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Link Quote Stars Tags Author
27bfce2 Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change. human Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
61290d9 Be the reason someone smiles. Be the reason someone feels loved and believes in the goodness in people. being-human goodness human human-nature humanism humanity inspiration inspirational inspirational-attitude inspirational-life inspirational-quote inspirational-quotes inspire inspiring kindness life life-and-living life-lessons life-philosophy life-quotes living love optimism optimistic positive positive-affirmation positive-life positive-thinking smile smiles Roy T. Bennett
e5f1ff1 There is some kind of a sweet innocence in being human- in not having to be just happy or just sad- in the nature of being able to be both broken and whole, at the same time. being-human happiness human human-nature humanism humanity inspirational inspirational-quotes inspiring life life-and-living living sadness C. JoyBell C.
036cdcd I think that we are like stars. Something happens to burst us open; but when we burst open and think we are dying; we're actually turning into a supernova. And then when we look at ourselves again, we see that we're suddenly more beautiful than we ever were before! human humanity inspirational inspirational-life inspirational-quotes inspiring life life-and-living living people self-awareness stars strength supernova truth C. JoyBell C.
123efe8 But if I'm it, the last of my kind, the last page of human history, like hell I'm going to let the story end this way. I may be the last one, but I am the one still standing. I am the one turning to face the faceless hunter in the woods on an abandoned highway. I am the one not running but facing. Because if I am the last one, then I am humanity. And if this is humanity's last war, then I am the battlefield. cassie human humanity inspirational powerful survivor Rick Yancey
884b602 And out of that hopeless attempt has come nearly all that we call human history--money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery--the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy. god human inspirational mere-christianity religious slavery c-s-lewis C.S. Lewis
8fa29fc I'm not in search of sanctity, sacredness, purity; these things are found after this life, not in this life; but in this life I search to be completely human: to feel, to give, to take, to laugh, to get lost, to be found, to dance, to love and to lust, to be so human. dancing feeling human human-nature humanism humanity inspiration inspirational inspirational-life inspirational-quotes life life-and-living living living-life passion purity sacredness sanctity C. JoyBell C.
b6034c0 If I am to be fallen into love, I will. And if as a result I will appear to be stupid, disillusioned, and of poor judgment, I will. And I would be damned if I cared what other people think. For I would rather be thought of as all of these things, than not love. If in loving, I become the naked woman on the horse, I will ride that horse with my head held high. This is my spirit. I am unbreakable. bravery courage fearless fight-for-love human inspirational inspirational-love inspirational-quotes inspiring love passion passionate-life passionate-love strength unbreakable unbreakable-spirit C. JoyBell C.
b9b8f25 "A philosopher once asked, "Are we human because we gaze at the stars, or do we gaze at them because we are human?" Pointless, really..."Do the stars gaze back?" Now, that's a question." human stars Neil Gaiman
7343882 Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else. human intellectual mind reality George Orwell
9d1f783 You say you're 'depressed' - all i see is resilience. You are allowed to feel messed up and inside out. It doesn't mean you're defective - it just means you're human. human David Mitchell
c709555 For several years, I had been bored. Not a whining, restless child's boredom (although I was not above that) but a dense, blanketing malaise. It seemed to me that there was nothing new to be discovered ever again. Our society was utterly, ruinously derivative (although the word as a criticism is itself derivative). We were the first human beings who would never see anything for the first time. We stare at the wonders of the world, dull-eyed, underwhelmed. , the Pyramids, the Empire State Building. Jungle animals on attack, ancient icebergs collapsing, volcanoes erupting. I can't recall a single amazing thing I have seen firsthand that I didn't immediately reference to a movie or TV show. A fucking commercial. You know the awful singsong of the blase: . I've literally seen it all, and the worst thing, the thing that makes me want to blow my brains out, is: The secondhand experience is always better. The image is crisper, the view is keener, the camera angle and the soundtrack manipulate my emotions in a way reality can't anymore. I don't know that we are actually human at this point, those of us who are like most of us, who grew up with TV and movies and now the Internet. If we are betrayed, we know the words to say; when a loved one dies, we know the words to say. If we want to play the stud or the smart-ass or the fool, we know the words to say. We are all working from the same dog-eared script. It's a very difficult era in which to be a person, just a real, actual person, instead of a collection of personality traits selected from an endless Automat of characters. And if all of us are play-acting, there can be no such thing as a soul mate, because we don't have genuine souls. It had gotten to the point where it seemed like nothing matters, because I'm not a real person and neither is anyone else. I would have done anything to feel real again. derivative human personality-traits real secondhand-experience seen-it-all Gillian Flynn
4b85f0f Anger is like flowing water; there's nothing wrong with it as long as you let it flow. Hate is like stagnant water; anger that you denied yourself the freedom to feel, the freedom to flow; water that you gathered in one place and left to forget. Stagnant water becomes dirty, stinky, disease-ridden, poisonous, deadly; that is your hate. On flowing water travels little paper boats; paper boats of forgiveness. Allow yourself to feel anger, allow your waters to flow, along with all the paper boats of forgiveness. Be human. anger forgiveness hate human humanism humanity inspirational inspirational-attitude inspirational-life inspirational-quotes inspiring water C. JoyBell C.
