This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
"Every transformation of humanity has rested upon deep stirrings and intuitions, whose rationalized expression takes the form of a new picture of the cosmos and the nature of the human." - Lewis Mumford
"Throughout the world, there is a faint glow of color on the topmost twigs, the glow of the swelling buds that announce, despite the frosts and storms to come, the approach of spring: signs of life, signs of integration, signs of a deeper faith for living and of an approaching general renewal of humanity." - Lewis Mumford
"Humanity is the peculiar characteristic of great minds; little vicious minds abound with anger and revenge, and are incapable of feeling the exact pleasure of forgiving their enemies." - Lord Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
"Earthly life is an eternal miracle. In a moment of grace, we can grasp eternity in the palm of our hand. This is the gift given to creative individuals who can identify with the mysteries of life through art. It is a divine gift, this spirit of humanity. It is the fight for light over shadow." - Marcel Marceau, born Marcel Mangel
"You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individuals. To that end each of us must work for his own improvement, and at the same time share a general responsibility for all humanity, our particular duty being to aid those to whom we think we can be most useful." - Marie Curie, fully Marie Skłodowska-Curie, originally Manya Sklodowska
"War is one of the greatest plagues that can afflict humanity: it destroys religion, it destroys states, it destroys families. Any scourge, in fact, is preferable to it." - Martin Luther
"War is the greatest plague that can afflict humanity; it destroys religion, it destroys states, it destroys families. Any scourge is preferable." - Martin Luther
"Let women only acquire knowledge and humanity, and love will teach them modesty." - Mary Wollstonecraft
"Do not confuse your vested interests with ethics. Do not identify the enemies of your privilege with enemies of humanity." - Max Lerner, fully Maxwell "Max" Alan Lerner, aka Mikhail Lerner
"No person is without sense of compassion, or a sense of shame, or a sense of courtesy, or a sense of right and wrong. The sense of compassion is the beginning of humanity; the sense of shame is the beginning of righteousness; the sense of courtesy is the beginning of decorum [li]; the sense of right and wrong is the beginning of wisdom. Every person has within him these four beginnings; just as he has four limbs." - Mencius, born Meng Ke or Ko NULL
"Harmony is usually achieved by evolutionary changes involving an increase in an organism’s complexity, that is, an increase in both differentiation and integration. (Differentiation refers to the degree to which a system (i.e., an organ such as the brain, or an individual, a family, a corporation, a culture, or humanity as a whole) is composed of parts that differ in structure or function from one another. Integration refers to the extent to which the parts communicate and enhance one another’s goals. A system that is more differentiated and integrated than another is said to be more complex.)" - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, native form is Csíkszentmihályi Mihály
"Humanity will one day find that it is not a diversity of creeds but the very same creed which is everywhere proposed. There can not be but one wisdom. Humans must therefore all agree that there is but one most imple wisdom whose power is infinite. And everyone in explaining the intensity of this beauty must discover that it is a supreme and terrible beauty." - Nicholas of Cusa, also Nicholas of Kues and Nicolaus Cusanus NULL
"The ingratitude of the world can never deprive us of the conscious happiness of having acted with humanity ourselves." - Oliver Goldsmith
"It is well that the stately synagogue should lift its walls by the side of the aspiring cathedral, a perpetual reminder that there as many mansions of the Father’s earthly house as well as in the heavenly one; that civilized humanity… is mightier than any one institution." - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
"A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth even glancing at, for it leaves out the one country at which Humanity is always landing. And when Humanity lands there, it looks out, and seeing a better country, sets sail. Progress is the realization of Utopias." - Oscar Wilde, pen name for Fingal O'Flahertie Wills
"The philosophic aim of education must be to get one out of his isolated class and into one humanity." - Paul Goodman
"We cannot leave behind us the sins of our past. We must not forget that nothing disappears. Everything is eternal. Everything that has been is still in existence. The whole history of humanity is the “history of crime”... Man must go back, seek for, and destroy the causes of evil however far back they lie. It is only in this idea that the hint of the possibilities of a general evolution can be found. It is only in this idea that the possibility of changing the karma of humanity lies, because changing the karma means changing the past... There will be no possibility of thinking of evolution of humanity, if the possibility did not exist for individually evolving man to go into the past and struggle against the causes of the present evil which lie there." - P.D. Ouspensky, fully Peter Demianovich Ouspensky, also Pyotr Demianovich Ouspenskii, also Uspenskii or Uspensky
"The path to healing is through the act of land conservation, an act that in a hundred different ways shows our sense of hope and affinity by reconnecting us with the life around us. It's a rekindling of what is most meaningful inside each of us. Conservation is a way for humans to reengage with the world, a way to extend our best definitions of humanity." - Peter Forbes
"When freedom does not have a purpose, when it does not wish to know anything about the rule of law engraved in the hearts of men and women, when it does not listen to the voice of conscience, it turns against humanity and society." - Pope John Paul II, born Karol Józef Wojtyła, aka Saint John Paul the Great NULL
"Our union with a Being whose activity is world-wide and who dwells in the heart of humanity cannot be a passive one. In order to be united with Him we must have to divest our work of selfishness and become Visvakarma, “the world-worker,” we must work for all. In order to be one with this Mahatma, “the Great Soul,” one must cultivate the greatness of soul which identifies itself with the soul of all peoples and not merely with that of one’s own." -
"At the beginning of the spiritual journey, many of us pushed away our humanity in an attempt to embrace our divinity... we've been learning to accept rather than reject our human qualities, creating a new partnership between the mundane and transcendent parts of ourselves." - Ram Dass, aka Baba Ram Dass, born Richard Alpert
