Quotes About Humanity

The communal life of human beings had, therefore, a two-fold foundation: the compulsion to work, which was created by external necessity, and the power of love.

we shall not fall out of this world. We are in it once and for all.')]

The very emphasis of the commandment: Thou shalt not kill, makes it certain that we are descended from an endlessly long chain of generations of murderers, whose love of murder was in their blood as it is perhaps also in ours.

Eros and Ananke [Love and Necessity] have become the parents of human civilization.

I have found little that is 'good' about human beings on the whole. In my experience most of them are trash, no matter whether they publicly subscribe to this or that ethical doctrine or to none at all.

Aber wenn das menschliche Schuldgefühl auf die Tötung des Urvaters zurückgeht, das war doch ein Fall von 'Reue', und damals soll der Voraussetzung nach Gewissen und Schuldgefühl vor der Tat nicht bestanden haben? Woher kam in diesem Fall die Reue?

To love one's neighbour as oneself — a commandment which is really justified by the fact that nothing else runs as strongly counter to the original nature of man.

Eros und Ananke sind auch die Eltern der menschlichen Kultur geworden.

Just as the planet still circles round its Sun, yet at the same time rotates on its own axis, so the individual partakes in the development of humanity while making his own way through life.

Thus we may perhaps be forced to become reconciled to the idea that it is quite impossible to adjust the claims of the sexual instinct to the demands of civilization; that in consequence of its cultural development renunciation and suffering, as well as the danger of extinction in the remotest future, cannot be avoided by the human race.

Freud spunea candva referitor la religie: Intreaga afacere este atat de evident infantila, atat de departe de realitate, incat oricine cu o atitudine de simpatie si compasiune pentru omenire, va resimti o mare durere gandindu-se ca o majoritate a muritorilor, nu se va ridica niciodata deasupra acestei viziuni despre viata.

la civilización todavía no ha sido capaz de difundirse en las almas de la mayoría de los hombres sin una acumulación explosiva de energías destructoras.

Gustavo Solivellas dice: La humanidad progresa. La gente hoy solamente quema mis libros; siglos atrás me hubieran quemado a mí (Sigmund Freud)

bisogna svelarsi come il solo malvagio fra tutte le nobili persone con le quali si spartisce la vita

Não quebro muitas vezes a cabeça a propósito da questão do bem e do mal, mas, em média, descobri muito pouco «bem» entre os homens. Segundo o que deles sei, são na maioria escumalha, quer se reclamem da ética desta ou daquela doutrina, quer de nenhuma.

Mit Sicherheit weiß ich nur das eine, daß die Werturteile der Menschen unbedingt von ihren Glückswünschen geleitet werden, also ein Versuch sind, ihre Illusionen mit Argumenten zu stützen. Die Schicksalsfrage der Menschenart scheint mir zu sein, ob und in welchem Maße es ihrer Kulturentwicklung gelingen wird, der Störung des Zusammenlebens durch den menschlichen Aggressions- und Selbstvernichtungstrieb Herr zu werden.

Another question: why do people often find animal suffering harder to accept than the suffering of other human beings?

Be kind, because everyone you meet is going through a struggle.

I like that the Aborigines say dogs make people human. Also (though I can't remember who said it): The thing that keeps me from becoming a complete misanthrope is seeing how much dogs love men.

I like that the Aborigines say dogs make people human

I don't know who it was, but someone, maybe or maybe not Henry James, said that there are two kinds of people in the world: those who upon seeing someone else suffering think, That could happen to me, and those who think, That will never happen to me. The first kind of people help us to endure, the second kind make life hell.

I believe the intensity of the pity you feel for an animal has to do with how it evokes pity for yourself.... Innocence is something we humans pass through and leave behind, unable to return. But animals live and die in that state, and seeing innocence violated in the form of cruelty to a mere duck can seem like the most barbaric act in the world.

He was saying that perhaps it was a mistake to bring human beings into a world that had such a strong possibility of becoming, in their lifetimes, a bleak and terrifying if not wholly unlivable place.

Why do people often find animal suffering harder to accept than the suffering of other human beings?