129f96b Most of us must learn to love people and use things rather than loving things and using people. being-human happiness human human-nature humanism humanity inspiration inspirational inspirational-attitude inspirational-life inspirational-quote inspirational-quotes inspire inspiring learning life life-and-living life-lessons life-philosophy life-quotes living love optimism optimistic positive positive-affirmation positive-life positive-thinking Roy T. Bennett
d485cb9 Why is there ever this perverse cruelty in humankind, that makes us hurt most those we love best? god human hurt love pain Jacqueline Carey
e112d2b We are all equal in the fact that we are all different. We are all the same in the fact that we will never be the same. We are united by the reality that all colours and all cultures are distinct & individual. We are harmonious in the reality that we are all held to this earth by the same gravity. We don't share blood, but we share the air that keeps us alive. I will not blind myself and say that my black brother is not different from me. I will not blind myself and say that my brown sister is not different from me. But my black brother is he as much as I am me. But my brown sister is she as much as I am me. brotherhood color difference differences equality harmony human humanism humanity individuality inspiration inspirational inspirational-life inspirational-quotes life life-and-living living race respect sisterhood society unity C. JoyBell C.
128e2d5 If you made a better rat than a human, it's not much to boast about, Peter. human peter-pettigrew rat J.K. Rowling
3cd6dbc I cannot compromise my respect for your love. You can keep your love, I will keep my respect. breaking-up breakup breakups compromise human humans inspiration inspirational inspirational-quotes love motivation motivational motivational-quotes philosophy respect respectable respected respectful respecting respecting-others respecting-yourself self-respect wisdom wisdom-quotes Amit Kalantri
b08120a That was when the world wasn't so big and I could see everywhere. It was when my father was a hero and not a human. human sons Markus Zusak
cac80a0 Whether we like it or not, the one justification for the existence of all religions is death, they need death as much as we need bread to eat. existentialism human human-condition life religion José Saramago
93791a8 If people reach perfection they vanish, you know. inspirational people perfection human T.H. White
2b8f23d Death is part of who we are. It guides us. It shapes us. It drives us to madness. Can you still be human if you have no mortal end death human Christopher Paolini
bada1b7 We have no right to express an opinion until we know all of the answers. answers human inspirational nature opinons truth Kurt Cobain
fcec505 Are we human because we gaze at the stars, or do we gaze at the stars because we are human? human stars Neil Gaiman
28ef260 People took such awful chances with chemicals and their bodies because they wanted the quality of their lives to improve. They lived in ugly places where there were only ugly things to do. They didn't own doodley-squat, so they couldn't improve their surroundings. so they did their best to make their insides beautiful instead. body breakfast-of-champions chemicals human kurt-vonnegut life people ugly Kurt Vonnegut
b07e739 The downfall of the attempts of governments and leaders to unite mankind is found in this- in the wrong message that we should see everyone as the same. This is the root of the failure of harmony. Because the truth is, we should not all see everyone as the same! We are not the same! We are made of different colours and we have different cultures. We are all different! But the key to this door is to look at these differences, respect these differences, learn from and about these differences, and grow in and with these differences. We are all different. We are not the same. But that's beautiful. And that's okay.In the quest for unity and peace, we cannot blind ourselves and expect to be all the same. Because in this, we all have an underlying belief that everyone should be the same as us at some point. We are not on a journey to become the same or to be the same. But we are on a journey to see that in all of our differences, that is what makes us beautiful as a human race, and if we are ever to grow, we ought to learn and always learn some more. color culture difference differences equality government harmony human humanism humanity inspiration inspirational inspirational-quotes peace race society unity C. JoyBell C.
dbca8d8 It is when we think we can act like God, that all respect is lost, and I think this is the downfall of peace. We lie if we say we do not see color and culture and difference. We fool ourselves and cheat ourselves when we say that all of us are the same. We should not want to be the same as others and we should not want others to be the same as us. Rather, we ought to glory and shine in all of our differences, flaunting them fabulously for all to see! It is never a conformity that we need! We need not to conform! What we need is to burst out into all these beautiful colors! color conformism conformity difference differences freedom human humanism humanity inspiration inspirational inspirational-life inspirational-quotes life living race respect C. JoyBell C.
