CURATED COLLECTION

What Makes Us Human

We are the only species that wonders what we are — and that wondering might be the most human thing of all.

50 quotes found

“
Wonders are many, and none is more wonderful than man.

—SophoclesScholar & Thinker

Ancient World ERA • Southern Europe

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The way of life is such that men rule wherever they are stronger.

—ThucydidesGeneral & Historian

Ancient World ERA • Southern Europe

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We are all different, but we share the human spirit. It is important to work together.

—Stephen HawkingTheoretical Physicist

Digital Age ERA • Western Europe

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To be human is to be an outsider, to be defined by what you are not.

—Fatima BhuttoAuthor & Journalist

Digital Age ERA • South Asia

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Human beings are members of a whole, in creation of one essence and soul.

—Saadi ShiraziPoet & Writer

Medieval ERA • MENA

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Heaven sometimes sends us beings who are not merely human but divine.

—Giorgio VasariPainter, Architect & Writer

Renaissance ERA • Southern Europe

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Enlightenment, liberty, and reason are the sole foundations of human happiness.

—Marquis de CondorcetMathematician, Philosopher & Scientist

Enlightenment ERA • Western Europe

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Equality and liberty are the grand objects of all human desires.

—Marquis de CondorcetMathematician, Philosopher & Scientist

Enlightenment ERA • Western Europe

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Solitude is the profoundest fact of the human condition. Man is the only being who knows he is alone.

—Octavio PazPoet, Diplomat & Essayist

Post-War ERA • Latin America

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Many are the wonders of the world, and none more wonderful than man.

—SophoclesScholar & Thinker

Ancient World ERA • Southern Europe

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Men are always more easily deceived when they are striving for what they desire.

—Niccolò MachiavelliPhilosopher & Diplomat

Renaissance ERA • Western Europe

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Tears are not a sign of weakness, but a sign of a strong heart.

—Ba JinNovelist & Thinker

Early Modern ERA • East Asia

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My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together.

—Desmond TutuTheologian

Late Modern ERA • Southern Africa

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We are all frail, but in the Lord we are mighty.

—J.R.R. TolkienNovelist & Academic

Post-War ERA • Western Europe

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Music is the pleasure the human mind experiences from counting without being aware that it is counting.

—Gottfried Wilhelm LeibnizPolymath

Enlightenment ERA • Western Europe

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Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home.

—Eleanor RooseveltDiplomat & Activist

Post-War ERA • North America

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Human nature is evil, and its goodness is acquired.

—XunziConfucian Philosopher

Ancient World ERA • East Asia

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Violence is not a thing. It is a world without human beings.

—Han KangNovelist

Digital Age ERA • East Asia

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The human being, the individual, is the most precious thing.

—Daisaku IkedaPhilosopher, Author & Activist

Late Modern ERA • East Asia

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No bounds have been fixed to the improvement of the human faculties.

—Marquis de CondorcetMathematician, Philosopher & Scientist

Enlightenment ERA • Western Europe

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