Quotes About Mankind

Unless one believes in a superhuman reason which directs evolution, one is bound to believe in a reason inherent in humanity, a motive power transcending that of each separate people, just as the power of the organism transcends that of the organ. This reason increases in proportion as the unity of mankind becomes established.

Superstitions and belief in magic are perennial in just the same way as religion, and something near to being universal among mankind; and why this is so may be interesting, but in most cases the beliefs themselves are devoid of interesting content, at least to me.

According to the now almost universally accepted theory, all the races of mankind had a common origin.

I believe in aliens. I think it would be way too selfish of us as mankind to believe we are the only lifeforms in the universe.

To modify the conditions of the Earth's movement is beyond the powers of man. It is not given to mankind to change the order established by the Creator in the system of the Universe.

The common behavior of mankind is the system of reference by means of which we interpret an unknown language.

I like to watch mankind in its futile attempt to understand the unknown, when they don't even understand that which they know.

Man was not made for the service of economies; economies were made to serve mankind; and men and women were made - so we believe - to serve one another, not just ourselves.

All honor to the noble women that have devoted earnest lives to the intellectual needs of mankind!

Maternity is a glorious thing, since all mankind has been conceived, born, and nourished of women. All human laws should encourage the multiplication of families.

Enlightened types tended to place their faith in progress, freedom, and the improvability of mankind. As the intellectual historian Caroline Winterer put it, "To be enlightened was to be filled with hope."54 The opposite of enlightenment, states her predecessor Carl Becker, was "superstition, intolerance, tyranny."55

I put for the general inclination of all mankind, a perpetual and restless desire of power after power, that ceaseth only in death.

I take it that the good of mankind means the attainment, by every man, of all the happiness which he can enjoy without diminishing the happiness of his fellow men.

The more rapidly truth is spread among mankind the better it will be for them. Only let us be sure that it is the truth.

The only medicine for suffering, crime, and all other woes of mankind, is wisdom. Teach a man to read and write, and you have put into his hands the great keys of the wisdom box. But it is quite another thing to open the box.

Only aim to do your duty, and mankind will give you credit where you fail.

The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind.

On the dogmas of religion, as distinguished from moral principles, all mankind, from the beginning of the world to this day, have been quarreling, fighting, burning and torturing one another, for abstractions unintelligible to themselves and to all others, and absolutely beyond the comprehension of the human mind.

The good opinion of mankind, like the lever of Archimedes, with the given fulcrum, moves the world.

The happiness of the domestic fireside is the first boon of Heaven; and it is well it is so, since it is that which is the lot of the mass of mankind.

Any progress towards the salvation of mankind will probably start from the bottom [the family unit] when our gods have been devalued to the status of fridge magnets or garden ornaments.

In a state therefore of great equality and virtue, where pure and simple manners prevailed, the increase of the human species would evidently be much greater than any increase that has been hitherto known.

Of all the tyrannies that affect mankind, tyranny in religion is the worst.

Men who look upon themselves born to reign, and others to obey, soon grow insolent; selected from the rest of mankind their minds are early poisoned by importance; and the world they act in differs so materially from the world at large, that they have but little opportunity of knowing its true interests, and when they succeed to the government are frequently the most ignorant and unfit of any throughout the dominions.