0165591 It is a very natural human trait to destroy that which frightens us. inspirational life human Laurell K. Hamilton
01a32f9 Historical fact: People stopped being people in 1913. That was the year Henry Ford put his cars on rollers and made his workers adopt the speed of the assembly line. At first, workers rebelled. They quit in droves, unable to accustom their bodies to the new pace of the age. Since then, however, the adaptation has been passed down: we've all inherited it to some degree, so that we plug right into joy-sticks and remotes, to repetitive motions of a hundred kinds. history human machine manufacturing rebellion workers Jeffrey Eugenides
f51c686 Water: 35 liters, Carbon: 20 kg, Ammonia: 4 liters, Lime:1.5 kg, Phosphrus: 800 g, salt: 250g, saltpeter:100g, Sulfer: 80g, Fluorine: 7.5 g, iron: 5.6 g, Silicon: 3g, and 15 other elements in small quantities.... thats the total chemical makeup of the average adult body. Modern science knows all of this, but there has never been a single example of succesful human trasmutation. It's like there's some missing ingredient..... Scientists have been trying to find it for hundreds of years, pouring tons of money into research, and to this day they don't have a theory. For that matter, the elements found in a human being is all junk that you can buy in any market with a child's allowence. Humans are pretty cheaply made. fullmetal-alchemist human Hiromu Arakawa
ba650d0 The power of God is with you at all times; through the activities of mind, senses, breathing, and emotions; and is constantly doing all the work using you as a mere instrument. god human life spiritual Anonymous
ae0a77a Plants are more courageous than almost all human beings: an orange tree would rather die than produce lemons, whereas instead of dying the average person would rather be someone they are not. act acting actor actors adage adages animal animals aphorism aphorisms audacity axiom axioms balls be-yourself boldness brave bravery cojones conform conforming conformity courage courageous courageousness daring dead death deep dictum dictums die epigram epigrams facade façades fear fearful fearlessness fit-in fitting-in fruit fruits gallantry gnome gnomes grit guts hardihood heroism herself himself human human-being human-beings humans humor humour insightful inspiration inspirational inspire inspired intrepidity kill killed lemon lemons made-me-think make-you-think maxim maxims motivated motivational motive moxie murder murdered nerve nonconformity oneself orange people peoples person persons plant plants pluck pluckiness pretend pretender pretenders pretending produce profound proverb proverbs provoke-thought quotation quotations quote quotes satire satirical saying sayings self spunk standing-out standout themselves thought-provoking thoughtful tree trees true-grit valour words-to-live-by yourself Mokokoma Mokhonoana
f39b600 I guess I felt attached to my weakness. My pain and suffering too. Summer light, the smell of a breeze, the sound of cicadas - if I like these things, why should I apologize? cicadas flaw human weakness Haruki Murakami
5f9383d REMEMBER YOUR GREATNES achieve affirmation attitude beauty big birth born competition confidence courage egg existence eye fears giant great greatness human inspirational life living-achievement loser losing loss obstacles odds pains poem poetry race small sperm strength struggles success successful suffering survivor suzy-kassem victory warrior win winner winners winning wisdom Suzy Kassem
58116c8 "But I'm not guilty," said K. "there's been a mistake. How is it even possible for someone to be guilty? We're all human beings here, one like the other." "That is true" said the priest "but that is how the guilty speak" guilty human human-condition life mistakes priest trial Franz Kafka
47d04da The human touch is that little snippet of physical affection that brings a bit of comfort, support, and kindness. It doesn't take much from the one who gives it, but can make a huge difference in the one who receives it. comfort human human-touch humanity humanity-quotes inspirational kindess love support Mya Robarts
ea13a54 She says you're not truly human until you've had your heart broken and you've broken someone's heart. human love Catherine Gilbert Murdock
4ddc86a As for myself: I had come to the conclusion that there was nothing sacred about myself or any human being, that we were all machines, doomed to collide and collide and collide. For want of anything better to do, we became fans of collisions. Sometimes I wrote well about collisions, which meant I was a writing machine in good repair. Sometimes I wrote badly, which meant I was a writing machine in bad repair. I no more harbored sacredness than did a Pontiac, a mousetrap, or a South Bend Lathe. human life machines relationships Kurt Vonnegut
ccfe304 Remember what it's like to be human, human jason-grace promise Rick Riordan
9c09eb6 The simplest truth about man is that he is a very strange being; almost in the sense of being a stranger on the earth. In all sobriety, he has much more of the external appearance of one bringing alien habits from another land than of a mere growth of this one. He cannot sleep in his own skin; he cannot trust his own instincts. He is at once a creator moving miraculous hands and fingers and a kind of cripple. He is wrapped in artificial bandages called clothes; he is propped on artificial crutches called furniture. His mind has the same doubtful liberties and the same wild limitations. Alone among the animals, he is shaken with the beautiful madness called laughter; as if he had caught sight of some secret in the very shape of the universe hidden from the universe itself. Alone among the animals he feels the need of averting his thought from the root realities of his own bodily being; of hiding them as in the presence of some higher possibility which creates the mystery of shame. human pilgrim stranger G.K. Chesterton
8f4542b You are human and fallible. human Charlotte Brontë
436d73d I am human. Like all humans, I do not remember my birth. By the time we wake up to ourselves, we are little children, and our advent is something that happened an eternity ago, at the beginning of time. We live like latecomers to the theater; we must catch up as best we can, divining the begging from the shape of later events. - Vida Winter human Diane Setterfield
