#uma

The Goddamn human race deserves itself, and as far as I'm concerned it can have it. ↗

— Elizabeth Janeway

#concerned #deserves #far #goddamn #human

The mistake we make is to attribute to religions the errors and fanaticism of human beings. ↗

— Tahar Ben Jelloun

#beings #errors #fanaticism #human #human beings

Christians should put survival of the planet ahead of national security...Here is the mystery of our global responsibility: that we are in communion with Christ- and we are in communion with all people...The fact that the people of Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, Russia, Afghanistan, and Ethiopia are our brothers and sisters is not obvious. People kill each other by the thousands and do not see themselves as brothers and sisters. If we want to be real peace-makers, national security cannot be our primary concern. Our primary concern should be survival of humanity, the survival of the planet, and the health of all people. Whether we are Russians, Iraqis, Ethiopians, or North Americans, we belong to the same human family that God loves. And we have to start taking some risks- not just individually, but risks of a more global quality, risks to let other people develop their own independence, risks to share our wealth with others and invite refugees to our country, risks to offer sanctuary- because we are people of God ↗

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

#communion #global-responsibility #humanity-national-security #family

The instinct to survive is human nature itself, and every aspect of our personalities derives from it. Anything that conflicts with the survival instinct acts sooner or later to eliminate the individual and thereby fails to show up in future generations. . . . A scientifically verifiable theory of morals must be rooted in the individual's instinct to survive--and nowhere else!--and must correctly describe the hierarchy of survival, note the motivations at each level, and resolve all conflicts. We have such a theory now; we can solve any moral problem, on any level. Self-interest, love of family, duty to country, responsibility toward the human race . . . . The basis of all morality is duty, a concept with the same relation to group that self-interest has to individual. ↗

— Robert A. Heinlein

#moral #morality #survival #survival-instinct #family

The human brain is a wonderful organ. It starts to work as soon as you are born and doesn't stop until you get up to deliver a speech. ↗

— George Jessel

#brain #deliver #get #human #human brain

The indestructible is one: it is each individual human being and, at the same time, it is common to all, hence the incomparably indivisible union that exists between human beings. ↗

— Franz Kafka

#beings #between #common #each #exists

To become self-aware, people must be allowed to hear a plurality of opinions and then make up their own minds. They must be allowed to say, write and publish whatever they want. Freedom of expression is the most basic, but fundamental, right. Without it, human beings are reduced to automatons. ↗

— Ma Jian

#basic #become #beings #expression #freedom

I'm an optimist in the sense that I believe humans are noble and honorable, and some of them are really smart. I have a very optimistic view of individuals. ↗

— Steve Jobs

#believe #honorable #humans #i #i believe

But it really wasn't until three to four years later, when we had an opportunity in the lab to make very detailed observations, and comparisons with other fossil discoveries, that we realized she was a new species of human ancestor. ↗

— Donald Johanson

#detailed #discoveries #fossil #four #had

For an entire populace, change, growth, and spontaneity were dangerous. Acting upon a personal desire, whispering a hidden longing, revealing your true feelings - all the human actions we think of as essential to a character - had be censored by the self lest they be punished by the state. ↗

— Adam Johnson

#actions #censored #change #character #dangerous