found there was none left for me.

Man shall learn from man's lot.

We're not gods; why then expect to enjoy a lifetime of unbroken happiness?

Better no rule than cruel rule.

There can be no good fable with human beings in it. There can be no good fairy tale without them.

We're all getting too smart. Our brains are just getting bigger and bigger, and the world dries up and dies when there's too much thought and not enough heart.

I like to smile at the men who look mean so they know I believe in their better selves. That makes a difference in the world. This is how you might be able to reform a possible rapist without ever going to psychology school.

Last day I saw him human, he was sad about the world.

This is not a political issue. This is a moral issue. It affects the survival of human civilization. It is not a question of Left vs. Right; it is a question of right vs. wrong. Put simply, it is wrong to destroy the habitability of our planet and ruin the prospects of every generation that follows ours.

Forgiveness requires a sense that bad behaviour is a sign of suffering rather than malice.

In an ideal world, marriage vows would be entirely rewritten. At the altar, a couple would speak thus: We accept not to panic when, some years from now, what we are doing today will seem like the worst decision of our lives. Yet we promise not to look around, either, fro we accept that there cannot be better options out there. Everyone is always impossible. We are a demented species.

T]he unsympathetic assessments we make of others are usually the result of nothing more sinister than our habit of looking at them in the wrong way, through lenses clouded by distraction, exhaustion and fear, which blind us to the fact that they are really, despite a thousand differences, just altered versions of ourselves: fellow fragile, uncertain, flawed beings likewise craving love and in urgent need of forgiveness.