8114b49 In her presence, I was reminded again of why I was an anoretic: fear. Of my needs, for food, for sleep, for touch, for simple conversation, for human contact, for love. I was an anoretic because I was afraid of being human. Implicit in human contact is the exposure of the self, the interaction of the selves. The self I'd had, once upon a time, was too much. Now there was no self at all. I was a blank. fear human Marya Hornbacher
9f937a1 "I don't know what to do," he said. "No harm in that. I've never known what to do," said Rincewind with hollow cheerfulness. "Been completely at a loss my whole life." He hesitated. "I think it's called being human, or something." human Terry Pratchett
7f57df9 I don't think science is hard to teach because humans aren't ready for it, or because it arose only through a fluke, or because, by and large, we don't have the brainpower to grapple with it. Instead, the enormous zest for science that I see in first-graders and the lesson from the remnant hunter-gatherers both speak eloquently: A proclivity for science is embedded deeply within us, in all times, places, and cultures. It has been the means for our survival. It is our birthright. When, through indifference, inattention, incompetence, or fear of skepticism, we discourage children from science, we are disenfranchising them, taking from them the tools needed to manage their future. human intelligence science Carl Sagan
c742bd0 "I know you have it in you, Guy," Anne said suddenly at the end of a silence, "the capacity to be terribly happy." happy human patricia-highsmith silence strangers strangers-on-a-train terribly train truth Patricia Highsmith
01b3a26 A brain was only capable of what it could conceive, and it couldn't conceive what it had never experienced capable concieve experience human mind thoughtful Graham Greene
e366c5f The time would not pass. Somebody was playing with the clocks, and not only the electronic clocks but the wind-up kind too. The second hand on my watch would twitch once, and a year would pass, and then it would twitch again. There was nothing I could do about it. As an Earthling I had to believe whatever clocks said -and calendars. human life slaughterhouse-five time Kurt Vonnegut
1c92a37 Does the human heart know chasms so abysmal? dr-manhatan heart human watchmen Alan Moore
728d767 "Goodbye, Hari, my love. Remember always--all you did for me." -I did nothing for you." -You loved me and your love made me--human." foundation human robot Isaac Asimov
306647e My eyelids are my own private cave, he murmured. That I can go to anytime I want. human Aimee Bender
9863d6c Rabbits (says Mr. Lockley) are like human beings in many ways. One of these is certainly their staunch ability to withstand disaster and to let the stream of their life carry them along, past reaches of terror and loss. They have a certain quality which it would not be accurate to describe as callousness or indifference. It is, rather, a blessedly circumscribed imagination and an intuitive feeling that Life is Now. A foraging wild creature, intent above all upon survival, is as strong as the grass. human resiliency richard-adams survival watership-down Richard Adams
4739929 Hot weather opens the skull of a city, exposing its white brain, and its heart of nerves, which sizzle like the wires inside a lightbulb. And there exudes a sour extra-human smell that makes the very stone seem flesh-alive, webbed and pulsing. city description human life summer Truman Capote
7b914bb We don't value craftsmanship anymore! All we value is ruthless efficiency, and I say we deny our own humanity that way! Without appreciation for grace and beauty, there's no pleasure in creating things and no pleasure in having them! Our lives are made drearier, rather than richer! How can a person take pride in his work when skill and care are considered luxuries! We're not machines! We have a human need for craftsmanship! art beauty care craftsmanship creating efficiency grace handmade human machines pleasure quality quantity skill value Bill Watterson
5870c7c Cats and monkeys - monkeys and cats - all human life is there! human life monkeys Henry James
03c286b fanaticism is the only way to put an end to the doubts that constantly trouble the human soul. human soul the-zahir Paulo Coelho
605c19d What I mean is that those thoughts, they're human. And just because you turn out differently than everyone's imagined you would doesn't mean that you've failed in some way. A kid who gets teased in one school might move to a different one, and be the most popular girl there, just because no one has any other expectations of her. Or a person who goes to med school because his entire family is full of doctors might find out that what he really wants to be is an artist instead. human life thoughts Jodi Picoult
0b843b0 "Still I promise myself, "Next time I will do better" in the all-too-human conceit that I will always be offered a "next time." chance conceit human improve opportunity promise strive time Robin Hobb
06207a9 It was a mistake to think of houses, old houses, as being empty. They were filled with memories, with the faded echoes of voices. Drops of tears, drops of blood, the ring of laughter, the edge of tempers that had ebbed and flowed between the walls, into the walls, over the years. Wasn't it, after all, a kind of life? And there were houses, he knew it, that breathed. They carried in their wood and stone, their brick and mortar a kind of ego that was nearly, very nearly, human. ego houses human life old-houses spirit years Nora Roberts
cb125d6 ...Chillingworth was a striking evidence of man's faculty of transforming himself into a devil, if he will only, for a reasonable space of time, undertake a devil's office. human sin Nathaniel Hawthorne
dfef7af This is where the whole ape-descended thing reveals its worth, I thought madly. Sucks to be you, quadruped. Opposable thumbs - don't leave home without them. evolution human opposable primates quadruped thumb Ben Aaronovitch
8c1f968 You realize how sympathy and antagonism can coexist. You are discovering how many seemingly incompatible emotions can thrive, side by side, in the same human heart. heart human Julian Barnes
