Mankind Quotes - Page 38

• Every relation to mankind, of hate or scorn or neglect, is full of vexation and torment.

  Orville Dewey

  Hate, Vexation, Neglect

  Orville Dewey (1841). “Discourses on Human Life”, p.157

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• Our acts of kindness we reserve for our friends, our bounties for our dependants, our riches for our children and relations, our praises for those who appear worthy of them, our time we give all to the world; we expose it, I may say, a prey to all mankind.

  Jean Baptiste Massillon

  Time, Children, Kindness

  Jean-Baptiste Massillon (1889*). “Sermons”

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• To save the mind from preying inwardly upon itself, it must be encouraged to some outward pursuit. There is no other way to elude apathy, or escape discontent; none other to guard the temper from that quarrel with itself, which ultimately ends in quarreling with all mankind.

  Fanny Burney

  Mind, Way, Elude

  Fanny Burney (1972). “Camilla: or, A picture of youth”

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• I don't resist progress, but I have a growing feeling that mankind uses it mostly for disgraceful purposes.

  Stanislaw Lem

  Feelings, Progress, Purpose

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• I never loved totalitarianism and all the ideas of making mankind happy always seemed crazy to me.

  Stanislaw Lem

  Crazy, Ideas, Totalitarianism

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• What would become of the world without the Devil? Under all the different systems of religion that have guided or misguided the world for the last six thousand years, the Devil has been the grand scapegoat. He has had to bear the blame of every thing that has gone wrong. All the evil that gets committed is laid to his door, and he has, besides, the credit of hindering all the good that has never got done at all. If mankind were not thus one and all victims to the Devil, what an irredeemable set of scoundrels they would be obliged to confess themselves!

  Geraldine Jewsbury

  Doors, Years, Evil

  Geraldine Endsor Jewsbury (1845). “Zoe: The History of Two Lives”, p.90

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• The instinctive and universal taste of mankind selects flowers for the expression of its finest sympathies, their beauty and their fleetingness serving to make them the most fitting symbols of those delicate sentiments for which language itself seems almost too gross a medium.

  George Stillman Hillard

  Flower, Expression, Taste

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• I consider him Stalin one of the greatest persons in the history of mankind. In the history of Russia he was, in my opinion, even greater than Lenin. Until Stalin's death I was anti-Stalinist, but I always regarded him as a brilliant personality.

  Alexander Zinoviev

  Russia, Personality, Brilliant

  Interview with Gennadiy Petrov, November 05, 2006.

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• If you knew what a sensation of the nearness of a higher power one instinctively feels when one is permitted to contribute to the good of mankind, as I have done, and still do! Believe me, it is a great gift of God's mercy!

  Jenny Lind

  God, Believe, Done

  Ernest Albert Spongberg, Jenny Lind (1920). “The life of Jenny Lind, Oct. 6, 1820-Nov. 2, 1887: a compilation from various sources, in commemoration of the centenary of her birth”

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• If the dreams of any so-called normal man were exposed ... there would be no more gravity and dignity left for mankind.

  Vera Caspary

  Dream, Men, Would Be

  Laura ch. 2 (1943)

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• It is hope that maintains most of mankind.

  Sophocles

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• Mankind divides itself into two classes,--benefactors and malefactors. The second class is vast; the first a handful.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Class, Two, Firsts

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.2360, Delphi Classics

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• The public pleasures of far the greater part of mankind are counterfeit.

  Samuel Johnson

  Pleasure, Counterfeit, Greater

  Samuel Johnson, John Hawkins (1787). “The Idler”, p.68

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• Books, says Lord Bacon, can never teach us the use of books; the student must learn by commerce with mankind to reduce his speculations to practice. No man should think so highly of himself as to think he can receive but little light from books; no one so meanly, as to believe he can discover nothing but what is to be learned from them.

  Samuel Johnson

  Believe, Book, Men

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• Critics, like the rest of mankind, are very frequently misled by interest.

  Samuel Johnson

  Misled, Interest, Critics

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1857). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: With an Essay on His Life and Genius”, p.148

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• Mankind is unamendable.

  Alexander Pope

  Alexander Pope (1776). “The Works of Alexander Pope Esq”, p.198

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• If no God, mankind is a set of bi-pedal carbon units of mostly water. And nothing else

  Douglas Wilson

  Water, Pedals, Carbon

  "Wilson-Till Debate". Credenda/Agenda Magazine (Vol. 7; No. 1), infidels.org.

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• Gratitude is a virtue which, according to the general apprehension of mankind, approaches more nearly than almost any other social virtue to justice.

  Samuel Parr

  Gratitude, Justice, Virtue

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• What I find most injurious to mankind in modern advertising is the constant appeal to material standards and values, the elevating of material things into an end in themselves, a virtue.

  Ann Bridge

  Advertising, Virtue, Modern

  Ann Bridge (2013). “Singing Waters”, p.178, A&C Black

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• Augustus was sensible that mankind is governed by names; nor was he deceived in his expectation, that the senate and people would submit to slavery, provided they were respectfully assured that they still enjoyed their ancient freedom.

  Edward Gibbon

  Names, People, History

  Edward Gibbon (1862). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.210

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• The knowledge that is suited to our situation and powers, the whole compass of moral, natural, and mathematical science, was neglected by the new Platonists; whilst they exhausted their strength in the verbal disputes of metaphysics, attempted to explore the secrets of the invisible world, and studied to reconcile Aristotle with Plato, on subjects of which both these philosophers were as ignorant as the rest of mankind.

  Edward Gibbon

  Plato, History, Secret

  Edward Gibbon, Henry Hart Milman (1854). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.449

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• It is incumbent on us diligently to remember that the kingdom of heaven was promised to the poor in spirit, and that minds afflicted by calamity and the contempt of mankind cheerfully listen to the divine promise of future happiness; while, on the contrary, the fortunate are satisfied with the possession of this world; and the wise abuse in doubt and dispute their vain superiority of reason and knowledge.

  Edward Gibbon

  Wise, History, Heaven

  Edward Gibbon (1854). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.217

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• As long as the same passions and interests subsist among mankind, the questions of war and peace, of justice and policy, which were debated in the councils of antiquity, will frequently present themselves as the subject of modern deliberation.

  Edward Gibbon

  War, Passion, Long

  Edward Gibbon, Henry Hart Milman, M. Guizot (François), Sir William Smith (1862). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.320

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• At the hour of midnight the Salerian gate was silently opened, and the inhabitants were awakened by the tremendous sound of the Gothic trumpet. Eleven hundred and sixty-three years after the foundation of Rome, the Imperial city, which had subdued and civilised so considerable a part of mankind, was delivered to the licentious fury of the tribes of Germany and Scythia.

  Edward Gibbon

  Rome, Years, Cities

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• In the many forms of government which have sprung up there has always been an acknowledgement of justice and proportionate equality, although mankind fail in attaining them, as indeed I have already explained. Democracy, for example, arises out of the notion that those who are equal in any respect are equal in all respects; because men are equally free, they claim to be absolutely equal.

  Aristotle

  Men, Sprung Up, Justice

  Aristotle, Stephen Everson (1996). “Aristotle: The Politics and the Constitution of Athens”, p.120, Cambridge University Press

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