As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being. — Carl Jung
Human life and humanity come into being in genuine encounters. The hope for this hour depends upon the renewal of the immediacy of dialogue among human beings. — Martin Buber
Every human life involves an unfathomable mystery, for man is the riddle of the universe, and the riddle of man in his endowment with personal capacities. — Harry Emerson Fosdick
Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself. [It is a matter of choice, not chance.] Such is the first principle of existentialism. — Jean-Paul Sartre
Humanity is regarded as unfinished, incomplete, imperfect. We have the possibility of completing ourselves, perfecting ourselves, and all that is necessary for this lies in us. — Maurice Nicoll
It is here that we encounter the central theme of existentialism: to live is to suffer, to survive is to find meaning in the suffering. — Viktor E. Frankl
The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for. — Fyodor Dostoevsky
If we hope to live not just from moment to moment, but in true consciousness of our existence, then our greatest need and most difficult achievement is to find meaning in our lives. — Bruno Bettelheim
Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence. — Aristotle
The apparatus defeats its own purpose if its purpose is to create a humane existence on the basis of a humanized nature. — Herbert Marcuse
Speak the truth.
Speak it loud and often, calmly but insistently,
and speak it, as the Quakers say, to power.
Material accumulation is not the purpose of human existence.
All growth is not good.
The environment is a necessity, not a luxury.
There is such a thing as enough. — Donella Meadows
I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.
An ingenious compound of desirability and appearance. Discovery of truth is the sole purpose of philosophy, which is the most ancient occupation of the human mind and has a fair prospect of existing with increasing activity to the end of time. — Ambrose Bierce
The real danger from advertising is that it helps to shatter and ultimately destroy our most precious non-material possessions: the confidence in the existence of meaningful purposes of human activity and respect for the integrity of man. — Paul Sweezy
A man who has not passed through the inferno of his passions has never overcome them. As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being. Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves. — Carl Jung
All human unhappiness comes from not facing reality squarely, exactly as it is.
The Bhagavad Gita deals essentially with the spiritual foundation of human existence. It is a call of action to meet the obligations and duties of life; yet keeping in view the spiritual nature and grander purpose of the universe. — Jawaharlal Nehru
Awareness is the power that is concealed within the present moment. … The ultimate purpose of human existence, which is to say, your purpose, is to bring that power into this world. — Eckhart Tolle
Satire exists for the purpose of killing the social being [for the sake of] the true individual, the real human being. — D. H. Lawrence
The individual needs the return to spiritual values, for he can survive in the present human situation only by reaffirming that man is not just a biological and psychological being but also a spiritual being, that is creature, and existing for the purposes of his Creator and subject to Him. — Peter Drucker
What Is Humanity Quotes
Peace is what every human being is craving for, and it can be brought about by humanity through the child. — Maria Montessori
What makes us human is not our mind but our heart, not our ability to think but our ability to love. — Henri Nouwen
Human development, as an approach, is concerned with what I take to be the basic development idea: namely, advancing the richness of human life, rather than the richness of the economy in which human beings live, which is only a part of it. — Amartya Sen
Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.
Most human behavior is controlled by images. Image is a factor in how people look at themselves and what they use to reflect themselves. The control of images is a major factor in world power. — John Henrik Clarke
If we would learn what the human race really is at bottom, we need only observe it in election times. — Mark Twain
This is the real secret of life -- to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play. — Alan Watts
There is nothing outside of yourself. That can ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker or smarter. Everything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of yourself.
The only way to comprehend what mathematicians mean by Infinity is to contemplate the extent of human stupidity. — Voltaire
No one is born fully-formed: it is through self-experience in the world that we become what we are. — Paulo Freire
Everything on earth is beautiful, everything -- except what we ourselves think and do when we forget the higher purposes of life and our own human dignity. — Anton Chekhov
Stupidity is what we all have in common as human beings, but some people insist that improving it is their entitlement. — Pete Edochie
Who Are We As Human Beings Quotes
We, as human beings, must be willing to accept people who are different from ourselves. — Barbara Jordan
We are not a nation of immigrants. We are a nation of citizens. I am sick and tired of the American citizen being demeaned and treated as a second-class citizen while anybody who crosses the border is treated as the most virtuous human being on the face of the earth. — Mark Levin
If we define an American fascist as one who in case of conflict puts money and power ahead of human beings, then there are undoubtedly several million fascists in the United States. — Henry A. Wallace
It takes nothing away from a human to be kind to an animal.
