Mankind
QUOTES
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The interdependency of humankind, the relevance
of relationship, the sacredness of creation is
ancient, ancient wisdom.
-- Rebecca Adamson
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The indigenous understanding has its basis of
spirituality in a recognition of the interconnectedness
and interdependence of all living things, a holistic
and balanced view of the world. All things are
bound together. All things connect. What happens
to the Earth happens to the children of the earth.
Humankind has not woven the web of life; we are
but one thread. Whatever we do to the web, we
do to ourselves.
-- Rebecca Adamson
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"There
is a Law that man should love his neighbor as himself.
In a few hundred years it should be as natural to mankind
as breathing or the upright gait;
but if he does not learn it he must perish."
-- Alfred Adler
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In
some ways more painful is the fact that their
experience appears to be fading from the collective
memory of humankind. Having never experienced
an atomic bombing, the vast majority around the
world can only vaguely imagine such horror, and
these days, John Hersey’s Hiroshima and Jonathan
Schell’s The Fate of the Earth are all but forgotten.
As predicted by the saying, ‘Those who cannot
remember the past are condemned to repeat it,’
the probability that nuclear weapons will be used
and the danger of nuclear war are increasing.”
-- Mayor Tadatoshi
Akiba
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If the entire history of mankind were condensed
into a single year, our knowledge of how to destroy
life on earth with weapons of mass destruction has
been acquired in the last thirty seconds. Never
again will we lack the knowledge to eliminate the
world in a single act of madness. Therefore, we
are faced with a dilemma unique in our history.
We must not only control the weapons that can kill
us, we must bridge the great disparities of wealth
and opportunity among the peoples of the world,
the vast majority of whom live in poverty without
hope, opportunity or choices in life. These conditions
are a breeding ground for division that can cause
a desperate people to resort to nuclear weapons
as a last resort. Our only hope lies in the power
of our love, generosity, tolerance and understanding
and our commitment to making the world a better
place for all...
-- Muhammad Ali
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Since the beginning, Native Peoples lived a life
of being in harmony with all that surrounds us.
It is a belief that all humankind are related to
each other. Each has a purpose, spirit and sacredness.
It is an understanding with the Great Spirit or
Creator that we will follow these ways. And in this
understanding we believe we are related to all other
living species...
-- Dennis
Banks |
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Today social justice represents one of the most
serious challenges to the conscience of the world.
The abyss between those who are within the world
'order' and those who are excluded is widening
day by day. The use of leading-edge technologies
has made it possible to accumulate wealth in a
way that is fantastic but perverse because it
is unjustly distributed. Twenty-percent of humankind
control eighty percent of all means of life. That
fact creates a dangerous imbalance in the movement
of history.
-- Leonardo Boff
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…the first essential component of social justice
is adequate food for all mankind. Food is the
moral right of all who are born into this world.
-- Norman Borlaug
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Internal
peace is an essential first step to achieving
peace in the world. How do you cultivate it? It's
very simple. In the first place by realizing clearly
that all mankind is one, that human beings in
every country are members of one and the same
family. - The
Dalai Lama
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"I
believe that to meet the challenge of our times,
human beings will have to develop a greater sense
of universal responsibility. We must all learn
to work not just for our own self, family, or
nation but for the benefit of all humankind. Universal
responsibility is the key to human survival. It
is the best foundation for world peace, the equitable
use of natural resources, and through concern
for future generations, the proper care of the
environment."
-- The
Dalai Lama
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Today's
world is one in which the age-old risks of humankind
- the drought, floods, communicable diseases - are
less of a problem than ever before. They have been
replaced by risks of humanity's own making - the
unintended side-effects of beneficial technologies
and the intended effects of the technologies of
war. Society must hope that the world's ability
to assess and manage risks will keep pace with its
ability to create them.
~ J. Clarence Davies |
No
man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece
of the continent …
any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved
in mankind;
and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
it tolls for thee.
-- John Donne
“The
splitting of the atom has changed everything except
the way we think. Thus we drift toward unparalleled
catastrophe. We shall require a substantially
new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive.”
--
Albert Einstein
Any
power must be an enemy of mankind which enslaves
the individual by terror and force, whether it
arises under the Fascist or the Communist flag.
All that is valuable in human society depends
upon the opportunity for development accorded
to the individual.