93db366 Here, by the grace of God and an inside straight, we have a personality untouched by the psychotic taboos of our tribe - and you want to turn him into a carbon copy of every fourth-rate conformist in this frightened land! Why don't you go whole hog? Get him a brief case and make him carry it wherever he goes - make him feel shame if he doesn't have it. god grace human innocence man mars martian naked nudity personality psychotic shame society taboo-breaking taboos tribe work-ethic Robert A. Heinlein
00d67e6 . . . things whose perishing had been arrested by their power to make her love them. human love memory perish remember remembrance Denis Johnson
8b8aa33 Carn Carby left, and ender mentally added him to his private list of people who also qualified as human beings. friend human life love Orson Scott Card
beda189 Humans elect leaders on the basis of the promises they make. We [vampires] try to elect ours based solely on the strength of their character. darren-shan election human larten-crepsley mortal mortals politics power qualities strength vampaneze vampire Darren Shan
82a629c "I think you are wise. You haven't got what it takes for this job. You are like Rosemary's father. He couldn't understand Lenin's dictum: 'Away with softness.'" I thought of Hercule Poirot's words. "I'm content," I said, "to be human...." We sat there in silence, each of use convinced that the other's point of view was wrong." disagreement human lenin Agatha Christie
cd15dac Film photography will always be superior to digital - because no matter how many lasers and instant buttons and HD pixels you've got, a human being can take a photograph with much more integrity and meaning than one a built-in robot took. art camera cellulod compassion digital film future hd history human instant kodak magic nature nostalgia photo photography robot Rebecca McNutt
e3def21 dh shkwtu qlylan, fl'nny lst sw~ qlb nsn. whkdh hy qlwb lns, tkhf mn tHqyq 'Hlmh lkbr~, l'nh t`tqd 'nh l tstHqW blwGh, 'w 'nh f`lan l tqdr `l~ blwGh. nn nmwt, nHn lqlwb, khwfan mn Hlt lHb ldhy wlaW~ l~ l'bd, wmn l'wqt lty kn ymkn 'n tkwn 'wqtan ry'`@, wmn tlk lty lyst kdhlk, wmn lknwz lty kn ymkn ktshfh, wlknh ZlWt, l~ l'bd, mdfwn@an fy lrml, l'nn, mt~ HSl dhlk, nt'lWm kthyran mn hwl lm`n@ lty tsbq lnhy@. arabic emotions-love feelings heart human love Paulo Coelho
024b0cc "You can't write, yet you learned to hunt, to survive. How?" I paused with my foot on the threshold. "That's what happens when you're responsible for lives other than your own, isn't it? You do what you have to do." He was still sitting on the table, still straddling that inner line between the here and now and wherever he'd had to go in his mind to endure the fight with the Bogge. I met his feral and glowing stare. "You aren't what I expected--for a human." feyre high-lord human responsible survive tamlin write Sarah J. Maas
3589019 I'm only human, she told herself. There's not enough room in my heart for everyone. heart human Tom Perrotta
72d68bf Mumbai is the sweet, sweaty smell of hope, which is the opposite of hate; and it's the sour, stifled smell of greed, which is the opposite of love. It's the smell of Gods, demons, empires, and civilizations in resurrection and decay. Its the blue skin-smell of the sea, no matter where you are in the island city, and the blood metal smell of machines. It smells of the stir and sleep and the waste of sixty million animals, more than half of them humans and rats. It smells of heartbreak, and the struggle to live, and of the crucial failures and love that produces courage. It smells of ten thousand restaurants, five thousand temples, shrines, churches and mosques, and of hunderd bazaar devoted exclusively to perfume, spices, incense, and freshly cut flowers. That smell, above all things - is that what welcomes me and tells me that I have come home. Then there were people. Assamese, Jats, and Punjabis; people from Rajasthan, Bengal, and Tamil Nadu; from Pushkar, Cochin, and Konark; warrior caste, Brahmin, and untouchable; Hindi, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Jain, Parsee, Animist; fair skin and dark, green eyes and golden brown and black; every different face and form of that extravagant variety, that incoparable beauty, India. beautiful city colour empire hate hope human love mumbai shantaram sleep smell-sea sweat sweet Gregory David Roberts
9956b6c Yes, there is no good pretending, it is hard to leave everything. human pain pretension when-the-cynic-cries Samuel Beckett
4fa12cb He knows that after him everything will continue on much as before, except that there will be a minuscule absence, a barely detective gap in the so-called grand scheme, one unit fewer now. Or not even that, not even an empty space where he once was, for all will rush immediately to fill that vacuum. Pft. Gone. Recollections of him will remain in the minds of others for a while, but presently those others too will die and his few relics with them. And then all will be dark. emptyness fear human John Banville
13ec223 "We have a predator that came from the depths of the cosmos and took over the rule of our lives. Human beings are its prisoners. The Predator is our lord and master. It has rendered us docile, helpless. If we want to protest, it suppresses our protest. If we want to act independently, it demands that we don't do so... I have been beating around the bush all this time, insinuating to you that something is holding us prisoner. Indeed we are held prisoner! "This was an energetic fact for the sorcerers of ancient Mexico ... They took us over because we are food for them, and they squeeze us mercilessly because we are their sustenance. just as we rear chickens in chicken coops, the predators rear us in human coops, humaneros. Therefore, their food is always available to them." "No, no, no, no," [Carlos replies] "This is absurd don Juan. What you're saying is something monstrous. It simply can't be true, for sorcerers or for average men, or for anyone." "Why not?" don Juan asked calmly. "Why not? Because it infuriates you? ... You haven't heard all the claims yet. I want to appeal to your analytical mind. Think for a moment, and tell me how you would explain the contradictions between the intelligence of man the engineer and the stupidity of his systems of beliefs, or the stupidity of his contradictory behaviour. Sorcerers believe that the predators have given us our systems of belief, our ideas of good and evil, our social mores. They are the ones who set up our hopes and expectations and dreams of