Our flaws are what makes us human. If we can accept them as part of who we are, they really don't even have to be an issue. — Ellen DeGeneres
Please stop using the word "Negro."... We are the only human beings in the world with fifty-seven variety of complexions who are classed together as a single racial unit. Therefore, we are really truly colored people, and that is the only name in the English language which accurately describes us. — Mary Church Terrell
Our true worth doesn't come from the work we do, it comes from who we are as human beings. — Marie Forleo
There is nothing outside of yourself that can ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter. Everything is whithin. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of yourself.
'Going home' is a journey to the heart of who we are, a place where we can be ourselves and welcome the reality of our beauty and our pain. From this acceptance of ourselves, we can accept others as they are and we can see our common humanity. — Jean Vanier
It will not be humans who watch the sun's demise, six billion years from now. Any creatures that then exist will be as different from us as we are from bacteria or amoebae. — Martin Rees
I have a lot of friends who are infected with HIV, and you wanna protect them... To increase the awareness of it and to find a cure for it, the human lives we would save would be a really awesome thing. You just have to involve yourself as much as you can. — Tara Reid
Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? Has it ever occurred to you, Winston, that by the year 2050, at the very latest, not a single human being will be alive who could understand such a conversation as we are having now? — George Orwell
What Does It Mean To Be Human Quotes
How does contemporary technology and culture changes our understanding of what it means to be human. What is our relationship with - and responsibilities towards - that which we create. — Patricia Piccinini
You are your own stories and therefore free to imagine and experience what it means to be human... And although you don't have complete control over the narrative - no author does, I can tell you - you could nevertheless create it. — Toni Morrison
What does it mean to be human? It means we are created in the image of God for the glorious reality of being in permanent fellowship with Him. — Ravi Zacharias
The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.
I'm enormously interested to see where neuroscience can take us in understanding these complexities of the human brain and how it works, but I do think there may be limits in terms of what science can tell us about what does good and evil mean anyway, and what are those concepts about? — Francis Collins
So it is that God tugs at a pilgrim's sleeve telling him to remember that he is only human. He must be his own man, remain in exile, and belong to himself. He must pay attention to his own feelings and to the meaning of what he does, if he is to be for himself, and yet for others as well. — Sheldon B. Kopp
I always ask myself one question: what is human? What does it mean to be human? Maybe people will consider my new films brutal again. But this violence is just a reflection of what they really are, of what is in each one of us to certain degree. — Kim Ki-duk
Human Experience Quotes
Life is not a problem to be solved, but an experience to be had. — Alan Watts
If the only thing people learned was not to be afraid of their experience, that alone would change the world. — Sydney Banks
Architecture
is a small piece of this human equation, but for those of us who practice it,
we believe in its potential to make a difference, to enlighten and to enrich the
human experience, to penetrate the barriers of misunderstandin g and provide a
beautiful context for life's drama. — Frank Gehry
The real question is not whether life exists after death. The real question is whether you are alive before death.
We learn...
10% of what we read
20% of what we hear
30% of what we see
50% of what we both hear and see
70% of what is discussed
80% of what we experience personally
95% of what we teach to someone else — William Glasser
Experiences have clearly shown that an approach which 'de-medicalizes' birth, restores dignity and humanity to the process of childbirth, and returns control to the mother is also the safest approach. — Michel Odent
The most valuable lessons in life cannot be taught, they must be experienced. — Liam Payne
Nothing is more precious than being in the present moment. Fully alive, fully aware.
