Humans Quotes - Page 40

• And human instinct is ancient and reliable, utterly mysterious and possibly capable of great genius. I believe that refined, fluent instincts are a person's most valuable asset. My own instincts have repeatedly guided me against the grain of logic and probability. When I have trusted and followed their direction, they have never been wrong. I don't know how or why. But I know that every significant experience-positive or negative-sharpens them and makes them more accurate.

  Augusten Burroughs

  Believe, Negative, Genius

  Augusten Burroughs (2012). “This Is How: Proven Aid in Overcoming Shyness, Molestation, Fatness, Spinsterhood, Grief, Disease, Lushery, Decrepitude & More. For Young and Old Alike.”, p.151, Macmillan

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• No wonder male religious leaders so often say that humans were born in sin—because we were born to female creatures. Only by obeying the rules of the patriarchy can we be reborn through men. No wonder priests and ministers in skirts sprinkle imitation birth fluid over our heads, give us new names, and promise rebirth into everlasting life.

  Gloria Steinem

  Religious, Men, Names

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• As for myself: I had come to the conclusion that there was nothing sacred about myself or about any human being, that we were all machines, doomed to collide and collide and collide.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Sacred, Machines, Conclusion

  Kurt Vonnegut (1999). “Breakfast of Champions: Or, Goodbye Blue Monday!”, CNIB, 197

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• Human behavior is messy and unpredictable and unconcerned with convenient symmetries.

  Khaled Hosseini

  Behavior, Messy, Unpredictable

  Khaled Hosseini (2013). “And the Mountains Echoed”, p.330, A&C Black

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• It was the price of survival. The cost of his people's last, desperate gamble: To rid his new home of humanity, he had to become human. And being human, he had to overcome his humanity.

  Rick Yancey

  Home, People, Humanity

  Rick Yancey (2013). “The 5th Wave”, p.134, Penguin

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• Already, he was dreaming of a refined solitude, a comfortable desert, a motionless ark in which to seek refuge from the unending deluge of human stupidity.

  Joris-Karl Huysmans

  Dream, Stupidity, Solitude

  Joris-Karl Huysmans (2015). “Against the Grain”, p.7, Booklassic

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• "Both Christianity and Islam are logocentric," he told his students, "meaning they are focused on the Word. In Christian tradition, the Word became flesh in the book of John: 'And the Word was made flesh, and He dwelt among us. 'Therefore, it was acceptable to depict the Word as having a human form. In Islamic tradition, however, the Word did not become flesh, and therefore the Word needs to remain in the form of a word … in most cases, calligraphic renderings of the names of the holy figures of Islam."

  Dan Brown

  Christian, Book, Islamic

  "Inferno".

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• A great sadness welled up in Magnus at the sight of him. It was human to age and die, and Jem stood outside that humanity now, outside the light that burned so brightly and so briefly. It was cold outside that light and fire. No one had greater cause to know that cold than Magnus did.

  Cassandra Clare

  Sadness, Fire, Light

  Cassandra Clare, Sarah Rees Brennan, Maureen Johnson (2014). “The Bane Chronicles”, p.173, Simon and Schuster

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• It wasn't aliens that first made us gear up for war; it was our fellow humans.

  Rick Yancey

  War, Firsts, Gears

  Rick Yancey (2013). “The 5th Wave”, p.64, Penguin

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• I want to lead an important life. I want to do it because I was born a human being.

  Eiji Yoshikawa

  Important, Want, Born

  Eiji Yoshikawa (1981). “Musashi”, HarperCollins Publishers

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• Ati sarvatra varjayet: Excess of anything is bad. Some of us are attracted to Good. But the universe tries to maintain balance. So what is good for some may end up being bad for others... Agriculture is good for us humans as it gives us an assured supply of food, but it is bad for the animals that lose their forest and grazing land.