success or failure. They have given us covetousness, greed, and cowardice. It is the predators who make us complacent, routinary, and egomaniacal." "'But how can they do this, don Juan? [Carlos] asked, somehow angered further by what [don Juan] was saying. "'Do they whisper all that in our ears while we are asleep?" "'No, they don't do it that way. That's idiotic!" don Juan said, smiling. "They are infinitely more efficient and organized than that. In order to keep us obedient and meek and weak, the predators engaged themselves in a stupendous manoeuvre stupendous, of course, from the point of view of a fighting strategist. A horrendous manoeuvre from the point of view of those who suffer it. They gave us their mind! Do you hear me? The predators give us their mind, which becomes our mind. The predators' mind is baroque, contradictory, morose, filled with the fear of being discovered any minute now." "I know that even though you have never suffered hunger... you have food anxiety, which is none other than the anxiety of the predator who fears that any moment now its manoeuvre is going to be uncovered and food is going to be denied. Through the mind, which, after all, is their mind, the predators inject into the lives of human beings whatever is convenient for them. And they ensure, in this manner, a degree of security to act as a buffer against their fear." "The sorcerers of ancient Mexico were quite ill at ease with the idea of when [the predator] made its appearance on Earth. They reasoned that man must have been a complete being at one point, with stupendous insights, feats of awareness that are mythological legends nowadays. And then, everything seems to disappear, and we have now a sedated man. What I'm saying is that what we have against us is not a simple predator. It is very smart, and organized. It follows a methodical system to render us useless. Man, the magical being that he is destined to be, is no longer magical. He's an average piece of meat." "There are no more dreams for man but the dreams of an animal who is being raised to become a piece of meat: trite, conventional, imbecilic." aliens ancient-history anunnaki beliefs cause-and-effect chaos cognitive-dissonance cosmos dreams food human important magic manipulation matrix mind-control occult predator problems religion secrets service shamanism slavery sorcerer sorcery virus Carlos Castaneda
893be34 "...I'm afraid of what the digital age will do to the world, to the things we think are important... it's almost like people want to believe in some illusion that they're robots and forget altogether that they're real, living people... but everything these days is disposable, even people themselves, and that's why I'm afraid for the world," Mandy confessed, looking depressed and worried. "So am I... but I'll still watch all of it as the world dooms itself, because I want to see how it ends, and whether or not they'll be intelligent enough to forget all of this digital illusion afterwards," Alecto explained. "I'm sure that they'll be able to realize how wrong it all is... even though the idiots outnumber most people these days, there are still enough intelligent people to fight against it." apocalypse canada cell-phone digital dystopian earth environmental gone grief hopeless horror human lost next-generation nova-scotia robots scary technology Rebecca McNutt
9c55337 Everything has a past, a voice, existed at some point, even things as small and seemingly meaningless as a house in a huge suburb. It's a house like every other house... but at some point a family lived there, made it theirs, made it important. When people forget that history, that somebody at some point thought the house mattered, it just becomes an empty pile of nailed wood and brick and concrete that gets torn down for some strip mall or chain store to take its place... and that's what happens more and more now, everything is disposable, always replaced with no thought at all. That's where things get lost, memories get lost, humanity slips through the cracks, because when we all fail to pay attention to the things that make up our lives, we're no longer human at all, not really. earth family hope human life material together Rebecca McNutt
8cb902b "Feelings of any kind are not known to the walking dead. Every form of psychological warfare, from attempts at enraging the undead to provoking pity have all met with disaster. Joy, sadness, confidence, anxiety, love, hatred, fear--all of these feelings and thousands more that make up the human "heart" are as useless to the living dead as the organ of the same name. Who knows if this is humanity's greatest weakness or strength? The debate continues, and probably will forever." human living-dead zombie Max Brooks
5900aae "I've seen a lot of stuff... maybe I've seen too much. I see most humans in a bad light because I've seen what they can do, how evil they can be... I've seen the Holocaust and I've seen Jonestown, I've seen the Vietnam War and I've seen Hiroshima... I've seen the Chernobyl disaster... I've seen the World Trade Center attack... I've been alive too long, over a hundred years is a long time to be alive," Alecto sighed, staring at the cigarette he was holding." alive chernobyl death disaster dying earth evil grief hazardous hippie holocaust human jonestown kami lonely nature nuclear personification pollution sad smog steel vietnam-war Rebecca McNutt
e72ff9e "It was wrong to do this," said the angel. "You should live like a flower, Holding malice like a puppy, Waging war like a lambkin." "Not so," quoth the man Who had no fear of spirits; "It is only wrong for angels Who can live like the flowers, Holding malice like the puppies, Waging war like the lambkins." angels crane human lambkins wrong Stephen Crane
60a6fbc "I didn't want to be ordinary," I mumbled. My mother looked up. "What ordinary, Charley?" "You know. Someone you forget." From the other room came the squeals of children. Miss Thelma turned her chin to the sound. She smiled,"That's what keeps me from being forgotten." human ordinary-people seeking significance Mitch Albom
e781403 For your information, Lester, there are at least five wonderful parts of the female body that can be viewed by the owner only with a hand mirror. brother-sister-relationships female five genitals growing-up human human-body mirror puberty sexuality sister teenage-girl teenager woman womanhood wonderful Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
