the impossibility of being humanall too humanthis breathingin and outout and inthese punksthese cowardsthese championsthese mad dogs of glorymoving this little bit of light towardusimpossibly.

If you keep your head screwed on right in so doing, then your experience thus gained is most valuable in enabling you to gauge human beings and their ways. (Advice in letter from 8th Duke...

john was smart, but he was also a young male with a usually empty belly. sometimes it was simple as that

For there is not a single human being, not even the primitive Negro, not even the idiot, who is so conveniently simple that his being can be explained as the sum of two or three...

Senses of humor define people, as factions, deeper rooted than religious or political opinions. When carrying out everyday tasks, opinions are rather easy to set aside, but those whom a person shares a sense of...

You only ask people about themselves so you can tell them about yourself.

Le comari a poco a poco si erano diradate, e come il paese stesso andava addormentandosi, si udiva il mare che russava li vicino, in fondo alla straduccia, e ogni tanto sbuffava, come uno che...

People often claim to hunger for truth, but seldom like the taste when it’s served up.

Human social life, I suggest, is the magma that erupts and builds up, so to speak, at the fault lines where natural human capacities meet and grind against and over natural human limitations…. This meeting...

Look at ’em,’ he said. ‘Goddam fools.’ ‘Who?’ said Ginnie. ‘I don’t know. Anybody.

The mankind neither like at all listening weak words nor seeing weak men which is an unanimous maxim that human is the workhorse of the riches and the worshiper of the power.

Regarding the need to pray, the anarch is again no different from anyone else. But he does not like to attach himself. He does not squander his best energies. He accepts no substitute for his...

Therefore it seemed a dreadful injustice that these wise races should perish at the hands of creatures who were still little more than animals. It was as if vultures feasted on and squabbled over the...

Anya looked upon Nin admirably. Having him as a partner-in-crime—if only on this one occasion, which she hoped would only be the start of something more—was more revitalizing than the cheap thrills of a cookie-cutter...

If you were destined to be a poet, then you won’t brainstorm for lines that rhymes. If you were destined to be a celebrity, then you shouldn’t start searching for fans. If you are truly...

[N]one of us drinks the chalice of our existence to the last drop. None of us is fully obedient. Each of us falls short of the human nature entrusted to us.

sometimes the human race likes to crank things up a little. They increase the production of bodies and their escaping souls.

In each of us, two natures are at war – the good and the evil. All our lives the fight goes on between them, and one of them must conquer. But in our own hands...

To do what you imply would require nothing short of divine intervention. you must change man, not systems. Can you and our vapouring friends of the Literary Chamber of Rennes, or any other learned society...

I wouldn’t live in a colony like that, myself, for a thousand dollars an hour. I wouldn’t want it next door. I’m not too happy it’s within ten miles. Why? Because their soft-headedness irritates me....

There is no limit to the amount of intelligence invested in ignorance when the need for illusion runs deep.

They thought man was a creature of rapacious self-interest, and yet they wanted him to be free- free, in essence, to contend, to engage in an umpired strife, to use property to get property.

It seems that a profound, impartial, and absolutely just opinion of our fellow-creatures is utterly unknown. Either we are men, or we are women. Either we are cold, or we are sentimental. Either we are...

It’s in our nature to want to watch our human frailties played out on a huge, epic canvas. Ancient societies had anthropomorphic gods: a huge pantheon expanding into centuries of dynastic drama: fathers and sons,...

and, indeed, nature has so made us, that we all love to be flattered and to please ourselves with our own notions

I have only to contemplate myself; man comes from nothing, passes through time, and disappears forever in the bosom of God. He is seen but for a moment wandering on the verge of two abysses,...

After us they’ll fly in hot air balloons, coat styles will change, perhaps they’ll discover a sixth sense and cultivate it, but life will remain the same, a hard life full of secrets, but happy....

The quality of a person’s character can be known partly by the attitude of his ally who likes him TRULY and, probably full, by understanding who he likes REALLY as his buddy with his behavior.

The things that make a man restless often define him and describe what he cherishes as his best in life and how much worthy he is for the trust & the respect of the rest.

All people have three characters, that which they exhibit, that which they are, and that which they think they are.

I found one day in school a boy of medium size ill-treating a smaller boy. I expostulated, but he replied: “The bigs hit me, so I hit the babies; that’s fair.” In these words he...

It’s a shame there has to be a tragedy before the best in people will finally shine.

Improvement is always on the schedule for tomorrow. Change is always taking place some time in the future. It’s human nature.

Humans like stories. Humans need stories. Stories are good. Stories work. Story clarifies and captures the essence of the human spirit. Story, in all its forms—of life, of love, of knowledge—has traced the upward surge...

Don’t reach for the halo too soon. You have plenty of time to enjoy yourself, even a little maliciously sometimes, before you settle down to being a saint.

Would it not be better if they spent more money on wholesome things like oranges and wholemeal bread or if they even, like the writer of the letter to the New Statesman, saved on fuel...

Of course boredom may lead you to anything. It is boredom sets one sticking golden pins into people, but all that would not matter. What is bad (this is my comment again) is that I...

In the future system, you will decide how your bodies look and feel, but only til then will you have the choice.

Father Brendan Flynn: “A woman was gossiping with her friend about a man whom they hardly knew – I know none of you have ever done this. That night, she had a dream: a great...

Such is the pure movement of nature prior to all reflection. Such is the force of natural pity, which the most depraved mores still have difficulty destroying, since everyday one sees in our theaters someone...

Life on earth is temporary. May we pursue peace and live in harmony with one another.

On the whole, all people are good, or at least they’re normal. The frightening thing is that they can suddenly turn bad when it comes to the crunch.

There is only one sin, only one, and that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft. When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife’s right of a...

Freedom and wildness, that which we were born into, is a grand mystery and miracle that creates a openness reserved not for barring us in but for keeping us out of cages. It is our...

The difference between impossible and possible is a willing heart.

Im Grunde sind diese Gedanken ganz ohne Bedeutung. Die Dingen geschehen eben und ich suche, wie Millionen Menschen vor mir, in ihnen einen Sinn, weil meine Eitelkeit nicht gestatten will, zuzugeben, daß der ganze Sinn...

[Snobbishness] is the desire for what divides men and the inability to value what unites them.

You shall love your crooked neighbour, with your crooked heart.

It wasn’t him speaking. It was panic, anger, fear, and confusion. But how could he show it on the outside? Men are supposed to be fearless.

Nature is trying very hard to make us succeed, but nature does not depend on us. We are not the only experiment.