#humans

It is straightforward—and never mind, for now, about plagues and famines: if God existed, and if he cared for humankind, he would never have given us religion. ↗

— Martin Amis

#famines #god #humans #plagues #problem-of-evil

There seems to be an inborn drive in all human beings not to live in a steady emotional state, which would suggest that such a state is not tolerable to most people. Why else would someone succumb to the attractions of romantic love more than once? Didn’t they learn their lesson the first time or the tenth time or the twentieth time? And it’s the same old lesson: everything in this life—I repeat, everything—is more trouble than it’s worth. And simply being alive is the basic trouble. This is something that is more recognized in Eastern societies than in the West. There’s a minor tradition in Greek philosophy that instructs us to seek a state of equanimity rather than one of ecstasy, but it never really caught on for obvious reasons. Buddhism advises its practitioners not to seek highs or lows but to follow a middle path to personal salvation from the painful cravings of the average sensual life, which is why it was pretty much reviled by the masses and mutated into forms more suited to human drives and desires. It seems evident that very few people can simply sit still. Children spin in circles until they collapse with dizziness. ↗

— Thomas Ligotti

#stillness #why-humans-use-drugs #life

I would be very happy to see 3.5 billion humans wiped out from the face of the earth within the next 150 or 200 years and I am quite prepared to go myself with this majority... let us all look forward to the day when the catastrophe strikes us down! ↗

— John Aspinall

#billion #catastrophe #day #down #earth

I think laughter may be a form of courage. As humans we sometimes stand tall and look into the sun and laugh, and I think we are never more brave than when we do that. ↗

— Linda Ellerbee

#courage #form #humans #i #i think

I'm for truth, no matter who tells it. I'm for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I'm a human being, first and foremost, and as such I'm for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole. ↗

— Malcolm X

#truth #humans

Being a Humanist means trying to behave decently without expectation of rewards or punishment after you are dead. ↗

— Kurt Vonnegut

#atheism #humanism #secularism #humans

The human race has only one really effective weapon and that is laughter. ↗

— Mark Twain

#humans

I am proud only of those days that pass in undivided tenderness. ↗

— Robert Bly

#tenderness #humans

I have a dream, humans were part of aliens on earth. I also dream, that some humans are really indigenous. ↗

— Toba Beta

#earth #humans #indigenous #dreams

Of the good in you I can speak, but not of the evil. For what is evil but good tortured by its own hunger and thirst? Verily when good is hungry it seeks food even in dark caves, and when it thirsts it drinks even of dead waters. ↗

— Kahlil Gibran

#food