-- Albert Einstein
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It
is the ignorant and childish part of mankind that
is the fighting part. Idle and vacant minds want
excitement
~ Ralph Waldo
Emerson
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"Whilst
so much is being done in the world, to ameliorate
the condition of mankind, and the spirit of Freedom
is marching with rapid strides and causing tyrants
to tremble, may America awake from the apathy
in which she has long slumbered."
-- James Forten
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When
will mankind be convinced and agree to settle
their difficulties by arbitration?
-- Benjamin Franklin
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Nonviolence,
therefore, can be described as an honest and diligent
pursuit of truth. It could also mean the search
for the meaning of life or the purpose of life,
questions that have tormented humankind for centuries.
The fact that we have not been able to find satisfactory
answers to these questions does not mean there
is no answer. It only means we have not searched
with any degree of honesty. The search has to
be both external and internal. We seek to ignore
this crucial search because the sacrifices it
demands are revolutionary. It means moving away
from greed, selfishness, possessiveness, and dominance
to love, compassion, understanding, and respect.
-- Arun Gandhi
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My
life is an indivisible whole, and all my attitudes
run into one another; and they all have their
rise in my insatiable love for mankind.
-- Mohandas K.
Gandhi
"Nonviolence
is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind.
It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction
devised by the ingenuity of man."
-- Mohandas
K. Gandhi
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...convince
all nuclear powers, including those which have
been more reluctant up to now, of the necessity
to respect the "vital interests" of all peoples
and to become fully aware of the profound truth
of the following conclusion which the United Nations
approved by unanimity four years ago: "Mankind
is confronted with a choice: we must halt the
arms race and proceed to disarmament or face annihilation".
~ Alfonso García
Robles
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The
UN wasn’t created to take mankind into paradise,
but rather, to save humanity from hell.
-- Dag
Hammarskjöld
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I would like to appeal to all those in whose hands
the future of mankind lies, to use their power
not to destroy or kill, nor to create suffering
in a grasping search for selfish objectives, but
to help alleviate the plight of the needy; to
aim at justice and freedom for the individual.
-- Poul Hartling
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In
the dark, equality for all of mankind couldn't seem
brighter.
-- Robert M. Hensel
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For the first time in the history of mankind,
one generation literally has the power to destroy
the past, the present and the future, the power
to bring time to an end
-- Hubert Humphrey
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The
goal toward which all history tends is peace,
not peace through the medium of war, not peace
through a process of universal intimidation, not
peace through a program of mutual impoverishment,
not peace by any means that leaves the world too
weak or too frightened to go on fighting, but
peace pure and simple based on that will to peace
which has animated the overwhelming majority of
mankind through countless ages. This will to peace
does not arise out of a cowardly desire to preserve
one's life and property, but out of conviction
that the fullest development of the highest powers
of men can be achieved only in a world of peace.
-- Robert Maynard
Hutchins (1899-1977)
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...the
fullest development of the highest powers of men
can be achieved only in a world of peace.
-- Robert Maynard
Hutchins
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There
is so much each one of us can do to make a difference.
We are at a dangerous juncture in the history
of mankind. … We need to defend our principles
and values, human rights, civil liberties and
the rule of international law. If we don’t our
world will further descend into a state of chaos.
-- Bianca Jagger
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Peace
and friendship with all mankind is our wisest
policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue
it.
-- Thomas Jefferson
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In
times of danger large groups rise to the highest
pitch of enthusiasm, courage and sacrifice . .
. Mankind will be refashioned and history rewritten
when this law is understood and obeyed.
-- Helen Keller
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The war against hunger is truly mankind's war
of liberation.
-- John F.
Kennedy
Never
before has man had such capacity to control his
own environment, to end thirst and hunger, to
conquer poverty and disease, to banish illiteracy
and massive human misery. We have the power to
make this the best generation of mankind in the
history of the world -- or to make it the last.
-- John F.
Kennedy
"Mankind
must put an end to war, or war will put an end
to mankind...War will exist until that distant
day when the conscientious objector enjoys the
same reputation and prestige that the warrior
does today."
--John F.
Kennedy
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Where
are the unusual individuals, the daring pioneers,
who will devote their lives to making a better
history for humanity? In order to create a new
history for mankind, human beings will first have
to create a new history within themselves. They
will have to liberate themselves from national,
religious, racial, and class prejudices and from
enslavement to honor, fame, and pleasure...
