Quotes about humankind

Man is a two-legged animal without feathers.

— Plato

Man is a being in search of meaning.

— Plato

If, presume not to God to scan; The proper study of Mankind is Man. Plac'd on this isthmus of a middle state, a being darkly wise, and rudely great.

— Alexander Pope

Man is harder than iron, stronger than stone and more fragile than a rose.

— Turkish Proverb

The law of humanity ought to be composed of the past, the present, and the future, that we bear within us; whoever possesses but one of these terms, has but a fragment of the law of the moral world.

— Edgar Quinet

All people are a single nation.

— Qur'an

I wish I loved the Human Race; I wish I loved its silly face; I wish I liked the way it walks; I wish I liked the way it talks; And when I'm introduced to one I wish I thought What Jolly Fun!

— Sir Walter Raleigh

Let us ask ourselves; What kind of people do we think we are?

— Ronald Reagan

Human beings, for all their pretensions, have a remarkable propensity for lending themselves to classification somewhere within neatly labeled categories. Even the outrageous exceptions may be classified as outrageous exceptions!

— W.J. Reichmann

In our civilization, men are afraid that they will not be men enough and women are afraid that they might be considered only women.

— Theodor Reik

Humanity has advanced, when it has advanced, not because it has been sober, responsible, and cautious, but because it has been playful, rebellious, and immature.

— Tom Robbins

To be human is to keep rattling the bars of the cage of existence hollering, What's it for?

— Fulghum Robert

It's great to be great, but it's greater to be human.

— Will Rogers

An effective human being is a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.

— Ida P. Rolf

Man's only true happiness is to live in hope of something to be won by him. Reverence something to be worshipped by him, and love something to be cherished by him, forever.

— John Ruskin

We say nothing essential about the cathedral when we speak of its stones. We say nothing essential about Man when we seek to define him by the qualities of men.

— Antoine De Saint-Exupery

Those who live in a world of human beings can only retrace their steps.

— Nathalie Sarraute

Man is a useless passion.

— Jean-Paul Sartre

Mankind is made great or little by its own will.

— Johann Friedrich Von Schiller

It is peculiar to mankind to transcend mankind.

— Friedrich Schlegel

I love mankind; it's people I can't stand.

— Charles M. Schulz

What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god -- the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals!

— William Shakespeare

Human beings are the only animals of which I am thoroughly and cravenly afraid.

— George Bernard Shaw

Physically there is nothing to distinguish human society from the farm-yard except that children are more troublesome and costly than chickens and calves and that men and women are not so completely enslaved as farm stock.

— George Bernard Shaw

Humanity is the virtue of a woman, generosity that of a man.

— Adam Smith

Mankind are animals that makes bargains, no other animal does this.

— Adam Smith

Man is an animal that makes bargains; no other animal does this--one dog does not change a bone with another.

— Adam Smith

I am not an Athenian, nor a Greek, but a citizen of the world.

— Socrates

No man really knows about other human beings. The best he can do is to suppose that they are like himself.

— John Steinbeck

Man is a substance clad in shadows.

— John Sterling

Every man has a sane spot somewhere.

— Robert Louis Stevenson

The true grandeur of humanity is in moral elevation, sustained, enlightened and decorated by the intellect of man.

— Charles Sumner

The age of chivalry has gone; the age of humanity has come.

— Charles Sumner

When all is done, human life is, at the greatest and the best, but like a froward child, that must be played with and humored a little to keep it quiet till it falls asleep, and then the care is over.

— Sir William Temple

I am human and let nothing human be alien to me.

— Terence

One has but to observe a community of beavers at work in a stream to understand the loss in his sagacity, balance, co-operation, competence, and purpose which Man has suffered since he rose up on his hind legs. He began to chatter and he developed Reason, Thought, and Imagination, qualities which would get the smartest group of rabbits or orioles in the world into inextricable trouble overnight.

— James Thurber

Man lives consciously for himself, but is an unconscious instrument in the attainment of the historic, universal, aims of humanity.

— Count Leo Tolstoy

Those are the same stars, and that is the same moon, that look down upon your brothers and sisters, and which they see as they look up to them, though they are ever so far away from us, and each other.

— Sojourner Truth

If man had created man, he would be ashamed of his performance.

— Mark Twain

There are times when one would like to hang the whole human race, and finish the farce.

— Mark Twain

The human race was always interesting and we know by its past that it will always continue so, monotonously.

— Mark Twain

Man is a creature made at the end of the week's work when God was tired.

— Mark Twain

Such is the human race. Often it does seem such a pity that Noah and his party did not miss the boat.

— Mark Twain

People can be divided into three classes, the few who make things happen, the many who watch things happen, and the overwhelming majority who have no idea what has happened.

— Source Unknown

If you think that every bad thing that has been done on the face of the earth has been done by man, you're right -- but so has every good thing.

— Source Unknown

There are two kinds of people in the world -- those you love, and those you don't understand.

— Source Unknown

Be tolerant of the human race. Your whole family belongs to it -- and some of your spouse's family does too.

— Source Unknown

There are realities we all share, regardless of our nationality, language, or individual tastes. As we need food, so do we need emotional nourishment: love, kindness, appreciation, and support from others. We need to understand our environment and our relationship to it. We need to fulfill certain inner hungers: the need for happiness, for peace of mind for wisdom.

— J. Donald Walters

How is it possible that a being with such sensitive jewels as the eyes, such enchanted musical instruments as the ears, and such fabulous arabesque of nerves as the brain can experience itself anything less than a god.

— Alan W. Watts

I would suggest that barbarism be considered as a permanent and universal human characteristic which becomes more or less pronounced according to the play of circumstances.

— Simone Weil

Man is the unnatural animal, the rebel child of nature, and more and more does he turn himself against the harsh and fitful hand that reared him.

— H.G. Wells

The whole theory of the universe is directed unerringly to one single individual.

— Walt Whitman

The brotherhood of man is not a mere poet's dream: it is a most depressing and humiliating reality.

— Oscar Wilde

I sometimes think that God in creating man somewhat overestimated his ability.

— Oscar Wilde

It is because Humanity has never known where it was going that it has been able to find its way.

— Oscar Wilde

We're all of us guinea pigs in the laboratory of God. Humanity is just a work in progress.

— Tennessee Williams

What a beautiful world we're destroying.

— James Dye

Man lies down and does not rise until the heavens are no more. They will not awake nor arise from their sleep.

— James Dye

Mankind lives to understand things, but only thru objective reason he can understand the things of real value to him.

— Fausto Gil

The only difference between you and everybody else is abstract; you can only see it in your mind.

— Fausto Gil

Mankind is the masterpiece of this world of perfection.

— Fausto Gil

The best thing about me is you.

— Shannon Crown

If you could have walked on the planet before humans lived here, maybe the Ivory Coast would have seemed more beautiful than La Côte d'Azur.

— Dejan Stojanovic

Are we human’s generation?

— Saqeem Syed Shah

Good and evil, reward and punishment, are the only motives to a rational creature: these are the spur and reins whereby all mankind are set on work, and guided.

— John Locke

One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man.

— Elbert Hubbard