Quotes About Humanity

good writing is about telling the truth. We are a species that needs and wants to understand who we are.

So how on earth can I bring a child into the world, knowing that such sorrow lies ahead, that it is such a large part of what it means to be human?

This is a hard planet, and we're a vulnerable species. And all I can do is pray: Help. When

Marianne Moore put it, "The world's an orphan's home.

Marcus Aurelius said that we are little souls carrying around corpses.

we won't love you if you're perfect

Mankind has a history of forgetting the unpleasant, the undesirable. Bu ignoring its existence, it can make the source of past Terror disappear.

Mankind has a history of forgetting the unpleasant, the undesirable. But ignoring its existence, it can make the source of past Terror disappear.

We must not forget what it means to be in love with another human being, Lucjan had said. For this, once lost, can no longer be imagined.

No man is an island,' said John Donne. I feel we are all islands -- in a common sea.

Perhaps both men and women in America may hunger, in our material, outward, active, masculine culture, for the supposedly feminine qualities of heart, mind and spirit--qualities which are actually neither masculine nor feminine, but simply human qualities that have been neglected. It is growth along these lines that will make us whole, and will enable the individual to become world to himself.

Tragedy is the common lot of man. 'So many people have lost children' I remind myself. pp 178-179 This tragedy is such an inextricable part of my story that it cannot be left out of an honest record. Suffering - no matter how multiplied - is always individual. p 179

No man is an island," said John Donne. I feel we are all islands—in a common sea.

The interrelatedness of the world links us constantly with more people than our heart can hold. Or rather, for I believe the heart is infinite, modern communication loads us with more problems than the human frame can carry.

Their accents must have been hard for her to follow, and their faces, matted under the grime, were haunted by a permanent wariness, a mixture of anger and fear.

Because I don't believe in monsters," she said frankly. "Evil men, certainly, and madness, but not monsters.

Nothing at all, except that he is human, and by hanging him we diminish ourselves as well.

What was freedom worth without safety from injustice, violence and hunger? Freedom to do what?

Every one of them had been somebody's son, somebody's friend. Grant rubbed his hands over his face and drew in a long breath, letting it out in a sigh. "Perhaps Tallis did go mad, poor bastard. I hate this more

When you live in another land, Mr. Pitt, no matter how strange it may seem at first, it is a very short time until its people become your own, and their grief and their laughter touches you as deeply. All the differences on earth are a shadow, compared with the sameness.

What is it? That you are imperfect, too? Like the rest of us? Victor, did you suppose I did not know you've made errors, mistakes, and perhaps worse? If not, what would we have in common? You might forgive my flaws, but you would never understand them. There would always be blemishes you would prefer were not there. Can you really forgive, if you have no need to be forgiven?

When there is so much tragedy and pain in the world that we cannot help, it seems incomprehensible that we should bring even more upon ourselves. Sometimes I despair of mankind.

And what constitutes evil, real evil, is the taking of a single human life. Whether a man would die tomorrow or the day after or eventually... it doesn't matter. Because if God does not exist, then life... every second of it... Is all we have.

Be kind. Always if you have a choice, be kind.