Empathy is not simply a matter of trying to imagine what others are going through, but having the will to muster enough courage to do something about it. In a way, empathy is predicated upon hope. — Cornel West
This dogma (the soul) has been present in human psychology from earliest antiquity. No one has ever touched the soul, or has seen one in a test tube, or has in any way come into a relationship with it as he has with the other objects of his daily experience. — John B. Watson
Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love. — Fyodor Dostoevsky
You are a powerful, unlimited and eternal soul who is here to enjoy the experience of creativity and contribute to humanity's evolution. — Timothy Leary
Human Condition Quotes
If you think for one second no one knows what you've been going through; be accepting of the fact that you are wrong, that the long drawn and heavy breaths of despair have at times been felt by everyone - that pain is part of the human condition and that alone makes you a legion. — Shane Koyczan
Ordinary love is selfish, darkly rooted in desires and satisfactions. Divine love is without condition, without boundary, without change. The flux of the human heart is gone forever at the transfixing touch of pure love. — Sri Yukteswar Giri
Unexpected kindness is the most powerful, least costly, and most underrated agent of human change.
Don't think about what can happen in a month. Don't think about what can happen in a year. Just focus on the 24 hours in front of you and do what you can to get closer to where you want to be! — Eric Thomas
Compassion constitutes a radical form of criticism, for it announces that the hurt is to be taken seriously, that the hurt is not to be accepted as normal and natural, but is an abnormal and unacceptable condition for humanness. — Walter Brueggemann
We are victims of evil customs. It is a crime against humanity that our women are shut up within the four walls of the houses as prisoners. There is no sanction anywhere for the deplorable condition in which our women have to live. — Muhammad Ali Jinnah
The way of the miracle-worker is to see all human behavior as one of two things: either love, or a call for love.
Once we realize that imperfect understanding is the human condition, there is no shame in being wrong, only in failing to correct our mistakes. — George Soros
Once we realize that imperfect understanding is the human condition there is no shame in being wrong, only in failing to correct our mistakes. — George Soros
Boredom, anger, sadness, or fear are not 'yours,' not personal. They are conditions of the human mind. They come and go. Nothing that comes and goes is you. — Eckhart Tolle
Suffering is part of the human condition, and it comes to us all. The key is how we react to it, either turning away from God in anger and bitterness or growing closer to Him in trust and confidence. — Billy Graham
The individual comes face-to-face with a conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists. The American mind has not come to a realisation of the evil which has been introduced into our midst. It rejects even the assumption that human creatures could espouse a philosophy which must ultimately destroy all that is good and decent. — J. Edgar Hoover
We have only to see a few letters of the alphabet spelling our name in the sand to recognize at once the work of an intelligent agent. How much more likely, then is the existence of an intelligent Creator behind human DNA, the colossal biological database that contains no fewer than 3.5 billion "letters the longest "word" yet discovered?" — John Lennox
I have concluded the evident existence of God, and that my existence depends entirely on God in all the moments of my life, that I do not think that the human spirit may know anything with greater evidence and certitude. — Rene Descartes
It should not be believed that all beings exist for the sake of the existence of man. On the contrary, all the other beings too have been intended for their own sakes and not for the sake of anything else. — Maimonides
Medicine deals with the states of health and disease in the human body. It is a truism of philosophy that a complete knowledge of a thing can only be obtained by elucidating its causes and antecedents, provided, of course, such causes exist. In medicine it is, therefore, necessary that causes of both health and disease should be determined. — Avicenna
The natural world is the larger sacred community to which we belong. To be alienated from this community is to become destitute in all that makes us human. To damage this community is to diminish our own existence. — Thomas Berry
Have patience with all things - but first with yourself. Never confuse your mistakes with your value as a human being. You are perfectly valuable, creative, worthwhile person simply because you exist. And no amount of triumphs or tribulations can ever change that. — Saint Francis de Sales
We must go beyond the arrogance of human rights. We must go beyond the ignorance of civil rights. We must step into the reality of natural rights because all of the natural world has a right to existence and we are only a small part of it. There can be no trade-off. — John Trudell
Life, faculties, production- in other words, individuality, liberty, property- this is man. And in spite of the cunning of artful political leaders, these three gifts from God precede all human legislation, and are superior to it. Life, liberty and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place. — Fr
