Quotes About Humanity

All humanity inspires me. Every passer-by is my unconscious sitter; and as strange as it may seem, I really draw folk as I see them. Surely it is not my fault that they fall into certain lines and angles.

Perhaps it is the knowledge that we carry in our hearts that nobody ultimately wins. Somewhere we all go down. Force used tyrannically is our common enemy. Why align ourselves with it in whatever shape or fashion.

Suddenly I see the comedy of little men, myself included, who are pitted against a riddle that is as vast and indifferent as the blue sky above us. (pg. 170)

Black and Third World people are expected to educate white people as to our humanity. Women are expected to educate men. Lesbians and gay men are expected to educate the heterosexual world. The oppressors maintain their position and evade their responsibility for their own actions. There is a constant drain of energy which might be better used in redefining ourselves and devising realistic scenarios for altering the present and constructing the future.

People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone.

What an occupation! To sit and flay your fellow men and then offer their skins for sale and expect them to buy them.

And why does man weep when he is sad? I asked at last—Because the glass in the eyes must be washed now and then, so that we can see clearly, said the child.

Yes, I am crying although I am a man. But has not a man eyes! Has not a man hands, limbs, senses, thoughts, passions? Is he not fed with the wine food, hurt by the same weapons, warmed and cooled by the same summer and winter as a woman? If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? And if you poison us, do we not die? Why shouldn't a man complain, a soldier weep? Because it is unmanly? Why is it unmanly?

Nothing at bottom is real except humanity.

The main thing is to be moved, to love, to hope, to tremble, to live. Be a man before being an artist!

Man's naked form belongs to no particular moment in history; it is eternal, and can be looked upon with joy by the people of all ages.

Marriage is overdone. As long as there are people, people are going to find it interesting.

I, myself, am made entirely of flaws, stitched together with good intentions.

Cada desconocido anónimo de la vida real posee un mundo indescifrable, con miedos amores, actos valientes y cobardes.

Somos uma partícula que surge na arena da existência e logo desaparece. Apesar da pequenez do ser humano, nosso pensamento caminha na esfera da imaginação mais rápido do que a luz, e é mais fértil do que o solo mais rico. Perambulamos apreensivos durante algumas dezenas de anos em nossa breve trajetória existencial usando o aparelho psíquico para tentar desvendar o desconhecido, em especial a vida. Perguntar é nosso destino.

Visurile nu construiesc victorii, dar ne scot din conformism, nu ne fac eroi, dar ne transforma in fiinte esentialmente umane.

Ser um ser humano sem fronteiras não é ser ingénuo nem pôr em perigo a vida desnecessariamente. Lembrem-se que eu não os chamei para serem heróis. Não provoquem muito menos enfrentem os ofensores. Dar a outra face não é sinónimo de fragilidade, mas de força. Não é sinónimo de estupidez, mas de lucidez.

Padece usted una de las dolencias más normales en el género humano: la necesidad de comunicarse con sus semejantes.

Él se había alejado de su casa a los once años para «descubrir el mundo»; pero ésa y sucesivas experiencias lo pusieron en camino de descubrir que en el mundo no hay nada peor que la maldad humana.

Atravesó capas y capas de sufrimiento humano. Y encontró que la gente más martirizada era la más buena y noble. Pero encontró también que esta bondad y esta nobleza estaban tan degradadas y envilecidas que eran una cosa inútil y que, a menos que se rebelaran violentamente, seguirían siendo siempre una cosa inútil.

Fear is not the natural state of civilized people.

It is his capacity for self-improvement and self-redemption which most distinguishes man from the mere brute.

War is not the only arena where peace is done to death. Wherever suffering is ignored, there will be the seeds of conflict, for suffering degrades and embitters and enrages.

The French say that to part is to die a little. To be forgotten too is to die a little. It is to lose some of the links that anchor us to the rest of humanity.