  Amish Tripathi

  Animal, Land, Agriculture

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• When people concentrate on the idea of beauty, they are, without realizing it, confronted with the darkest thoughts that exist in this world. That, I suppose, is how human beings are made.

  Yukio Mishima

  Ideas, People, World

  Yukio Mishima (2011). “The Temple of the Golden Pavilion”, p.52, Tuttle Publishing

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• Remember that introverts react not only to new people, but also to new places and events. So don’t mistake a child’s caution in new situations for an inability to relate to others. He’s recoiling from novelty or overstimulation, not from human contact. Introverts are just as likely as the next kid to seek others’ company, though often in smaller doses

  Susan Cain

  Children, Mistake, Kids

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• Laughter, along with madness, seemed to be the only way out, the emergency exit for humans.

  Matt Haig

  Laughter, Way, Emergencies

  Matt Haig (2014). “The Humans: A Novel”, p.42, Simon and Schuster

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• Are you some kind of mutant human? Like a fire user? And I use mutant as a compliment, you know. I wouldn’t think less of you.

  Richelle Mead

  Thinking, Fire, Compliments You

  Richelle Mead (2012). “The Golden Lily: A Bloodlines Novel”, p.253, Penguin

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• That was the problem ... with trusting to the written word ... We were human, mortal and fallible. We forgot, we made errors, argued ambiguities, and twisted meanings to suit our own ends. And in doing so, mayhap we reshaped the gods themselves.

  Jacqueline Carey

  Errors, Suits, Problem

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• I thought that you had stood up for the free will & rights of humans in this town.” “Depends on the human,” Claire said. “As far as I know, Hitler had a heartbeat, and I wouldn’t vote him to be in charge.

  Rachel Caine

  Rights, Towns, Vote

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• When they face desperation... human beings become animals.

  Dan Brown

  Animal, Faces, Desperation

  Dan Brown (2014). “Inferno: Special Illustrated Edition (Enhanced): Featuring Robert Langdon”, p.605, Knopf

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• Words are very powerful and can lead anyone reading them or hearing them, into contemplation and insight. How the mind follows suit is rarely palpable or expected. This impact is not a matter of metaphysical effects nor of an unexplainable phenomenon. It’s simply part of being human.

  David Mitchell

  Powerful, Reading, Impact

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• People should be nice to you, Leonard. You're a human being. You should expect people to be nice.

  Matthew Quick

  Nice, People, Should

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• a lot of human behavior was really acting out our responses to dangers long past.

  Orson Scott Card

  Past, Long, Acting

  Orson Scott Card (2002). “Ender's Shadow”, p.100, Macmillan

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• The Buggers have finally, finally learned that we humans value each and every individual human life. But they've learned this lesson just in time for it to be hopelessly wrong — for we humans do, when the cause is sufficient, spend our own lives. We throw ourselves onto the grenade to save our buddies in the foxhole. We rise out of the trenches and charge the entrenched enemy and die like maggots under a blowtorch. We strap bombs on our bodies and blow ourselves up in the midst of our enemies. We are, when the cause is sufficient, insane.

  Orson Scott Card

  Blow, Enemy, Insane

  "Ender's Shadow". Book by Orson Scott Card, 1999.

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• She alone had been blind to his merit. Why? Because he loved her and she did not love him. What was it in the human heart that made you despise a man because he loved you?

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Heart, Men, Merit

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• All the world does as it is supposed to, except for humans. Maybe that's why you so often want to kill each other.

  Brandon Sanderson

  Doe, World, Want

  Brandon Sanderson (2010). “The Way of Kings”, p.262, Macmillan

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• Kill a man who needs killing, and sometimes others pay for it. The question is, was it worth doing it anyway? There's always a balance, you know. Good and evil. Light and Shadow. We would not be human if there wasn't a balance.

  Robert Jordan

  Men, Light, Evil

  Robert Jordan (2016). “The Wheel of Time: Books 1–4”, p.1344, Macmillan

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