Quotes About Humanity

I need both of these words, "compassion" and "justice," for compassion without justice easily gets individualized or sentimentalized, and justice without compassion easily sounds like politics.

The core value of Jesus' ethic was compassion

Jim Crace's Quarantine [1997] and Norman Mailer's The Gospel According to the Son [1997].

They who say that we should love our fellow-citizens but not foreigners, destroy the universal brotherhood of mankind, with which benevolence and justice would perish forever

As for the person who is not impelled to give thanks for the procession of the stars, the alternation of day and night, the regular succession of the seasons, and the fruits which are produced for our enjoyment--how can such a person be counted as human at all?

However one defines man, the same definition applies to us all.

Non nobis solum nati sumus.

For when the soul is deprived of emotion, what difference is there — I do not say between man and the beasts of the field, but between man and a stock or a stone, or any such thing?

Elephanto beluarum nulla prudentior: at figura quae vastior? De bestiis loquor: quid, inter ipsos homines nonne et simillimis formis dispares mores et moribus simillimis figura dissimilis? (1.97 De Natura Deorum)

Die Menschen kommen durch nichts den Göttern näher, als wenn sie Menschen glücklich machen.

What is it about the sound of clapping hands? It's only skin against slapping skin, so why can it make a tide turn in you? Why can it break on top of you and lift you up at the same time? Maybe it's because it's one of the most noble things humans do with their hands. I mean, think about it. Humans make fists with their hands. They use them to fight, to steal things, to hurt each other. When people clap, it's one of the few times they stand together and applaud other people.

Sometimes people are beautiful.

An old homeless man confronts me quietly with his beard, his missing teeth, and his poverty.

What we share may be a lot like a traffic accident but we get one another. We are survivors of each other. We have been shark to one another, but also lifeboat. That counts for something.

When any civilization is dust and ashes, he said, art is all that's left over. Images, words, music. Imaginative structures. Meaning—human meaning, that is—is defined by them. You have to admit that.

We are survivors, of each other. We have been shark to one another, but also lifeboat. That counts for something.

I see that there will be no end to imperfection, or to doing things the wrong way. Even if you grow up, no matter how hard you scrub, whatever you do, there will always be some other stain or spot on your face or stupid act, somebody frowning.

There is something reassuring about the toilets. Bodily functions at least remain democratic. Everybody shits.

I would never blame a human creature for feeling lonely.

All Creatures know that some must die That all the rest may take and eat; Sooner or later, all transform Their blood to wine, their flesh to meat. But Man alone seeks Vengefulness, And writes his abstract Laws on stone; For this false Justice he has made, He tortures limb and crushes bone. Is this the image of a god? My tooth for yours, your eye for mine? Oh, if Revenge did move the stars Instead of Love, they would not shine.

He's lost something, some illusion I used to think was necessary to him. He's come to realize he too is human. Or is this a performance, for my benefit, to show me he's up-to-date? Maybe men shouldn't have been told about their own humanity. It's only made them uncomfortable. It's only made them trickier, slier, more evasive, harder to read.

How easy it is to invent a humanity, for anyone at all. What an available temptation.

How can I teach her some way of being human that won't destroy her I would like to tell her, Love is enough, I would like to say, Find shelter in another skin. I would like to say, Dance and be happy. Instead I will say in my crone's voice, Be ruthless when you have to, tell the truth when you can, when you can see it.

How shrunk, how dwindled, in our times Creation's mighty seed - For Man has broke the Fellowship With murder, lust, and greed.