“Even as good shone upon the countenance of the one, evil was written broadly and plainly on the face of the other. Evil besides (which I must still believe to be the lethal side of man) had left on that body an imprint of deformity and decay. And yet when I looked upon that ugly idol in the glass, I was conscious of no repugnance, rather of a leap of welcome. This, too, was myself. It seemed natural and human.”
Source: The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde / Juggernaut
“The impressive record of atrocities racked up by the human race does not suggest that our conduct is guided by sympathy for others.”
Source: The Most Dangerous Animal: Human Nature and the Origins of War
“Human rulers get poisoned or decapitated or simply voted out of office all the time, as our set of personal desires, our chimpanzee DNA, rears its individualistic head.”
Source: Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization
“Our dependence on culture means that our minds need to be open to others, so that we can learn from them.”
Source: Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization
“To understand war, we must understand ourselves.”
Source: The Most Dangerous Animal: Human Nature and the Origins of War
“It is apparent that the mere knowledge that a man was either a camp guard or a prisoner tells us almost nothing. Human kindness can be found in all groups, even those which as a whole it would be easy to condemn. The boundaries between groups overlapped, and we must not try to simplify matters by saying that these men were angels and those were devils.”
Source: Man's Search for Meaning
“Philippe doesn’t believe in God, but God believes in Philippe.”
Source: To Reach the Clouds: My High Wire Walk Between the Twin Towers
“Pure emotions are the luxury of children and animals”
Source: She Who Became the Sun
“It always astounds me that every single human being is blessed with immeasurable potential that is never taken out of the box. But what’s even most astounding is the fact that they don’t even realize that there’s a box to take something out of.”
“And they think they knew me. How sad, I thought I knew myself too”