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Mankind Quotes

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Mankind Quotes

“The greatest part of mankind employ their first years to make their last miserable.”

Years Firsts Lasts Mankind Youth Miserable

Author:Jean de la Bruyere

“The condition of mankind is, and always has been, so miserable and depraved that, if anyone were to say to the poet: "For God's sake stop singing and do something useful like putting on the kettle or fetching bandages," what just reason could he give for refusing?”

Ifs Giving Has Beens Reason Conditions Mankind Poet Singing Sake Miserable Depraved Kettles Bandages

Author:W. H. Auden

“In a world which furnishes so many employments which are useful, and so many which are amusing, it is our own fault if we ever know what ennui [boredom] is, or if we are ever driven to the miserable resource of gaming, which corrupts our dispositions, and teaches us a habit of hostility against all mankind.”

Ifs Knows World Teach Mankind Habit Resources Faults Driven Employment Miserable Boredom Gambling Disposition Hostility Amusing Gaming Ennui

Author:Thomas Jefferson

“all mankind, not excluding Americans, are sinners--miserable sinners, as even no few Bostonians themselves nowadays contritely respond in the liturgy.”

Sin Mankind Miserable Sinner Liturgy Bostonians

Book:The Works of Herman Melville: Billy Budd, and other prose picecs

Source: The Works of Herman Melville: Billy Budd, and other prose picecs

“One thing I have learned in institutions is not to press hard on the fact that their inmates are, like the rest of mankind, sinners; for they, like many others, are liable to confuse the generic term "sinner" with the specific term "criminal." Most of us are so accustomed to admit that we have fallen short of grace and are "miserable offenders," in view of our possibilities and opportunities, that we do not resent being called "sinners"; but not so with our congregation.”

“Men are good. But they are poor victims making themselves miserable under the false belief that they are doing good.”

Men Belief Poor Mankind Victim Miserable Good Man Doing Good

Book:The Essential Writings

Source: The Essential Writings

“Few things are needful to make the wise man happy, but nothing satisfies the fool; - and this is the reason why so many of mankind are miserable.”

Men Reason Wise Mankind Fool Miserable Reason Why

Author:Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“Solitude and company may be allowed to take their turns: the one creates in us the love of mankind, the other that of ourselves; solitude relieves us when we are sick of company, and conversation when we are weary of being alone, so that the one cures the other. There is no man so miserable as he that is at a loss how to use his time”

Men May Use Turns Loss Company Mankind Solitude Conversation Sick Cures Miserable Weary

Author:Seneca the Younger

“...What is the use of beauty? i have lived my life surrounded by painters, and still I do not know the answer. But i suspect, some days, that beauty helps protect the spirit of mankind, swaddle it and succor it, so that we might survive. Beauty is no end in itself, but if it makes or lives less miserable so that we might be more kind-well, then, lets have beauty, painted on our porcelain, hanging on our walls, ringing through our stories.”

Ifs Knows Wells Kind Stills Ends Helping Stories Use Might Spirit Answers Mankind Wall Protect Painter Miserable Suspects Hanging On Porcelain

Author:Gregory Maguire

“Sleep was the greatest invention in the history of mankind. When I was sleeping, I wasn’t feeling guilty, or miserable, or sad.”

Feelings Sleep Mankind Invention Guilty Miserable Feeling Guilty

Author:Jenna Black

“I expected this reception. All men hate the wretched; how, then, must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things! Yet you, my creator, detest and spurn me, thy creature, to whom thou art bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of one of us. You purpose to kill me. How dare you sport thus with life? Do your duty towards me, and I will do mine towards you and the rest of mankind. If you will comply with my conditions, I will leave them and you at peace; but if you refuse, I will glut the maw of death, until it be satiated with the blood of your remaining friends.”