Humans Quotes - Page 21

• Because in some men it is in them to give up everything personal at some time, before it ferments and poisons--throw it to some human being or some human idea. They have to.

  Carson McCullers

  Giving Up, Men, Ideas

  Carson McCullers (2010). “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter”, p.32, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• There's an honesty to the wolf world that is liberating. There's no diplomacy, no decorum. You tell your enemy you hate him; you show your admiration by confessing the truth. That directness doesn't work with humans, who are masters of subterfuge. Does this dress make me look fat? Do you really love me? Did you miss me? When a person asks this, she doesn't want to know the real answer. She wants you to lie to her. After two years of living with wolves, I had forgotten how many lies it takes to build a relationship.

  Jodi Picoult

  Honesty, Real, Lying

  8 Copy quote

• The human world is made of stories, not people. The people the stories use to tell themselves are not to be blamed

  David Mitchell

  People, Stories, Use

  David Mitchell (2007). “Ghostwritten”, p.378, Vintage

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Michael had once read to her how God had cast a man and woman out of paradise. Yet, for all their human faults and failures. God had shown them the way back in.

  Francine Rivers

  Men, Paradise, Way

  Francine Rivers (2013). “Redeeming Love”, p.442, Lion Fiction

  18 Copy quote

  Show source

• ... don't ever underestimate people, don't ever underestimate the pleasure they receive from viewing pain that is not their own... Pain by itself is just Pain. But Pain + Distance can = entertainment, voyeurism, human interest, cinéma vérité, a good belly chuckle, a sympathetic smile, a raised eyebrow, disguised contempt.

  Zadie Smith

  Pain, Distance, Eyebrows

  Zadie Smith (2003). “White Teeth”, p.177, Vintage

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The human race sleepwalked to oblivion, thinking only of the corporate logos on it's shroud.

  J. G. Ballard

  Thinking, Race, Logos

  J. G. Ballard (2006). “Kingdom Come”, HarperCollins UK

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• She wants you to be a god," I told him. "I know." His face twisted with embarrassment, and in spite of itself my heart lightened. It was such a boyish response. And so human. Parents, everywhere.

  Madeline Miller

  Heart, Parent, Want

  19 Copy quote

• Today's Gypsies, who have lived in Prague for only two generations, light a ritual fire wherever they work, a nomads' fire crackling only for the joy of it, a blaze of roughhewn wood like a child's laugh, a symbol of the eternity that preceded human thought, a free fire, a gift from heaven, a living sign of the elements unnoticed by the world-weary pedestrian, a fire in the ditches of Prague warming the wanderer's eye and soul.

  Bohumil Hrabal

  Children, Eye, Fire

  11 Copy quote

• Or at school you might have been prodded to come “out of your shell”—that noxious expression which fails to appreciate that some animals naturally carry shelter everywhere they go, and that some humans are just the same.

  Susan Cain

  School, Animal, Expression

  Susan Cain (2012). “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking”, p.6, Broadway Books

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• When people attempt to rebel against the iron logic of Nature, they come into conflict with the very same principles to which they owe their existence as human beings. Their actions against Nature must lead to their own downfall.

  Adolf Hitler

  Iron, People, Principles

  20 Copy quote

• Thinking is the most overrated human activity.

  Wendell Berry

  Thinking, Overrated, Human Activity

  4 Copy quote

• History knew the truth. History was the most inhuman product of humanity.It scooped up the whole of human will and, like the goddess Kali in Calcutta, dripped blood from its mouth as it bit and crunched.

  Yukio Mishima

  Blood, Humanity, Kali

  Yukio Mishima (1974). “The Decay of the Angel”, Random House

  15 Copy quote

  Show source

• Humanists recognize that it is only when people feel free to think for themselves, using reason as their guide, that they are best capable of developing values that succeed in satisfying human needs and serving human interests.

