Best 80 quotes in «humanist quotes» category

Sacrifice everything that is yours, to call up the humans in others.

Self is All. (First Principle of Humanism)

Sentiments that glorify humanity know no racial distinction.

Someone said to me the other day 'you should have some fun in life, instead of just working all the time'. I replied to the person 'you may have the luxury to have fun, but I can't even dream of having fun while my own humanity is tormented with countless forms of misery.

The human heart is first a human heart, then everything else - American, Christian, Asian, Jew, or whatever.

Success for me will be the day when all humans everywhere will stand up with a sense of unity and call themselves humans above everything else.

The black, the white, the brown, the red, the yellow, the hetero, the homo, the trans, the poor, the rich, the literate, the illiterate, the weak, the strong – all are my sisters and brothers. My life is their life. And till the last breath in my body, I shall be serving you all with all the power in my veins. And beyond death, my ideas shall be serving you for eternity.

The goodness of people depends on the intentions of their brains and not on their religion or ancestry.

The humanitarian philosophies that have been developed (sometimes under some religious banner and invariably in the face of religious opposition) are human inventions, as the name implies - and our species deserves the credit. I am a devout atheist - nothing else makes any sense to me and I must admit to being bewildered by those, who in the face of what appears so obvious, still believe in a mystical creator. However I can see that the promise of infinite immortality is a more palatable proposition than the absolute certainty of finite mortality which those of us who are subject to free thought (as opposed to free will) have to look forward to and many may not have the strength of character to accept it. Thus I am a supporter of Amnesty International, a humanist and an atheist. I believe in a secular, democratic society in which women and men have total equality, and individuals can pursue their lives as they wish, free of constraints - religious or otherwise. I feel that the difficult ethical and social problems which invariably arise must be solved, as best they can, by discussion and am opposed to the crude simplistic application of dogmatic rules invented in past millennia and ascribed to a plethora of mystical creators - or the latest invention; a single creator masquerading under a plethora of pseudonyms. Organisations which seek political influence by co-ordinated effort disturb me and thus I believe religious and related pressure groups which operate in this way are acting antidemocratically and should play no part in politics. I also have problems with those who preach racist and related ideologies which seem almost indistinguishable from nationalism, patriotism and religious conviction.

There is only one label worth fighting for, nay, not fighting for, that is “human”.

There are two kinds of people in the world - those who make things happen and those who watch things happen.

The world does not need more pestilential misogynistic pricks to Christianize, Muslimize or basically dogmatize the society – the world needs passionate courageous souls to humanize the society.

They say, love God, for it is the greatest virtue. I say, love humans, for there is no greater virtue, no greater religion, than the love of humanity.

We don't have the luxury to say that, there is no hope for reform in Islam, because by saying this, we would be disavowing the entire peace-loving Muslim population of the world. We cannot leave our Muslim sisters and brothers behind to be oppressed by their own priestly tyrants, while the rest of the world keeps progressing with an open mind. The entire civilized society of the world, must put their heart and soul to get Islam liberated from the shackles of fundamentalism. Conscience must triumph over orthodox barbarianism, otherwise there would be no hope for the progress and wellbeing of humanity as a truly wise species.

...The existence or non-existence of an undefined 'god' are quite pointless. [From 'Why I am a Secular Humanist']

The same Sermon on the Mount that influenced Tolstoy to write “The Kingdom of God is Within You”, inspired me to a great extent in my work “Principia Humanitas”.

The terms “humanism” and “religion” are essentially one and the same thing, yet a whole so-called human lifetime is not enough for most humans to actually fathom this simple mortal revelation.

The 'tragedy' of the slow growth of immortalism pertains mostly to them, and perhaps to you – not so much to me or to us, the committed immortalists. We already have made our arrangements for cryostasis after clinical death – signed our contracts with existing organizations and allocated the money. We will have our chance, and with a little bit of luck will 'taste the wine of centuries unborn'.

Women are not there to spike testosterone.