f755865 It proposed that human beings, by the act of making witness, warranted times and places for their existence other than the time and place they were living through. human E.L. Doctorow
8380434 But oh, the perils of leadership in a species so anxious to be told what to do. How little they knew of what they created by their demands. Leaders made mistakes. And those mistakes, amplified by the numbers who followed without questioning, moved inevitably toward great disasters. disaster error follow hierarchy human imperfection leadership mistakes Frank Herbert
7a6597a Somehow human authority is never enough; we must have special effects. human special-effects Barbara Ehrenreich
ebdbd99 Just because your life isn't as awful as someone else's that doesn't mean it doesn't suck. You can't compare how you feel to the way other people feel. It just doesn't work. What might look like the perfect life - or even an okay life - to you might not be so okay for the person living it. comparison depression feel feeling happiness human life people perfect-life reflection relationship sadness suck Michael Thomas Ford
1adb6c9 People never like pollution, it has become very wrong to like pollution at all. But just like there are good and bad things about people, there are good and bad things about pollution. If people were pollution we would get rid of anyone who was different, anyone who was considered an inconvenience... but we'd be getting rid of a life, a lot of lives... because we didn't like them. If pollution was a person would we still be trying to get rid of it? Would we have environmentalists still complaining and protesting and trying to get rid of all pollution? animals canada dangerous death earth environment environmentalism evil garbage help hippie hope human life litter mental-illness people plants pollution scary smog water Rebecca McNutt
814b528 When did the very first case of racism even occur? When did such blind hatred devour the souls of men and make them turn on their own brothers and sisters? What ever taught them that it was normal to be such monsters? brother hatred history human man monster morality prejudice race racism sister Rebecca McNutt
1805996 She knew only too well that the song was a beautiful lie. As soon as kitsch is recognized for the lie it is, it moves into the context of non-kitsch, thus losing its authoritarian power and becoming as touching as any other human weakness. For none among us is superman enough to escape kitsch completely. No matter how we scorn it, kitsch is an integral part of the human condition. authoritarian beauty human human-condition kitsch lie power reveal weakness Milan Kundera
b850d34 Empathy, evidently, existed only within the human community, whereas intelligence to some degree could be found throughout every phylum and order including the arachnida. For one thing, the empathic faculty probably required an unimpaired group instinct; a solitary organism, such as a spider, would have no use for it; in fact it would tend to abort a spider's ability to survive. It would make him conscious of the desire to live on the part of his prey. Hence all predators, even highly developed mammals such as cats, would starve. human predators Philip K. Dick
b8e2ac6 "An acre of poppies and a forest of spruce boggle no one's mind. Even ten square miles of wheat gladdens the hearts of most . . . No, in the plant world, and especially among the flowering plants, fecundity is not an assault on human values. Plants are not our competitors; they are our prey and our nesting materials. We are no more distressed at their proliferation than an owl is at a population explosion among field mice . . . but in the animal world things are different, and human feelings are different . . . Fecundity is anathema only in the animal. "Acres and acres of rats" has a suitably chilling ring to it that is decidedly lacking if I say, instead, "acres and acres of tulips"." gross human life nature page-164 perspective plants Annie Dillard
a66da67 On the earth, satellite of a star speeding through space, living things had arisen under the influence of conditions which were part of the planet's history; and as there had been a beginning of life upon it, so, under the influence of other conditions, there would be an end: man, no more significant than other forms of life, had come not as the climax of creation but as a physical reaction to the environment. human life man W. Somerset Maugham
d5fce86 The world had to change and for some reason the prosperity of men always results in them taking ever more from wild creatures and places. animals beasts change creatures destroy growth human humankind men nature people prosperity take time wild world Robin Hobb
93ca64e The first Abenaki word I ever learned was Bitawbagok - the word they use for Lake Champlain. It means, literally, the waters between. Since I've come back from Quebec, I have thought of my address as Bitawkdakinna. I don't know enough Abenaki to be sure it's a real word, but translated, it is the world between. I had become a bridge between the natural world and the human one. I fit into both places and belonged to neither. Half of my heart lived with the wild wolves, the other half lived with my family. civilization human natural-world wolf Jodi Picoult
e2f5312 I'm not human. I'm better. human Beth Revis
837fc03 ...that human hunger birthed the Civ'lize, but human hunger killed it too. human inspirational David Mitchell
652073d We are among the first peoples in human history who do not broadly inherit religious identity as a given, a matter of kin and tribe, like hair color and hometown. But the very fluidity of this--the possibility of choice that arises, the ability to craft and discern one's own spiritual bearings--is not leading to the decline of spiritual life but its revival. It is changing us, collectively. It is even renewing religion, and our cultural encounter with religion, in counterintuitive ways. I meet scientists who speak of a religiosity without spirituality--a reverence for the place of ritual in human life, and the value of human community, without a need for something supernaturally transcendent. There is something called the New Humanism, which is in dialogue about moral imagination and ethical passions across boundaries of belief and nonbelief. But I apprehend-- with a knowledge that is as much visceral as cognitive-- that God is love. That somehow the possibility of care that can transform us-- love muscular and resilient-- is an echo of a reality behind reality, embedded in the creative force that gives us life. belief choice community diversity energy ethics faith god human life life-force love moral-imagination mystery new-humanism nonbelief religion reverence ritual spirituality tribe wisdom Krista Tippett
