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The happiness of the bee and the dolphin is
to exist. For man it is to know that and to wonder at it.
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-Jacques Cousteau
(cf. ANIMALS : Butler)
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*Picture a bright blue
ball, just spinnin', spinnin' free,
Dizzy with eternity.
Paint it with a skin of sky,
Brush in some clouds and sea,
Call it home for you and me.
A peaceful place, or so it looks from space,
A closer look reveals the human race.
Full of hope, full of grace
Is the human face,
But afraid we may lay our home to waste.
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-Grateful Dead (Bob Weir and John Barlow-
lyrics and music, Phil Lesh, Brent Mydland, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann,
Jerry Garcia)
In The Dark, 1987
"Throwing Stones"
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Maybe in order to understand mankind, we
have to look at the word itself: 'Mankind." Basically, it's made up of
two separate words - 'mank' and 'ind.' What do these words mean? It's a
mystery, and that's why so is mankind.
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-"Deep Thoughts, by Jack Handey"
Saturday Night Live
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Man is the only animal that laughs and
weeps; for he is the only animal that is struck by the difference between
what things are and what they might have been.
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-William Hazlitt
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For we are so much alike that if we know
what we do and upon what grounds--when we think, reason, hope, fear--we
learn at the same time why others behave as they do.
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-Thomas Hobbes
Leviathan, 1651
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Animals can learn, but it is not by learning
that they become dogs, cats, or horses. Only man has to learn to become
what he is supposed to be.
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-Eric Hoffer
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But it would appear most human beings have
ears, but cannot listen, have eyes, but cannot see, have minds, but
cannot think.
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-Peter de Jager
Speaking on Y2K before the Bank for International Settlements, Basle,
Switzerland, April 8, 1998
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It is silly to go on pretending that under
the skin we are all brothers. The truth is more likely that under the
skin we are all cannibals, assassins, traitors, liars, hypocrites,
poltroons.
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-Henry Miller
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We never stop investigating. We are never
satisfied that we know enough to get by. Every question we answer leads
to another question. This has become the greatest survival trick of our
species.
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-Desmond Morris
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It was not the apple on the tree, but the
pair on the ground, I believe, that caused the trouble in the garden.
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-M.D. O'Connor
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Then Man was born: . . . though all other
animals are prone, and fix their gaze upon the earth, he gave to Man an
uplifted face and bade him stand erect and turn his eyes to heaven.
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-Ovid
Metamorphosis
Qtd. in Carl Sagan's
Cosmos, 1980
Chapter X, "The Edge of Forever"
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*The world has no
painful surprise for him [the ideal man], since he has accepted long
ago just what he is to expect from the world.
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-Ayn Rand
Notes for
The Fountainhead, 1943
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*You know, it's such a
peculiar thing-our idea of mankind in general. We all have a sort of
vague, glowing picture when we say that, something solemn, big and
important. But actually all we know of it is the people we meet in
our lifetime. Look at them. Do you know any you'd feel big and solemn
about? There's nothing but housewives haggling at pushcarts, drooling
brats who write dirty words on the sidewalks, and drunken debutantes.
Or their spiritual equivalent.
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-Dominique Francon, a character in Ayn Rand's
The Fountainhead, 1943
Part 1 : Peter Keating, Ch. 12
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We have things to be proud of as humans.
No, ancient astronauts did not build the pyramids; *human beings* built
them -- because they're clever and they work hard.
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-Gene Roddenberry
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*We are like butterflies
who flutter for a day and think it is forever.
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-Carl Sagan
Cosmos, 1980
Chapter II, "One Voice in the Cosmic Fugue"
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*We are, in the most
profound sense, children of the Cosmos.
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-Carl Sagan
Cosmos, 1980
Chapter IX, "The Lives of the Stars"
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*An extraterrestrial
visitor, looking at the differences among human beings and their
societies, would find those differences [between "us" humans and "those"
humans] trivial compared to the similarities. The Cosmos may be densely
populated with intelligent beings. But the Darwinian lesson is clear:
There will be no humans elsewhere. Only here. Only on this small planet.
We are a rare as well as an endangered species. Every one of us, in the
cosmic perspective, precious. If a human disagrees with you, let him
live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another.
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-Carl Sagan
Cosmos, 1980
Chapter XIII, "Who Speaks For Earth?"
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The more I see of man, the more I like
dogs.
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-Madam de Stael
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The mass of men lead lives of quiet
desperation.
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-Henry David Thoreau
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I know of no more encouraging fact than
the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious
endeavor.
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-Henry David Thoreau
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Man--a creature made at the end of the
week's work when God was tired.
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-Mark Twain
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