Mankind Quotes - Page 26

• My lord, lawyers are a dangerous species of animals till ha'e any dependence upon--they are always starting punctilios and deeficulties among friends. Why, my dear lord, it is their interest that aw mankind should be at variance; for disagreement is the vary manure wi' which they enrich and fatten the land of leetigation; and as they find that constantly produces the best crop, depend upon it they will always be sure till lay it on ass thick ass they can.

  Charles Macklin

  Animal, Land, Dear Lord

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• It is as the father of the Encyclopedia that Denis Diderot merits eternal recognition. Guilty as he was in almost every relation of life towards the individual, for mankind, in the teeth of danger and of infidelity, at the ill-paid sacrifice of the best years of his exuberant life, he produced that book which first levelled a free path to knowledge and enfranchised the soul of his generation.

  Evelyn Beatrice Hall

  Father, Book, Sacrifice

  "The Friends of Voltaire". Book by Stephen G. Tallentyre, 1906.

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• The papers are full of murders -- strange murders. It is all nonsense that there are as many brains as there are men; mankind has only one intellect, and it is beginning to get muddled.

  Leonid Andreyev

  Men, Brain, Paper

  Leonid Andreyev (2007). “The Seven That Were Hanged”, p.150, Wildside Press LLC

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• Acceptance is appreciation, and the high value of appreciation is such that to appreciate appreciation seems to be the fundamental prerequisite for survival. Mankind will not die for lack of information; it may perish for lack of appreciation.

  Abraham Joshua Heschel

  Appreciation, Acceptance, Appreciate

  "Who Is Man?". Book by Abraham Joshua Heschel, 1965.

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• Those of faith who plant sacred thoughts in the uplands of time, the secret gardeners of the Lord in mankind's desolate hopes, may slacken and tarry but rarely betray their vocation.

  Abraham Joshua Heschel

  Secret, May, Sacred

  Abraham Joshua Heschel (1976). “Man Is Not Alone: A Philosophy of Religion”, p.95, Macmillan

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• For the sake of my children and grandchildren, I hope that the human talent for self-destruction can be successfully controlled, or at least channelled into productive forms, but I doubt it. I think we are moving into extremely volatile and dangerous times, as modern electronic technologies give mankind almost unlimited powers to play with its own psychopathology as a game.

  J. G. Ballard

  Children, Moving, Technology

  "JG Ballard: Theatre of Cruelty". Interview with Jean-Paul Coillard, 1998.

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• It is easier to love humanity as a whole than to love one's neighbor. ... Some of the worst tyrannies of our day genuinely are "vowed" to the service of mankind, yet can function only by pitting neighbor against neighbor. The all-seeing eye of a totalitarian regime is usually the watchful eye of the next-door neighbor. In a Communist state love of neighbor may be classed as counter-revolutionary.

  Eric Hoffer

  Eye, Doors, Humanity

  Eric Hoffer (1982). “Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer”, HarperCollins Publishers

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• The sick in soul insist that it is humanity that is sick, and they are the surgeons to operate on it. They want to turn the world into a sickroom. And once they get humanity strapped to the operating table, they operate on it with an ax.

  Eric Hoffer

  Sick, Soul, Humanity

  Eric Hoffer (1996). “The Passionate State of Mind”

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• Though there is a benevolence due to all mankind, none can question but a superior degree of it is to be paid to a father, a wife, or child. In the same manner, though our love should reach to the whole species, a greater proportion of it should exert itself towards that community in which Providence has placed us. This is our proper sphere of action, the province allotted us for the exercise of our civil virtues, and in which alone we have opportunities of expressing our goodwill to mankind.

  Joseph Addison

  Children, Father, Exercise

  Joseph Addison (1839). “Essays Moral and Humorous: Also Essays on Imagination and Taste”, p.187

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• Thus I live in the world rather as a spectator of mankind than as one of the species.

  Joseph Addison

  World, Spectators, Meddling

  1711 In The Spectator, no.1,1Mar.

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• Now in this island of Atlantis there was a great and wonderful empire which had rule over the whole island and several others, and over parts of the continent and, furthermore, the men of Atlantis had subjected the parts of Libya within the columns of Heracles as far as Egypt, and of Europe as far as Tyrrhenia.This vast power, gathered into one, endeavored to subdue at a blow our country and yours and the whole of the region within the straits, and then, Solon, your country shone forth, in the excellence of her virtue and strength, among all mankind.

  Plato

  Country, Blow, Men

  Plato (2012). “Gorgias and Timaeus”, p.195, Courier Corporation

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• There is then no analogy whatever between the operations of the Chess-Player, and those of the calculating machine of Mr. Babbage , and if we choose to call the former a pure machine we must be prepared to admit that it is, beyond all comparison, the most wonderful of the inventions of mankind.

