The Quotes canon
Sourced and curated.
Every quote has been curated by hand and carefully authenticated.
Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Nature of man36 quotes
There are many wonderful things, and nothing is more wonderful than man. — Sophocles · 441 BCMan is the measure of all things. — Protagoras · 420 BCI think, therefore I am. — Rene Descartes · 1637Of all the creatures that breathe and move across the earth, there is nothing feebler than man. — Homer · 700 BCMan is a social animal. — Baruch Spinoza · 1677What a chimera then is man! What a novelty! What a monster, what a chaos, what a contradiction, what a prodigy! Judge of all things, feeble earth-worn, depository of truth, a sink of uncertainty and error, the glory and the shame of the universe. — Blaise Pascal · 1670All 36 quotes →Man and animals6 quotes
There are many wonderful things, and nothing is more wonderful than man. — Sophocles · 441 BCMan is a Tool-using Animal...without Tools he is nothing, with Tools he is all. — Thomas Carlyle · 1834Man is a reasoning animal. — Seneca · 65Is man an ape or an angel? My Lord, I am on the side of the angels. — Benjamin Disraeli · 1864Man differs more from man, than man from beast. — John Wilmot · 1679Man, biologically considered, and whatever else he may be in the bargain, is simply the most formidable of all the beasts of prey, and, indeed, the only one that preys systematically on its own species. — William James · 1904Freedom2 quotes
No man who knows aught, can be so stupid to deny that all men naturally were born free. — John Milton · 1649I am as free as nature first made man,
Ere the base laws of servitude began,
When wild in woods the noble savage ran. — John Dryden · 1670Man as social animal2 quotes
Man is a social animal. — Baruch Spinoza · 1677Man was formed for society. — William Blackstone · 1765Reason2 quotes
It's our wits that make us men. — Malcom Wallace · 1995Man is a reasoning animal. — Seneca · 65The human condition2 quotes
Man is a rope stretched between the animal and the Superman-a rope over an abyss. — Friedrich Nietzsche · 1883Know then thyself, presume not God to scan,
The proper study of mankind is man.
Placed on this isthmus of a middle state,
A being darkly wise, and rudely great:
With too much knowledge for the skeptic side,
With too much weakness for the stoic's pride,
He hangs between; in doubt to act, or rest;
In doubt to deem himself a god or beast;
In doubt his mind or body to prefer;
Born but to die, and reas'ning but to err;
Alike in ignorance, his reason such,
Whether he thinks too little or too much;
Chaos of thought and passion, all confused;
Still by himself abused, or disabused;
Created half to rise, and half to fall;
Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;
Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled;
The glory, jest, and riddle of the world! — Alexander Pope · 1733Adaptability1 quote
Man is a creature that can get used to anything, and I think that is the best definition of him. — Fyodor Dostoevsky · 1860Beliefs1 quote
Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones. — Bertrand Russell · 1950Contradictory nature of man1 quote
Truly man is a marvelously vain, diverse, and undulating object. It is hard to found any constant and uniform judgement on him. — Michel de Montaigne · 1580Cooking1 quote
My definition of Man is, "a Cooking Animal." The beasts have memory, judgment, and all the faculties and passions of our mind, in a certain degree; but no beast is a cook... Man alone can dress a good dish; and every man whatever is more or less a cook, in seasoning what he himself eats. — James Boswell · 1773Credulity1 quote
Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones. — Bertrand Russell · 1950Duality of man1 quote
What a chimera then is man! What a novelty! What a monster, what a chaos, what a contradiction, what a prodigy! Judge of all things, feeble earth-worn, depository of truth, a sink of uncertainty and error, the glory and the shame of the universe. — Blaise Pascal · 1670Evolution1 quote
Man is the result of a purposeless and materialistic process that did not have him in mind. — George Gaylord Simpson · 1949Food1 quote
My definition of Man is, "a Cooking Animal." The beasts have memory, judgment, and all the faculties and passions of our mind, in a certain degree; but no beast is a cook... Man alone can dress a good dish; and every man whatever is more or less a cook, in seasoning what he himself eats. — James Boswell · 1773Free will1 quote
"You", your joys and your sorrows, your memories and ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behaviour of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules. — Francis Crick · 1994Human frailty1 quote
Of all the creatures that breathe and move across the earth, there is nothing feebler than man. — Homer · 700 BCHuman nature1 quote
Men are good in but one way, but bad in many. — Aristotle · 350 BCHuman origins1 quote
Man is the result of a purposeless and materialistic process that did not have him in mind. — George Gaylord Simpson · 1949Man and nature1 quote
Man is only a reed, the weakest thing in nature; but he is a thinking reed. — Blaise Pascal · 1662Man and the universe1 quote
I
a universe of atoms
an atom in the universe. — Richard Feynman · 1955Man's cruelty to man1 quote
Man, biologically considered, and whatever else he may be in the bargain, is simply the most formidable of all the beasts of prey, and, indeed, the only one that preys systematically on its own species. — William James · 1904Noble savage1 quote
I am as free as nature first made man,
Ere the base laws of servitude began,
When wild in woods the noble savage ran. — John Dryden · 1670Political theory1 quote
Man being...by nature all free, equal, and independent, no one can be put out of this estate and subjected to the political power of another without his own consent. — John Locke · 1690Politics1 quote
Man being...by nature all free, equal, and independent, no one can be put out of this estate and subjected to the political power of another without his own consent. — John Locke · 1690Scientism1 quote
To say, for example, that a man is made up of certain chemical elements is a satisfactory description only for those who intend to use him as a fertilizer. — Hermann Joseph Muller · 1943The soul1 quote
"You", your joys and your sorrows, your memories and ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behaviour of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules. — Francis Crick · 1994Tools1 quote
Man is a Tool-using Animal...without Tools he is nothing, with Tools he is all. — Thomas Carlyle · 1834