"Love, hope, fear, faith - these make humanity; these are its sign, and note, and character." - Robert Browning
"Happiness is the only good, reason the only torch, justice the only worship, humanity the only religion, and love the only priest." - Robert Ingersoll, fully Robert Green "Bob" Ingersoll
"We have lost touch with our humanity. We have lost touch with our purpose. We have lost sight of the things that matter the most… How many lives will you touch… what legacy will you leave behind… How can I find greater meaning in my life?... My answer always begins the same way: Find your calling. I believe we all have special talents that are just waiting to be engaged in a worthy pursuit. We are all here for some unique purpose, some noble objective that will allow us to manifest our highest human potential, while we, at the same time, add value to the lives around us." - Robin Sharma
"Humanity is not an animal species, it is a historical reality. Human society is an antiphysis - in a sense it is against nature; it does not passively submit to the presence of nature but rather takes over the control of nature on its own behalf. This arrogation is not an inward, subjective operation; it is accomplished objectively in practical action." - Simone de Beauvoir, fully Simone-Ernestine-Lucie-Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir
"Free will was granted to humanity. Man became conscious of good and evil, and his power of free choice. He acquired simultaneously Freedom and Responsibility. Henceforth he could help or he could hinder." - Oliver Lodge, fully Sir Oliver Joseph Lodge
"… presented a vision of the universe progressing towards a goal, the spiritual development of humanity… noosphere – the mind’s capacity to know itself." - Teilhard de Chardin, fully Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
"He who shares the afflictions of others will merit to behold the comforting of humanity." - Talmud or The Talmud NULL
"We learn to curb our will and keep our overt actions within the bounds of humanity, long before we can subdue our sentiments and imaginations to the same mild tone." - William Hazlitt
"Genius, like humanity, rusts for want of use." - William Hazlitt
"Tears are the tribute of humanity to its destiny." - William Rounseville Alger
"To love Humanity constitutes all healthy morality." - Auguste Comte, formally Isidore Auguste Marie François Xavier Comte
"Ethics, as has been well said, are the finest fruits of humanity; but they are not its roots. " - Dinah Maria Mulock Craik, also known as Mulock, Mrs Craik, Mrs Craik, Miss Mulok, Miss Muloch, Miss Mulock
" I think the collective unconscious is actually becoming the Collective Consciousness. With the mass media, every time we watch some event, whether it's a mass sporting event or it's the president speaking about one thing or another, we are tuning in with our collective consciousness to a happening in the world. In the past, we didn't have that ability. And so in a way, we have been awakening a capacity for reflective consciousness at a social level unbeknownst to humanity. It's an almost invisible process of bio-osmosis; we are developing a new capacity for witnessing, for being an observing species, and this is transformative." - Duane Elgin
"It's obvious that the key problem facing humanity in the coming century is how to bring a better quality of life -- for 8 billion or more people -- without wrecking the environment entirely in the attempt." - E. O. Wilson, fully Edward Osborne "E.O." Wilson
"Such a weapon goes far beyond any military objective and enters the range of very great natural catastrophes. By its very nature it cannot be confined to a military objective but becomes a weapon which in practical effect is almost one of genocide. It is clear that the use of such a weapon cannot be justified on any ethical ground which gives a human being a certain individuality and dignity even if he happens to be a resident of an enemy country... The fact that no limits exist to the destructiveness of this weapon makes its very existence and the knowledge of its construction a danger to humanity as a whole. It is necessarily an evil thing considered in any light." - Enrico Fermi
"Nationalism is our form of incest, is our idolatry, is our insanity. "Patriotism” is its cult. It should hardly be necessary to say, that by "patriotism” I mean that attitude which puts the own nation above humanity, above the principles of truth and justice; not the loving interest in one’s own nation, which is the concern with the nation’s spiritual as much as with its material welfare — never with its power over other nations. Just as love for one individual which excludes the love for others is not love, love for one’s country which is not part of one’s love for humanity is not love, but idolatrous worship." - Erich Fromm, fully Erich Seligmann Fromm
"I believe that the man choosing progress can find a new unity through the full development of all his human forces, which are produced in three orientations. These can be presented separately or together: biophilia, love for humanity and nature, and independence and freedom." - Erich Fromm, fully Erich Seligmann Fromm
"I believe that if an individual is not on the path to transcending his society and seeing in what way it furthers or impedes the development of human potential, he cannot enter into intimate contact with his humanity. If the tabus, restrictions, distorted values appear "natural" to him, this is a clear indication that he cannot have a real knowledge of human nature. I believe that society, while having a function both stimulating and inhibiting at the same time, has always been in conflict with humanity. Only when the purpose of society is identified with that of humanity will society cease to paralyze man and encourage his dominance." - Erich Fromm, fully Erich Seligmann Fromm
"The universe itself is the primary sacred community. All human religion should be considered as participation in the religious aspect of the universe itself. It is false to say that humanity is the most excellent being in the universe. The most excellent being in the universe is the universe itself." -
"God has given you your country as cradle, and humanity as mother; you cannot rightly love your brethren of the cradle if you love not the common mother. " - Guiseppe Mazzini
"Self-interest is but the survival of the animal in us. Humanity only begins for man with self-surrender. " - Henri Frédéric Amiel
"There was something alike terrifying and piteous in the spectacle of these frail old morsels of humanity consecrating their last flickering energies to the task of making each other wretched. Hatred seemed to be the one faculty which had survived in undiminished vigor where all else was dropping into ordered and symmetrical decay." - Saki, pen name for Hector Hugh Munro or H.H. Munro NULL