Humans Quotes - Page 18

• There is a gulf fixed between those who can sleep and those who cannot. It is one of the greatest divisions of the human race.

  Iris Murdoch

  Sleep, Race, Division

  Iris Murdoch (2002). “Nuns and Soldiers”, p.35, Penguin

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• This may be the curse of human race . Not that we are different from one anther , but we are so alike .

  Salman Rushdie

  Race, Different, May

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• Having said that, I must now admit that I was still afraid of human beings, and before I could meet even the customers in the bar I had to fortify myself by gulping down a glass of liquor. The desire to see frightening things—that was what drew me every night to the bar where, like the child who squeezes his pet all the harder when he actually fears it a little, I proclaimed to the customers standing at the bar my drunken, bungling theories of art.

  Osamu Dazai

  Art, Children, Night

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• As history confirms, people will change their minds about almost anything, from which god they worship to how they style their hair. But when it comes to existential judgments, human beings in general have an unfalteringly good opinion of themselves and their condition in this world and are steadfastly confident they are not a collection of self-conscious nothings.

  Thomas Ligotti

  Hair, Self, People

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• Do you know who Karl Marx is? He is this strange little man, long dead, who lived his narrow little life, and somehow managed by the power of his wayward brain to lay hold upon millions of human lives!

  Anchee Min

  Men, Long, Brain

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• Some of us are afraid of dying; others of human loneliness. Profane was afraid of land or seascapes like this, where nothing else lived but himself.

  Thomas Pynchon

  Loneliness, Land, Dying

  Thomas Pynchon (2012). “V.”, p.11, Penguin

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• In each studio there is a human being dressed in the full regalia of his myth fearing to expore a vulnerable opening, spreading not his charms but his defences, plotting to disrobe, somewhere along the night-- his body without the aperture of the heart or his heart with a door closed to his body. thus keeping one compartment for refuge, one uninvaded cell.

  Anais Nin

  Heart, Night, Doors

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• Being a decent human being will require effort and energy.

  David Nicholls

  Effort, Energy, Decent

  David Nicholls (2009). “One Day”, p.119, Hachette UK

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• Human beings can be awful cruel to one another.

  Mark Twain

  Awful, Huckleberry, Human Beings

  Mark Twain (1992). “Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn”, p.8, Wordsworth Editions

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• The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection, that one is sometimes willing to commit sins for the sake of loyalty, that one does not push asceticism to the point where it makes friendly intercourse impossible, and that one is prepared in the end to be defeated and broken up by life, which is the inevitable price of fastening one's love upon other human individuals.

  George Orwell

  Love, Loyalty, Essence

  George Orwell, Keith Gessen (2009). “All Art Is Propaganda: Critical Essays”, p.357, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Morality is seldom a safe guide for human conduct.

  Penelope Fitzgerald

  Safe, Morality, Guides

  Penelope Fitzgerald (1978). “The Bookshop”, p.100, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• I’ve always felt almost human. I’ve always known that there’s something about me that’s different than other dogs. Sure, I’m stuffed into a dog’s body, but that’s just the shell. It’s what’s inside that’s important. The soul. And my soul is very human.

  Garth Stein

  Dog, Soul, Important

  Garth Stein (2011). “Racing in the Rain: My Life as a Dog”, p.2, Harper Collins

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• Drought brings out the worst in us and it's easy to hate your fellow human beings.

  Luke Davies

  Hate, Easy, Worst

  Luke Davies (2006). “Candy”, p.17, Allen & Unwin

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• It wasn't a kiss, human, so don't get excited." She sputtered in outrage. "I don't know what putting your lips on someone else's mouth means for your people - whatever they are - but humans call that a kiss." "Congratulations, then. You made out with a hellhound.

  Larissa Ione

  Congratulations, Mean, Kissing

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• Some communities don't permit open, honest inquiry about the things that matter most. Lots of people have voiced a concern, expressed a doubt, or raised a question, only to be told by their family, church, friends, or tribe: "We don't discuss those things here." I believe the discussion itself is divine. Abraham does his best to bargain with God, most of the book of Job consists of arguments by Job and his friends about the deepest questions of human suffering, God is practically on trial in the book of Lamentations, and Jesus responds to almost every question he's asked with...a question.

  Rob Bell

  Jesus, Jobs, Believe

  Rob Bell (2011). “Love Wins: At the Heart of Life’s Big Questions”, p.4, HarperCollins UK

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• Service is the measure of greatness; it always has been true; it is true today, and it always will be true, that he is greatest who does the most of good. Nearly all of our controversies and combats grow out of the fact that we are trying to get something from each other--there will be peace when our aim is to do something for each other. The human measure of a human life is its income; the divine measure of a life is its outgo, its overflow--its contribution to the welfare of all.

  William Jennings Bryan

  Greatness, Trying, Facts

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• Humans can't tolerate emptiness for long.

  Veronica Roth

  Long, Emptiness, Tolerate

  Veronica Roth (2014). “Divergent Collector's Edition”, p.25, Harper Collins

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• The Elders had nothing but contempt for human emotion; they considered it their biggest weakness. Perenelle knew it was humankind's greatest strength.

  Michael Scott

  Weakness, Emotion, Contempt

  Michael Scott (2012). “The First Codex”, p.224, Delacorte Books for Young Readers

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• Emerald green eyes studied us from a face that could have been sculpted by one of the classical artists I so admired. Shocked, I dismissed the comparison as soon as it popped into my head. This was a vampire, after all. It was ridiculous to admire him the way I would some hot human guy.

  Richelle Mead

  Eye, Artist, Guy

  Richelle Mead (2011). “Bloodlines”, p.34, Penguin

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• But still there are moments when a brother and sister can lay down their instruments of torture for a moment and speak as civilized human beings and Bruno decided to make this one of those moments.

  John Boyne

  Brother, Speak, Moments

  John Boyne (2012). “The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas”, p.158, Random House

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• I don't know what I am thinking. But I am alone. I am trapped in the net of the room. In the net of humans. I think maybe I am drowning in the net of humans.

  Karen Hesse

  Thinking, Rooms, Drowning

  Karen Hesse (2004). “The Music of Dolphins”, p.110, Oxford University Press, USA

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• One of the peculiar ironies of being a human self in the Cosmos: A stranger approaching you in the street will in a second's glance see you whole, size you up, place you in a way in which you cannot and never will, even though you have spent a lifetime with yourself, live in the Century of the Self, and therefore ought to know yourself best of all.

  Walker Percy

  Self, Peculiar, Cosmos

  Walker Percy (2011). “Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book”, p.8, Open Road Media

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• The world is not made of countries and outsiders. We are all just humans, and most of us fools and all of us longing for more than we have, to know more than we know--and yet even that is not enough, for if we knew everything we would only be disappointed that there was not one more secret to uncover.

  Catherynne M. Valente

  Country, Secret, World

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• There was time before organisms experienced consciousness, and there will be time after. And if the inevitability of human oblivion worries you, I encourage you to ignore it.

  John Green

  Worry, Consciousness, Oblivion

  John Green (2008). “An Abundance of Katherines”, p.225, Penguin

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• No human beings, regardless of who they might be, want to look directly at their own shortcomings.

  Tatsuhiko Takimoto

  Looks, Want, Might

  "Welcome to the N.H.K". Book by Tatsuhiko Takimoto, 2002.

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