Home / Topics / Mankind Quotes

Mankind Quotes

Browse 4898 quotes about Mankind.

Mankind Quotes

“I think there is a blossom about me of something more distinguished than the generality of mankind.”

Thinking Mankind Distinguished Generalities

Author:James Boswell

“Eloquence, when at its highest pitch, leaves little room for reason or reflection; but addressing itself entirely to the fancy or the affections, captivates the willing hearers, and subdues their understanding. Happily, this pitch it seldom attains. But what a Tully or a Demosthenes could scarcely effect over a Roman or Athenian audience, every Capuchin, every itinerant or stationary teacher can perform over the generality of mankind, and in a higher degree, by touching such gross and vulgar passions.”

Source: An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

“We meet With few utterly dull and stupid souls: the sublime and transcendent are still fewer; the generality of mankind stand between these two extremes: the interval is filled with multitudes of ordinary geniuses, but all very useful, and the ornaments and supports of the commonwealth.”

Stills Two Soul Support Mankind Stupid Genius Ordinary Filled Extremes Dull Mediocrity Fewer Multitudes Sublime Transcendent Ornaments Intervals Commonwealth Generalities Two Extremes

Author:Jean de la Bruyere

“It is good sense applied with diligence to what was at first a mere accident, and which by great application grew to be called, by the generality of mankind, a particular genius.”

Firsts Mankind Particular Grew Genius Mere Accidents Application Diligence Good Sense Generalities

Book:Johnsoniana; or supplement to Boswell; being Anecdotes and sayings of Dr. Johnson, etc

Source: Johnsoniana; or supplement to Boswell; being Anecdotes and sayings of Dr. Johnson, etc

“I shall venture to affirm, that there never was a popular religion, which represented the state of departed souls in such a light,as would render it eligible for human kind, that there should be such a state. These fine models of religion are the mere product of philosophy. For as death lies between the eye and the prospect of futurity, that event is so shocking to nature, that it must throw a gloom on all the regions which lie beyond it; and suggest to the generality of mankind the idea of Cerberus and Furies; devils, and torrents of fire and brimstone.”

Source: Dialogues and Natural History of Religion

“Heroism, or military glory, is much admired by the generality of mankind. They consider it as the most sublime kind of merit. Menof cool reflection are not so sanguine in their praises of it.”

Kind Mankind Military Glory Reflection Praise Merit Heroism Sublime Generalities Sanguine

Book:Delphi Complete Works of David Hume (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Complete Works of David Hume (Illustrated)

“Yet it would be unfair to the generality of our kind to ascribe to their intellectual and moral weakness the gradual divergence of Buddhism and Christianity from their primitive patterns. For it should not be forgotten that by their glorification of poverty and celibacy both these religions struck straight at the root not merely of civil society but of human existence. The blow was parried by the wisdom or the folly of the vast majority of mankind, who refused to purchase a chance of saving their souls with the certainty of extinguishing the species.”

“Americans, [John Adams] wrote in 1780, believed that their "revolution is as much for the benefit of the generality of Mankind in Europe, as for their own."”

Mankind Revolution Benefits Europe Generalities

Author:Gordon S. Wood