a6a6e51 And that is why novels, even when they are about wicked people, can solace us: they suggest a more comprehensible and thus more manageable human race, they give us the illusion of perspicacity and of power. character-building human illusion novel novel-writing E.M. Forster
82c3b69 - Kato dete izpitvakh s'shchoto po klonite na golemite d'rveta. Da stoish prilepen do edin stvol, tolkova dreven, che i nai-drevnata choveshka pamet blednee pred nego, ti vnushava s'shchoto chuvstvo za miasto v sveta. бард bulgarian elder human longbow martin memory old philosopher philosophy riftwar saga sea tree български война древен дълголъкия дървета място памет разлом реймънд свят фийст философ човек чувство Raymond E. Feist
54a4919 "Each time we talk, he listens to me ramble, then he tries to pass on some sort of life lesson. He warns me that money is not the most important thing, contrary to the popular view on campus. He tells me I need to be "fully human." He speaks of the alienation of youth and the need for "connectedness" with the society around me." connect human lesson life money ramble society talk youth Mitch Albom
6ab4652 Human love can be only a pale reflection of the emotion that God must feel for what He has created creation emotions feelings god human love Graham Greene
d88476a Hope is a slighter, tougher thing even than trust, he thought, pacing his room as the soundless, vague lightning flashed overhead. In a good season one trusts life; in a bad season one only hopes, But they are of the same essence: they are the mind's indispensable relationship with other minds, with the world, and with time. Without trust, a man lives, but not a human life; without hope, he dies. When there is no relationship, where hands do not touch, emotion atrophies in void and intelligence goes sterile and obsessed. Between men the only link left is that of owner to slave, or murderer to victim. human murder slave trust victim Ursula K. Le Guin
3b780db A los idolos es mejor no tocarlos porque algo de la pintura dorada que los recubria se nos queda siempre entre las manos human idol love melancholy Flaubert Gustave
019a413 The human face shines as it speaks of things Near itself, thoughts full of dreams. The human face shines like a dark sky As it speaks of those things that oppress the living human living sky Robert Bly
ea739e3 Questo e tutto cio che Faunia, nel suo tono freddo e distaccato, stava dicendo alla ragazza che nutriva il serpente: noi lasciamo una macchia, lasciamo una traccia, lasciamo la nostra impronta. Impurita, crudelta, abuso, errore, escremento, seme: non c'e altro mezzo per essere qui. Nulla a che fare con la disobbedienza. Nulla a che fare con la grazia o la salvezza o la redenzione. E' in ognuno di noi. Insita. Inerente. Qualificante. La macchia che esiste prima del suo segno. Che esiste senza il segno. La macchia cosi intrinseca che non richiede un segno. La macchia che precede la disobbedienza, che comprende la disobbedienza e frustra ogni spiegazione o ogni comprensione. Ecco perche ogni purificazione e uno scherzo. Uno scherzo crudele, se e per questo. La fantasia della purezza e terrificante. E' folle. Cos'e questa brama di purificazione, se non l'aggiunta di nuove impurita? Della macchia Faunia diceva soltanto che era inevitabile. Questo, ovviamente, era il suo punto di vista: siamo creature irrimediabilmente macchiate. Rassegnata all'orribile, elementare imperfezione. american human roth stain trilogy Philip Roth
b63582a But death, too, had the power to awe, she knew this now-that a human being could be alive for years and years, thinking and breathing and eating, full of a million worries and feelings and thoughts, taking up space in the world, and then, in an instant, become absent, invisible. death feelings human human-beings life love meditation power silence thoughts worries years Jhumpa Lahiri
a690594 "Oh, trust me Sydney Tar Ponds, you aren't the first Personification to be forgotten by somebody ordinary," Mearth sighed with a falsely-reassuring smile. Alecto stepped back from her, glaring hatefully. "Sydney Tar Ponds," Mearth added, "I've had so many ordinary people as friends in my life that by now I've forgotten all their names. At first it was difficult... very sad... to see them always leaving, dying, disappearing, ignoring, but after a while I realized that they weren't worth the trouble. I'd rather be in the company of other Personifications. At least they aren't always dropping dead like houseflies or sailing away to parts unknown. Nil sa saol seo ach ceo, i ni bheimid beo, ach seal beag gearr. Wouldn't you agree?" "No," Alecto told her. "I think you're insane." death dying forget friend friendship housefly human insane irish loss memory mother-earth ordinary personification pollution sad Rebecca McNutt
ff6598d Niepowodzenia tworza ludzi albo ich lamia. failure human man niepowodzenie polish Margaret Mitchell
53d77f1 Few people know so clearly what they want. Most people can't even think what to hope for when they throw a penny in a fountain. Almost no one gets a chance to alter the course of human events on purpose, in the exact same way they wish for it to be altered. clearly destiny events fate fountain human penny wish Barbara Kingsolver
df900ed In light of this, my visits with Morrie felt like a cleansing rinse of human kindness. We talked about life and we talked about love. We talked about one of Morrie's favourite subjects, compassion and why our society had such a shortage of it. human kind life love shortage society talk visit Mitch Albom
dd51f6f And slowly a discussion begins - as Morrie has wanted all along - about the effect of silence on human relations. Why are we embarrassed by silence? What comfort do we find in all the noise? discuss effect embarrass human noise quiet relation silence Mitch Albom
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