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Mankind Quotes

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Mankind Quotes

“That man is formed for social life is an observation which, upon our first inquiry, presents itself immediately to our view, and our reason approves that wise and generous principle which actuated the first founders of civil government, an institution which hat its origin in the weakness of individuals, and hath for its end the strength and security of all; and so long as the means of effecting this important end are thoroughly known and religiously attended to government is one of the richest blessings to mankind, and ought to be held in the highest veneration”

“O why did God, Creator wise, that peopled highest heav'n With Spirits masculine, create at last This novelty on earth, this fair defect Of nature, and not fill the world at once With men as angels without feminine, Or find some other way to generate Mankind?”

Men World Way Earth Lasts Spirit Wise Mankind Highest Angel Fairs Creator Feminine Defects Masculine Novelty

Author:John Milton

“The truth is that art does not teach; it makes you feel, and any teaching that may arise from the feeling is an extra, and must not be stressed too much. In the modern world, and in Canada as much as anywhere, we are obsessed with the notion that to think is the highest achievement of mankind, but we neglect the fact that thought untouched by feeling is thin, delusive, treacherous stuff.”

Source: Fortune, My Foe and Eros at Breakfast

“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

“the State only aims at instilling those qualities in its public by which its demands are obeyed, and its exchequer is filled. Its highest attainment is the reduction of mankind to clockwork. In its atmosphere all those finer and more delicate liberties, which require treatment and spacious expansion, inevitably dry up and perish. The State requires a taxpaying machine in which there is no hitch, an exchequer in which there is never a deficit, and a public, monotonous, obedient, colorless, spiritless, moving humbly like a flock of sheep along a straight high road between two walls.”

“The character of Jesus has not only been the highest pattern of virtue, but the strongest incentive in its practice, and has exerted so deep an influence, that it may be truly said that the simple record of three years of active life has done more to regenerate and to soften mankind than all the disquisitions of philosophers and all the exhortations of moralists.”

Years May Said Done Character Three Jesus Simple Practice Virtue Records Influence Mankind Highest Patterns Philosopher Active Strongest Three Years Incentives Moralist Active Life

Author:Ravi Zacharias

“Is it possible, after all, that spite of bricks and shaven faces, this world we live in is brimmed with wonders, and I and all mankind, beneath our garbs of common-placeness, conceal enigmas that the stars themselves, and perhaps the highest seraphim can not resolve?”

World Faces Stars Common Wonder Mankind This World Highest Spite Resolve Can Not Bricks Enigma

Book:Pierre; or The Ambiguities

Source: Pierre; or The Ambiguities

“He who wishes to maintain that the past of mankind no longer has any absolute value in lifemust also be ready to deny his ownlife until the present moment, indeed in advance until the last moment, as worthless. He who realizes that culture is the giving of form will also see that the highest forms that it is given to the human spirit to recognize have always been, psychologically considered, such evasions from the present. Considerations such as these do not at all square with the direction of America's mind.”

“To think ill of mankind and not wish ill to them, is perhaps the highest wisdom and virtue.”

Thinking Wish Virtue Mankind Highest Ill Humankind

Book:Characteristics: in the manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims [by W. Hazlitt].

Source: Characteristics: in the manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims [by W. Hazlitt].

“The highest of characters is his who is as ready to pardon the moral errors of mankind as if he were every day guilty of them himself; and as cautious of committing a fault as if he never forgave one.”

Ifs Character Moral Mankind Ready Highest Errors Faults Guilty Pardon Cautious

Author:Pliny the Younger

“Perhaps the highest goodness attainable is a life of service to all mankind. Such an ideal is supported in nearly every page in the Gospels-the parables, the sermons, and the countless acts of service by our Lord Himself. The ideal is not limited to any particular kind of service, nor a given quantity of service. The ideal is accepting life itself as a trust to be used in the welfare of mankind. It is a life that is glad for the chance to be of any help, an attitude that 'service is the rent we pay for our own room on earth.' (Lord Halifax)”

“I see the liberty of the individual not only as a great moral good in itself (or, with Lord Acton, as the highest political good), but also as the necessary condition for the flowering of all the other goods that mankind cherishes: moral virtue, civilization, the arts and sciences, economic prosperity.”

Art Political Individual Liberty Moral Lord Virtue Economic Conditions Mankind Civilization Highest Prosperity Goods Cherish Art And Science Flowering Moral Virtues Economic Prosperity

Book:Salutary neglect

Source: Salutary neglect

“Man is still at the learning stage, and mankind is so arrogant to think that he's the highest form of evolution on earth. There's so much of the brain that we still don't use, and that's all I ever try to do - go to the next level”

Thinking Men Trying Stills Use Earth Form Next Levels Brain Mankind Stage Evolution Highest Arrogant Next Level

Author:Marilyn Manson

“The history of mankind is a perennial tragedy; for the highest ideals which the individual may project are ideals which he can never realize in social and collective terms.”

May Individual Social Term Realizing Mankind Projects Highest Ideals Tragedy Collectives

Author:Reinhold Niebuhr

“The noblest calling in the world is motherhood. True motherhood is the most beautiful of all arts, the greatest of all professions. She who can paint a masterpiece, or who can write a book that will influence millions, deserve the plaudits and admiration of mankind; but she who rears successfully a family of healthy, beautiful sons and daughters whose immortal souls will exert influence throughout the ages long after paintings shall have faded, and books and statues shall have decayed or been destroyed, deserves the highest honor that man can give, and the choicest blessings of God.”

“The young man shivered. He rolled the stock themes of fantasy over in his mind: cars and stockbrokers and commuters, housewives and police, agony columns and commercials for soap, income tax and cheap restaurants, magazines and credit cards and streetlights and computers... 'It is escapism, true,' he said, aloud. 'But is not the highest impulse in mankind the urge toward freedom, the drive to escape?”