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Mankind quotes

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“We may brave human laws, but we cannot resist natural ones.” Jules Verne, “Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea” - 1870

“More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.” Woody Allen, “Side Effects” - 1980

“The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn, and Egypt, Greece, Rome, Gaul, Britain, America, lie folded already in the first man.” Ralph Waldo Emerson, “History” - 1841

“the whole work of man really seems to consist in nothing but proving to himself every minute that he is a man and not a piano-key!” Fyodor Dostoyevsky, “Notes from Underground” - 1864

“But remember, language is man’s way of communication with other people and it is language alone which separates him from the lower animals.” Maya Angelou, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” - 1969

“But with the introduction of agriculture mankind entered upon a long period of meanness, misery, and madness, from which they are only now being freed by the beneficent operation of the machine.” Bertrand Russell, “The Conquest of Happiness” - 1930

“Ingratitude is among them a capital crime, as we read it to have been in some other countries: for they reason thus; that whoever makes ill returns to his benefactor, must needs be a common enemy to the rest of mankind, from whom he has received...” Jonathan Swift, “Gulliver's Travels” - 1726

“For mankind censure injustice, fearing that they may be the victims of it and not because they shrink from committing it.” Plato, “The Republic”

“The gods are not magicians who transform themselves, neither do they deceive mankind in any way.” Plato, “The Republic”

“She tried to argue, and tell him that he had mixed in his dull brain two matters, theology and morals, which in the primitive days of mankind had been quite distinct.” Thomas Hardy, “Tess of the d'Urbervilles” - 1891

“All that Mankind has done, thought, gained or been: it is lying as in magic preservation in the pages of Books. They are the chosen possession of men.” Thomas Carlyle, “On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and The Heroic in History” - 1841

“Others again who say that regard should be had for the rights of fellow-citizens, but not of foreigners, would destroy the universal brotherhood of mankind;” Marcus Tullius Cicero, “On Duties” - 44 BC

“Man is an idea, and a precious small idea, once he turns his back on love. And that's my point; we, mankind, have lost the capacity for love.” Albert Camus, “The Plague” - 1947

“To all mankind they were addressed, those cries for help still ringing in our ears! But at this place, at this moment of time, all mankind is us, whether we like it or not. Let us make the most of it, before it is too late!” Samuel Beckett, “Waiting for Godot” - 1953

“If the peace presently to be made is to endure it must be a peace made secure by the organized major force of mankind.” Woodrow Wilson, “A World League For Peace” - 22 January 1917

“When I refuse to obey an unjust law, I do not contest the right which the majority has of commanding, but I simply appeal from the sovereignty of the people to the sovereignty of mankind.” Alexis de Tocqueville, “Democracy in America” - 1835

“unbelief is an accident, and faith is the only permanent state of mankind.” Alexis de Tocqueville, “Democracy in America” - 1835

“all human beings, as we meet them, are commingled out of good and evil: and Edward Hyde, alone in the ranks of mankind, was pure evil.” Robert Louis Stevenson, “Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” - 1886

“The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind.” Thomas Paine, “Common Sense” - 1776

Related topics

love men wisdom language evil communication conservation books ingratitude nature civilization good peace law despair magic faith crime morality force

Related authors

Plato (2)
Alexis de Tocqueville (2)
Robert Louis Stevenson (1)
Maya Angelou (1)
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1)
Bertrand Russell (1)
Jonathan Swift (1)
Thomas Hardy (1)
Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1)
Thomas Carlyle (1)
Jules Verne (1)
Marcus Tullius Cicero (1)
Thomas Paine (1)
Albert Camus (1)
Woody Allen (1)
Samuel Beckett (1)
Woodrow Wilson (1)

Related sources

The Republic (2)
Democracy in America (2)
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1)
The Conquest of Happiness (1)
Gulliver's Travels (1)
Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1)
On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and The Heroic in History (1)
Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea (1)
On Duties (1)
Common Sense (1)
The Plague (1)
Side Effects (1)
Waiting for Godot (1)
A World League For Peace (1)
Notes from Underground (1)
History (1)
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1)