#humans

Every day I add to the list of things I refuse to discuss. The wiser the man, the longer the list. ↗

— Nicolas Chamfort

#philosophy-of-life #reflections #life

If you believe that humans are animals, there can be no such thing as the history of humanity, only the lives of particular humans. If we speak of the history of the species at all, it is only to signify the unknowable sum of these lives. As with other animals, some lives are happy, others wretched. None has a meaning that lies beyond itself. ↗

— John Gray

#humanity #humans #life #man #straw-dogs

Long after the traces of the human animal have disappeared, many of the species it is bent on destroying will still be around, along with others that have yet to spring up. The Earth will forget mankind. The play of life will go on. ↗

— John Gray

#extinction #humans #the-coast-opposite-of-humanity #unsaved #life

I love Humanity but I hate humans ↗

— Albert Einstein

#humanity #humans #people #love

For a human being, nothing comes naturally,' said Grumman. 'We have to learn everything we do. ↗

— Philip Pullman

#instinct #learning #nature

Animals shouldn’t be hunted and nature shouldn’t be disturbed, even destroyed, to benefit the whims of mankind ↗

— Charles Manson

#benefit #charles-manson #destroyed #humans #hunted

A heart pulsating in harmony with the circulation of sap and the flow of rivers? A body with the rhythms of the earth in its movements? No. Instead: a mind, shut off from the oxygen of alert senses, that has wasted itself on 'treasons, stratagems and spoils'--of importance only within four walls. A tame animal--in whom the strength of the species has outspent itself, to no purpose. ↗

— Dag Hammarskjöld

#humans #nature #nature

Referring to Jumper the spider, who needs to hide himself in human form, and he's learning to act like a human. "I'm sure I can learn to walk faster than that," he said desperately. "But you'll also need to learn the nuances of human behavior. Such as not going around naked." "What's wrong with being natural?" he demanded. "Humans aren't natural. They are girt about by all manner of conventions. It will take time for you to catch up with them all. ↗

— Piers Anthony

#morals #spiders #nature

we are all alone, born alone, die alone, and — in spite of true romance magazines — we shall all someday look back on our lives and see that, in spite of our company, we were alone the whole way. i do not say lonely — at least, not all the time — but essentially, and finally, alone. this is what makes your self-respect so important, and i don’t see how you can respect yourself if you must look in the hearts and minds of others for your happiness ↗

— William S Burroughs

#humans #people #philosophy #respect

In terms of adaptability, humans are pretty amazingly useless. ↗

— Bill Bryson

#science #science