-- Frederick Kettner
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I
refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically
bound to the starless midnight of racism and war
that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood
can never become a reality.... I believe that
unarmed truth and unconditional love will have
the final word. -- Martin
Luther King, Jr
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Why should there be hunger and deprivation in
any land, in any city, at any table, when man
has the resources and the scientific know-how
to provide all mankind with the basic necessities
of life? There is no deficit in human resources.
The deficit is in human will. --
Martin Luther
King, Jr
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"If
people destroy something replaceable made by mankind,
they are called vandals;
if they destroy something irreplaceable made by God,
they are called developers."
~ Joseph Wood Krutch
If
we could raise one generation with unconditional love,
there would be no Hitlers…
Mankind's greatest gift, also its greatest curse, is
that we have free choice.
We can make our choices built from love or from fear.
--Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
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Internationalism
is a community theory of society which is founded
on economic, spiritual, and biological facts.
It maintains that respect for a healthy development
of human society and of world civilization requires
that mankind be organized internationally. Nationalities
should form the constitutive links in a great
world alliance, and must be guaranteed an independent
life in the realm of the spiritual and for locally
delimited tasks, while economic and political
objectives must be guided internationally in a
spirit of peaceful cooperation for the promotion
of mankind's common interests. -- Christian
Lange
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Civilization
has ceased to be that delicate flower which was
preserved and painstakingly cultivated in one or
two sheltered areas of a soil rich in wild species
... Mankind has opted for monoculture; it is in
the process of creating a mass civilization, as
beetroot is grown in the mass. Henceforth, man's
daily bill of fare will consist only of this one
item.
-- Claude Levi-Strauss |
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All
mankind... being all equal and independent, no
one ought to harm another in his life, health,
liberty or possessions.
-- John Locke
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nuclear
bombs have made mass murder a reality. Nuclear
bombs threaten humankind.
--
Bernard Lown
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"We
can work together for a better world with men
and women of goodwill, those who radiate the intrinsic
goodness of humankind."
-- Wangari Maathai
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"It
is wrong to suppose the world was created primarily
to serve mankind's purposes and pleasures. A conviction
about having dominion over land and water and living
things breeds ideas of unwarranted self importance.
It is a sobering thought that man's place in Nature's
scheme is, after all, a small one."
~ J. Grant MacEwan
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...recognize and respect Earth’s beautiful systems
of balance, between the presence of animals on
land, the fish in the sea, birds in the air, mankind,
water, air, and land. Most importantly there must
always be awareness of the actions by people that
can disturb this precious balance."
-- Margaret Mead
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The reasons for legal intervention in favour of
children apply not less strongly to the case of
those unfortunate slaves and victims of the most
brutal part of mankind - the lower animals.
-- John Stuart Mill
The
fatal tendency of mankind to leave off thinking
about a thing when it is no longer doubtful, is
the cause of half their errors.
-- John Stuart Mill
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"If
I knew something that would serve my country but would
harm mankind, I would never reveal it; for I am a citizen
of humanity first and by necessity, and a citizen of
France second, and only by accident"
-- Charles de Montesquieu
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Our
immediate striving must be aimed at preventing
what, in the present situation, is the greatest
threat to the very survival of mankind, the nuclear
threat.
-- Alva Myrdal
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"The fate of the living planet
is the most important issue facing mankind."
~ Gaylord Nelson
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"The
World is my country, all mankind are my brethren,
and to do good is my religion."
-- Thomas Paine
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We
are privileged to have the opportunity of contributing
to the achievement of the goal of the abolition
of war and its replacement by world law. I am confident
that we shall succeed in this great task; that the
world community will thereby be freed not only from
the suffering caused by war but also through the
better use of the earth's resources, of the discoveries
of scientists, and of the efforts of mankind, from
hunger, disease, illiteracy, and fear; and that
we shall in the course of time be enabled to build
a world characterized by economic, political, and
social justice for all human beings and a culture
worthy of man's intelligence.
-- Linus Pauling
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No
more war, war never again! Peace, it is peace which
must guide the destinies of people and of all mankind.
-- Pope Paul VI
"In
faith and hope the world will disagree,
But all mankind's concern is charity."
