At 12, I knew that the point of being human was to spend…

The concept of humanity is an especially useful ideological instrument of imperialist expansion, and in its ethical-humanitarian form it is a specific vehicle of…

— Carl Schmitt

We began as mineral. We emerged into plant life, and into the animal state, and then into being human, and always we have forgotten…

— Rumi

“There are no greater or truer lords, gods, fathers, sons or holy spirits, than the humans. Humans are the highest beings on earth.”

— Abhijit Naskar

Being human, we would expel from our lives physical pain and mental anguish and assure ourselves of continual ease and comfort, but if we…

— Spencer W. Kimball

We’re built to deal with death, disease, failure, struggle, heartbreak, problems. It’s what separates us from the animals and why we envy and love…

— Marc Maron

“There are countless reasons to be jealous. But that doesn’t mean you have to succumb to them.”

— Beth Revis

“I honour the clarity of the present moment, and the stillness at the centre of being (mine & others), even in the midst of…

— Jay Woodman

It's the strangest thing about being human: to know so much, to communicate so much, and yet always to fall so drastically short of…

— Claire Messud

Virtue is something you have to get good at, like playing the trombone or tolerating bores at parties. Being a virtuous human being takes…

— Terry Eagleton

Heartbreak is our indication of sincerity: in a love relationship, in a work, in trying to learn a musical instrument, in the attempt to…

— David Whyte

The Gnostics believed that exile was the essential condition of man. Do you agree? I do. The artist and the addict both wrestle with…

— Steven Pressfield

“Either way, you were connected. By your desires. By your defiance. By the simple, complicated fact of who you were.”

— David Levithan

“...something can be a good thing and yet not a necessary thing. It is good for people to be expert at brain surgery. But…

— Victor Lee Austin

I have no interest in problematizing things. So what I am writing to is that simple sense of being human in myself.

— Ayad Akhtar

Those who have ever valued liberty for its own sake believed that to be free to choose, and not to be chosen for, is…

— Isaiah Berlin