The truth is only a few hundred people are at the top of the media infrastructure…in America, and their worldview is what gets delivered to the people. It isn’t necessarily that there is a conspiracy…a humanist will promote humanist values. If we choose to see it as a conspiracy, we will demonize those we find to be culpable and will lack the insight necessary to instigate change.

You are the Jehovah of goodness, Allah of brotherhood, Buddha of reasoning and Krishna of love. And that’s more than enough gods, that the world will ever need.

At one point, 'feminist' became a pejorative term. How did that happen? If you're a feminist, you're basically saying you're a humanist.

You may be James the American, or Mary the British, or anything else, but before all that, you are a human.

Bertrand Russell started off as a mathematician and then degenerated into a philosopher and finally into a humanist; he went downhill rapidly!

Change comes from power, and power comes from organization. In order to act, people must get together.

Education no longer has a humanist end or any value in itself; it has only one goal, to create technicians.

WE SHOULD ALL BE HUMANISTS. So I had this conversation with a friend and I am of the view that, we need no tags to speak against violence of all sorts. We need no tags to love and protect ourselves. We need no tags to do the right thing. We need no tags to treat each other fairly. We need no tags to be our neighbours’ keeper. We need no tags to stand up for what is right. We need no tags to demand for justice. We need no tags to punish offenders. We need no tags to live in harmony. All we need is a defined standard of acceptable behaviour. All we need is to properly and promptly determine who has stepped out of the defined boundary. All we need is to mete out prescribed punishment to defaulters without fear or favour. There can be no different identities. We are all humans, male or female. We need nothing more than our humanity. WE SHOULD ALL BE HUMANISTS.

Humanism involves far more than the negation of supernaturalism. It requires an affirmative philosophy . . . translated into a life devoted to one's own improvement and the service of all mankind.

I'm a humanist. I'm an observer. I have a very scientific mind. I believe metaphysics and science absolutely blended are more the truth for me. It doesn't work just believing in what somebody says.

I am a humanist not a feminist. Theres a big difference.

I'm very much a humanist. I'm very much pro-choice. I'm very much politically correct.

I'm a humanist and an optimist.

Intellect, without heart, is infinitely cruel. . . .

I'm a humanist; I'd rather kill a man than a snake.

Jewish intellectuals contributed a great deal to insure that Europe became a continent of humanism, and it is with these humanist ideals that Europe must now intervene in the Middle East conflict.

The present age has seen a great slump in humanist values.

The only difference between a Religious Humanist and a Secular Humanist is what they do on Sunday.

The true humanist maintains a just balance between sympathy and selection.

The gospel shows a God far more holy than the legalist can bear, yet far more merciful than a humanist can conceive

We now live in a secular humanist theocracy. I want to change that to a government with God at its head.

All humans are images of your own self - their pain is your pain - their misery is your misery - their sorrows are your sorrows - so rise and be the hope, help and joy in their lives!

We are a nation of 20 million bathrooms, with a humanist in every tub.

Yet humanitarianism is not a purely Christian movement any more than it is a purely humanist one

As a citizen of the world, I stand only with Truth and my conscience is my only leader. This is the only way to peace and justice on earth. To always do the right thing, be the right person, and stand with whoever is right always and forever.

Call up the ever-pure, the effulgent and the ever-radiant character of true humanism in yourself and in others, and no racism shall have the power to thrive in such society even for a few seconds.

Be a human being and you'd automatically be religious, but if you try to be a scripture-worm then you'd be neither religious, nor human – you’d be a biological bag of trash.

Arise O lion-heart! Awake, O great soldier! Misery has come upon the world. It is wailing for help. It is wailing for redemption. Won’t you do anything, my friend!

Come my friend. Come and walk with me in the path ahead that awaits you with open arms – the path of humanism – the path where every pedestrian is simply a human, not a Christian, Jew, Hindu, Muslim, Atheist, Mexican, American, Canadian, British, Australian, Russian, Asian, African, European or anything else.

Don't take life so serious. It ain't nohow permanent.

Everyone is mad for something, I am mad for everyone.