-- Alexander Pope
"What
may be possible for a minority of humankind, albeit at
great cost, simply cannot work for the humankind. Our
kind of progress depends on lacerating the Earth, on gouging
out its riches, on stripping is life-sustaining skin of
soil and forest, on poisoning its pure air, on defecating
copiously in its pure water... the single most important
indicator of environmental decline is the extent to which
the damage done is reversible. The most heinous ecological
crime of all is for any one generation so seriously to
assault the web of life that the damage done is literally
irreversible for every generation that follows."
~ Jonathon Porritt
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Great
thoughts speak only to the thoughtful mind, but
great actions speak to all mankind.
-- Theodore
Roosevelt
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Technology
is driving us together. In many ways we are becoming
like one family. With the global threats resulting
from science and technology, the whole of humankind
now needs protection. We have to extend our loyalty
to the whole of the human race. -- Joseph
Rotblat
Whatever
system of governance is eventually adopted, it
is important that it carries the people with it.
We need to convey the message that safeguarding
our common property, humankind, will require developing
in each of us a new loyalty: a loyalty to mankind.
It calls for the nurturing of a feeling of belonging
to the human race. We have to become world citizens.
-- Joseph Rotblat
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"Until mankind can extend the circle of his compassion
to include all living things, he will never, himself,
know peace." ~ Albert
Schweitzer
Compassion,
in which all ethics must take root, can only attain
its full breadth and depth if it embraces all
living creatures and does not limit itself to
mankind. -- Albert
Schweitzer
Because
I have confidence in the power of truth, and of
the spirit, I have confidence in the future of
mankind. -- Albert
Schweitzer
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Humankind
has not woven the web of life. We are but one
thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we
do to ourselves. All things are bound together.
All things connect.
~ Chief Seattle
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Perhaps
the greatest social service that can be rendered
by anybody to this country and to mankind is to
bring up a family.
-- George Bernard
Shaw
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All
for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems,
in every age of the world,
to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.
-- Adam Smith
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Most
of the luxuries, and many of the so-called comforts
of life, are not only not indispensable, but positive
hindrances to the elevation of mankind. With respect
to luxuries and comforts, the wisest have even
lived a more simple and meagre life than the poor.
-- Henry David
Thoreau
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We
have now reached the stage where disarmament alone,
although an absolute necessity, is not enough.
The stockpiles of arms are in themselves a mortal
threat to mankind but there are also other threats
to our existence.Disarmament for peace is not
sufficient: it must be supported by development
for peace.
-- Inga
Thorsson
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It
is sufficient that people should understand that
what is enunciated to them as public opinion, and
maintained by such complex, energetic, and artificial
means, is not public opinion, but only the lifeless
outcome of what was once public opinion; and, what
is more important, it is sufficient that they should
have faith in themselves, that they should believe
that what they are conscious of in the depths of
their souls, what in every one is pressing for expression,
and is only not expressed because it contradicts
the public opinion supposed to exist, is the power
which transforms the world, and to express which
is the mission of mankind...
-- Leo Tolstoy
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Humor is mankind's greatest blessing.
-- Mark Twain
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"We,
the peoples of the United Nations, determined
to save succeeding generations from the scourge
of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought
untold sorrow to mankind, and to reaffirm faith
in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and
worth of the human person, in the equal right
of men and women and of nations large and small....And
for these ends to practice tolerance and live
together in peace with one another as good neighbors...have
resolved to combine our efforts to accomplish
these aims."
-- Preamble, Charter of the United Nations.
Nonviolent
revolution does not seek the liberation simply
of a class or race or nation. It seeks the liberation
of mankind…
-- Council of the War Resisters' International
It
is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must
become the enemy of the rest of mankind.
-- Voltaire
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In many parts of the world the people are searching
for a solution which would link the two basic
values: peace and justice. The two are like bread
and salt for mankind.
-- Lech Walesa
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Mankind
needs peace more than ever, for our entire planet,
threatened by nuclear war, is in danger of total
destruction. A destruction only man can provoke,
only man can prevent.
-- Elie Wiesel
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The question of armaments, whether on land or
sea, is the most immediately and intensely practical
question connected with the future fortunes of
nations and of mankind.
-- Woodrow
Wilson
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If
we are to have faith that mankind will survive
and thrive on the face of the earth, we must believe
that each succeeding generation will be wiser
than its progenitors. We transmit to you, the
next generation, the total sum of our knowledge.
Yours is the responsibility to use it, add to
it, and transmit it to your children.
-- Rosalyn Yalow
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