  Edgar Allan Poe

  Player, Analogies, Chess

  Edgar Allan Poe (2016). “The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe”, p.838, Xist Publishing

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• With me poetry has been not a purpose, but a passion; and the passions should be held in reverence: they must not they cannot at will be excited, with an eye to the paltry compensations, or the more paltry commendations, of mankind.

  Edgar Allan Poe

  Passion, Eye, Purpose

  Edgar Allan Poe (2015). “Edgar Allan Poe: Poetry and Tales”, p.18, Library of America

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• Twas a special gift of God that speech was given to mankind; for through the Word, and not by force, wisdom governs.

  Martin Luther

  Special, Speech, Force

  Martin Luther, Alexander Chalmers (1857). “The Table Talk of Martin Luther”, p.22

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• Reason, it is true, is DICTATOR in the Society of Mankind; from her there ought to lie no Appeal; But here we want a Pope in our Philosophy, to be the infallible Judge of what is or is not Reason.

  Daniel Defoe

  Philosophy, Lying, Judging

  Daniel Defoe (1840). “The works of Daniel De Foe [ed.] by W. Hazlitt”

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• A rich man is an honest man--no thanks to him; for he would be a double knave, to cheat mankind when he had no need of it: he has no occasion to press upon his integrity, nor so much as to touch upon the borders of dishonesty.

  Daniel Defoe

  Integrity, Men, Borders

  Daniel Defoe (2016). “DANIEL DEFOE Ultimate Collection: 50+ Adventure Classics, Pirate Tales & Historical Novels - Including Biographies, Historical Works, Travel Sketches, Poems & Essays (Illustrated): Robinson Crusoe, The History of the Pirates, Captain Singleton, Memoirs of a Cavalier, A Journal of the Plague Year, Moll Flanders, Roxana, The History of the Devil, The King of Pirates and many more”, p.5425, e-artnow

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• If there's one thing you can say about mankind, there's nothing kind about man.

  Tom Waits

  Men, Kind, One Thing

  Song: Misery Is the River of the World, Album: Blood Money, 2002

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• What is really amazing, and frustrating, is mankind's habit of refusing to see the obvious and inevitable until it is there, and then muttering about unforeseen catastrophes.

  Isaac Asimov

  Habit, Muttering, Obvious

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• If Christianity were true religious persecution would become a pious and charitable duty: if God designs to punish men for their opinions it would be an act of mercy to mankind to extinguish such opinions. By burning the bodies of those who diffuse them many souls would be saved that would otherwise be lost, and so there would be an economy of torment in the long run. It is therefore not surprising that enthusiasts should be intolerant.

  William Winwood Reade

  Running, Religious, Men

  William Winwood Reade (1876). “The Martyrdom of Man”, p.228

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• In Europe itself it is not probable that war will ever absolutely cease until science discovers some destroying force so simple in its administration, so horrible in its effects, that all art, all gallantry, will be at an end, and battles will be massacres which the feelings of mankind will be unable to endure.

  William Winwood Reade

  Art, War, Simple

  William Winwood Reade (1892). “The Martyrdom of Man”

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• As for the system of the Commune, which makes it impossible for a man to rise or fall, it is merely the old caste system revived; if it could be put into force, all industry would be disheartened, emulation would cease, and mankind would go to sleep.

  William Winwood Reade

  Fall, Sleep, Men

  William Winwood Reade (1874). “The Martyrdom of Man”, p.507

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• No adversity is in kind or degree peculiar to us; but if we survey the conditions of other men (of our brethren everywhere, of our neighbours all about us), and compare our case with theirs, we shall find that we have many consorts and associates in adversity, most as ill, many far worse bestead than ourselves; whence it must be a great fondness and perverseness to be displeased that we are not exempted from, but exposed to bear a share in the common troubles and burdens of mankind.

  Isaac Barrow

  Adversity, Men, Degrees

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• The artist makes art not to save mankind but to save himself. Every benevolent comment by an artist is a fog to cover his tracks, the bloody trail of his assault against reality and others.

  Camille Paglia

  Art, Reality, Fog

  "Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson". Book by Camille Paglia, 1990.

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• If you are often deceived by those around you, you may be sure that you deserve to be deceived; and that instead of railing at the general falseness of mankind, you have first to pronounce judgment on your own jealous tyranny, or on your own weak credulity.

  Arthur Helps

  Jealous, Deception, May

  Sir Arthur Helps (1883). “Thoughts in the Cloister and the Crowd”

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• By consequence I hold that no one ever did, or can do, anything for "society."... Comte invented the term altruism as an antonym for egoism, and it found its way at once into everyone's mouth, although it is utterly devoid of meaning, since it points to nothing that ever existed in mankind; This hybrid or rather this degenerate form of hedonism served powerfully to invest collectivism's principles with a specious moral sanction, and collectivists naturally made the most of it.

  Albert J. Nock

  Principles, Mouths, Way

  "Memoirs of a Superfluous Man" by Albert J. Nock, (p. 305), 1943.

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