We were granted the right to exist by the God of our fathers at the glimmer of the dawn of human civilization nearly 4,000 years ago. For that right, which has been sanctified in Jewish blood from generation to generation, we have paid a price unexampled in the annals of the nations. — Menachem Begin
Curiosity is the essence of human existence and exploration has been part of humankind for a long time. The exploration of space, like the exploration of life, if you will, is a risk. We've got to be willing to take it. — Gene Cernan
Now what sort of man or woman or monster would stroke a centipede I have ever seen? And here is my good big centipede! If such a man exists, I say kill him without more ado. He is a traitor to the human race. — William S. Burroughs
The whole conviction of my life now rests upon the belief that loneliness, far from being a rare and curious phenomenon, peculiar to myself and to a few other solitary men, is the central and inevitable fact of human existence. — Tom Wolfe
I will say this quite plainly, what truly human is -and don't be afraid of this word- love. And I mean it even with everything that burdens love or, i could say it better, responsibility is actually love, as Pascal said: 'without concupiscence' [without lust]... love exists without worrying being loved. — Emmanuel Levinas
Man is the flower of the earth. — Vietnamese Proverbs
Reason and Knowledge have always played a secondary, subordinate, auxiliary role in the life of peoples, and this will always be the case. A people is shaped and driven forward by an entirely different kind of force, one which commands and coerces them and the origin of which is obscure and inexplicable despite the reality of its presence. — Fyodor Dostoevsky
Respect is essentially a yes to others, not to their demands, but rather to their basic humanity. In this sense, respect is indivisible. When we give respect to others, we are honoring the very same humanity that exists in us. When we acknowledge the dignity of others, we are acknowledging our own dignity. We cannot truly respect others without respecting ourselves at the same time. — William Ury
The search for what makes your heart beat hardest--and fidelity to its fullest, most devoted expression--is the very stuff of life. Rooted deep in our souls and coursing vigorously through our veins, it is our birthright, it is our lifeblood. And it is our sustenance. So, to repress that urge, or worse yet deny its very existence, is to squander the extraordinary gift of what it truly means to be human. — Rich Roll
Faith is not limited to affirming the existence of God. No, faith tells us that God loves us and demands a loving response. This response is given through love for human beings, and that is what we mean by a commitment to God and to our neighbor. — Gustavo Gutiérrez
"The true essence of humankind is kindness. There are other qualities which come from education or knowledge, but it is essential, if one wishes to be a genuine human being and impart satisfying meaning to one's existence, to have a good heart." — Dalai Lama
At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life. — Anthony Kennedy
The human soul has still greater need of the ideal than of the real. It is by the real that we exist; it is by the ideal that we live. — Victor Hugo
The imagination is not a state: it is the human existence itself. — William Blake
Reciprocity is a natural human dynamic that exists in us because we’re humans. Some people are very guarded about it, so we have to be careful about how we trigger it. If we ask, we tend to owe. — Chris Voss
One great part of every human existence is passed in a state which cannot be rendered sensible by the use of wideawake language, cutanddry grammar and goahead plot. — James Joyce
Snowflakes, leaves, humans, plants, raindrops, stars, molecules, microscopic entities all come in communities. The singular cannot in reality exist. — Paula Gunn Allen
If we pursue the environmental goal not of protecting the environment or saving the planet from human beings but of improving our environment or improving our world for human beings, we can have it all – the best of what exists naturally and the best of what we can create – including the time and ability to enjoy what exists naturally. — Alex Epstein
I think a lot of people feel like there’s something wrong with experiencing human emotions. It’s okay to feel stressed, angry, tired, or uncomfortable, those are the emotions that make existence beautiful. — Alex Hormozi
As long as hierarchy persists, as long as domination organises humanity around a system of elites, the project of dominating nature will continue to exist and inevitably lead our planet to ecological extinction. — Murray Bookchin
Expressing the matter, in such startling terms, makes it easy to see why philosophers from ancient Greece to the present have taken the brevity of life to be the defining problem of human existence. We’ve been granted the mental capacity to make almost infinitely ambitious plans, but practically no time at all to put them into action. — Oliver Burkeman
The continued existence of wildlife and wilderness is important to the quality of life of humans. — Jim Fowler
In Conclusion
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