Could anything be absurder than a man? The animal who knows everything about himself--except why he was born and the read more

Could anything be absurder than a man? The animal who knows everything about himself--except why he was born and the meaning of his unique existence.

Humanism, it seems, is almost impossible in America where material progress is part of the national romance whereas in Europe read more

Humanism, it seems, is almost impossible in America where material progress is part of the national romance whereas in Europe such progress is relished because it feels nice.

The human spirit is your specifically human dimension and contains abilities other creatures do not have. Every human is spiritual; read more

The human spirit is your specifically human dimension and contains abilities other creatures do not have. Every human is spiritual; in fact, spirit is the essence of being human. You have a body that may become ill; you have a psyche that may become disturbed. But the spirit is what you are. It is your healthy core.

Man is at the bottom an animal, midway, a citizen, and at the top, divine. But the climate of this read more

Man is at the bottom an animal, midway, a citizen, and at the top, divine. But the climate of this world is such that few ripen at the top.

For He, who gave this vast machine to roll,
Breathed Life in then, in us a Reasoning Soul;
read more

For He, who gave this vast machine to roll,
Breathed Life in then, in us a Reasoning Soul;
That kindred feelings might our state improve,
And mutual wants conduct to mutual love.

Man is physically as well as metaphysically a thing of shreds and patches, borrowed unequally from good and bad ancestors, read more

Man is physically as well as metaphysically a thing of shreds and patches, borrowed unequally from good and bad ancestors, and a misfit from the start.

Oh, God! that bread should be so dear,
And flesh and blood so cheap!

Oh, God! that bread should be so dear,
And flesh and blood so cheap!

Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore?

Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore?

He had the uneasy manner of a man who is not among his own kind, and who has not seen read more

He had the uneasy manner of a man who is not among his own kind, and who has not seen enought of the world to feel that all people are in some sense his own kind.