#humanit

Libraries keep the records on behalf of all humanity. the unique and the absurd, the wise and the fragments of stupidity. ↗

— Vartan Gregorian

#behalf #fragments #humanity #keep #libraries

No one today is purely one thing. Labels like Indian, or woman, or Muslim, or American are not more than starting-points, which if followed into actual experience for only a moment are quickly left behind. Imperialism consolidated the mixture of cultures and identities on a global scale. But its worst and most paradoxical gift was to allow people to believe that they were only, mainly, exclusively, white, or Black, or Western, or Oriental. Yet just as human beings make their own history, they also make their cultures and ethnic identities. No one can deny the persisting continuities of long traditions, sustained habitations, national languages, and cultural geographies, but there seems no reason except fear and prejudice to keep insisting on their separation and distinctiveness, as if that was all human life was about. Survival in fact is about the connections between things; in Eliot’s phrase, reality cannot be deprived of the “other echoes [that] inhabit the garden.” It is more rewarding - and more difficult - to think concretely and sympathetically, contrapuntally, about others than only about “us.” But this also means not trying to rule others, not trying to classify them or put them in hierarchies, above all, not constantly reiterating how “our” culture or country is number one (or not number one, for that matter). ↗

— Edward W. Said

#culture #humanity #imperialism #labels #survival

Science is global. Einstein's equation, E=mc2, has to reach everywhere. Science is a beautiful gift to humanity, we should not distort it. Science does not differentiate between multiple races. ↗

— Abdul Kalam

#between #differentiate #distort #does #einstein

I think that people who are famous tend to be underdeveloped in their humanity skills. ↗

— Diane Keaton

#humanity #i #i think #people #skills

Mapplethorpe presented the body as a sexual object, separating it from the humanity of the person. He added nothing to photography as a medium. I hold his work in low regard. ↗

— Jerzy Kosinski

#body #his #hold #humanity #i

That cry of the soul to be lifted out of the bondage of the narrow circle of life, which carries up to God the protest and yearning of suffering man, never finds a more sublime expression than where humanity is oppressed and religion is corrupt. ↗

— Hall Caine

#carries #circle #corrupt #cry #expression

Even the most malignant gods would not continue to inflict life upon humanity, time without end. ↗

— Taylor Caldwell

#end #even #gods #humanity #inflict

After all it really is all of humanity that is under threat during a pandemic. ↗

— Margaret Chan

#during #humanity #pandemic #really #threat

In my view, the humanity of our world can be measured against the fate of Africa. ↗

— Horst Koehler

#against #fate #humanity #measured #our

We are not consumers. For most of humanity’s existence, we were makers, not consumers: we made our clothes, shelter, and education, we hunted and gathered our food. We are not addicts. “I propose that most addictions come from our surrendering our real powers, that is, our powers of creativity.” We are not passive couch potatoes either. “It is not the essence of humans to be passive. We are players. We are actors on many stages…. We are curious, we are yearning to wonder, we are longing to be amazed… to be excited, to be enthusiastic, to be expressive. In short to be alive.” We are also not cogs in a machine. To be so would be to give up our personal freedoms so as to not upset The Machine, whatever that machine is. Creativity keeps us creating the life we wish to live and advancing humanity’s purpose as well. ↗

— Matthew Fox

#addictions #consumer-culture #consumerism #creation #creativity