  Isaac Asimov

  Thinking, People, Needs

  12 Copy quote

• Fantasy is escapism, but wait... Why is this wrong? What are you escaping from, and where are you escaping to? Is the story opening windows or slamming doors? The British author G.K. Chesterton summarized the role of fantasy very well. He said its purpose was to take the everyday, commonplace world and lift it up and turn it around and show it to us from a different perspective, so that once again we see it for the first time and realize how marvelous it is. Fantasy - the ability to envisage the world in many different ways - is one of the skills that make us human.

  Terry Pratchett

  Escaping, Doors, Skills

  7 Copy quote

• The food crank is by definition a person willing to cut himself off from human society in the hopes of adding five years onto the life of his carcase; that is, a person out of touch with common humanity.

  George Orwell

  Cutting, Years, Common Humanity

  George Orwell (2001). “Orwell's England: the Road to Wigan Pier in the context of essays, reviews, letters and poems selected from the Complete works of George Orwell”, ePenguin

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Humans are creatures, who spent their lifes trying to convince themselves, that their existence is not absurd

  Albert Camus

  Trying, Absurd, Existence

  17 Copy quote

• For a man’s life would become intolerable, if he knew what was going to happen to him. He would be made aware of future evils, and would suffer their agonies in advance, while he would get no joy of present blessings since he would know how they would end. Ignorance is the necessary condition of human happiness, and it has to be admitted that on the whole mankind observes that condition well. We are almost entirely ignorant of ourselves; absolutely of others. In ignorance, we find our bliss; in illusions, our happiness.

  Anatole France

  Ignorance, Blessing, Men

  11 Copy quote

• So he's like a human compass? As far as superpowers go, that's pretty lame. You're like the Caster equivalent of Aquaman.

  Kami Garcia

  Lame, Compass, Superpower

  Kami Garcia, Margaret Stohl (2010). “Beautiful Darkness”, p.118, Penguin UK

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The human mind is a powerful thing in many ways, but in others it's endlessly fragile—it takes only a single moment of pure terror to tear a hole in it, like a finger through a cobweb, leaving you forever just a shadow, a half-person.

  Alexander Gordon Smith

  Powerful, Forever, Leaving

  Alexander Gordon Smith (2010). “Escape from Furnace 2: Solitary”, p.50, Faber & Faber

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• As you know, human history is full of evil deeds, and maybe we ought to think of them with tears, not fascination.

  Elizabeth Kostova

  Life, Thinking, Evil

  Elizabeth Kostova (2008). “The Historian”, Little, Brown

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Hegel said that `truth` is subjective, thus rejecting the existence of any `truth` above or beyond human reason. All knowledge is human knowledge.

  Jostein Gaarder

  Hegel, Truth Is, Reason

  8 Copy quote

• Of everything that man erects and builds in his urge for living nothing is in my eyes better and more valuable than bridges. They are more important than houses, more sacred than shrines. Belonging to everyone and being equal to everyone, useful, always built with a sense, on the spot where most human needs are crossing, they are more durable than other buildings and they do not serve for anything secret or bad.

  Ivo Andric

  Eye, Men, Bridges

  85 Copy quote

• I let my face go blank and nodded slowly. "Yes.The trolls.Back. With me. Cannot form.Complete sentences." I shook my head. "Yeah,so not happening." He considered me,annoyed and at a loss for what to do next."I don't kill humans." "Me niether!See,common ground already.

  Kiersten White

  Loss, Annoyed, Next

  4 Copy quote

• Humans live in a pit of cheating, exploiting, hurting, incarcerating. Every time, the species wastes some part of what it could be. This waste is poisonous.

  David Mitchell

  Cheating, Hurt, Pits

  David Mitchell (2007). “Ghostwritten”, p.163, Vintage

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• A human being is a problem in search of a solution.

  Robert Ardrey

  Problem, Solutions, Human Beings

  Robert Ardrey (1968). “Plays of three decades”

  5 Copy quote

  Show source