Quotes
Quotes about Man
Compassion, in which all ethics must take root, can only attain its full breadth and depth if it embraces all living creatures and does not limit itself to mankind.
Each man takes care that his neighbor shall not cheat him. But a day comes when he begins to care that he does not cheat his neighbor. Then all goes wellâhe has changed his market-cart into a chariot of the sun.
In science it often happens that scientists say, "You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken," and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
The world is a looking glass, and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face.
No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.
Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than in the one where they sprang up.
At bottom, every man knows perfectly well that he is a unique being, only once on this earth; and by no extraordinary chance will such a marvelously picturesque piece of diversity in unity as he is, ever be put together a second time.
What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to a human soul.
Money may be the husk of many things but not the kernel. It brings you food, but not appetite; medicine, but not health; acquaintance, but not friends; servants, but not loyalty; days of joy, but not peace or happiness.
The bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man. Other forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish. Only the bicycle remains pure in heart.
Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race.
Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by the fear of punishment and the other by acts of love. Power based on love is a thousand times more effective and permanent than the one derived from fear of punishment.
The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact than a drunken man is happier than a sober one.
It is surprising what a man can do when he has to, and how little most men will do when they don't have to.
Man and his deed are two distinct things. Whereas a good deed should call forth approbation, and a wicked deed disapprobation, the doer of the deed, whether good or wicked always deserves respect or pity as the case may be.
The notes I handle no better than many pianists. But the pauses between the notesâah, that is where the art resides.
Television's perfect. You turn a few knobs, a few of those mechanical adjustments at which the higher apes are so proficient, and lean back and drain your mind of all thought. And there you are watching the bubbles in the primeval ooze. You don't have to concentrate. You don't have to react. You don't have to remember. You don't miss your brain because you don't need it. Your heart and liver and lungs continue to function normally. Apart from that, all is peace and quiet. You are in the man's nirvana. And if some poor nasty minded person comes along and says you look like a fly on a can of garbage, pay him no mind. He probably hasn't got the price of a television set.
If you came and you found a strange man... teaching your kids to punch each other, or trying to sell them all kinds of products, you'd kick him right out of the house, but here you are; you come in and the TV is on, and you don't think twice about it.
A man who works with his hands is a laborer; a man who works with his hands and his brain is a craftsman; but a man who works with his hands and his brain and his heart is an artist.
It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.
He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.
The more I study religions the more I am convinced that man never worshipped anything but himself.
I add this also, that natural ability without education has oftener raised man to glory and virtue, than education without natural ability. [Lat., Etiam illud adjungo, saepius ad laudem atque virtutem naturam sine doctrina, quam sine natura valisse doctrinam.]
A man dies still if he has done nothing, as one who has done much.
People are always ready to admit a man's ability after he gets there.
