Human Life Quotes

“The notion that human life is sacred just because it is human life is medieval.”
― Peter Singer

“The lifetime of a human being is measured by decades, the lifetime of the Sun is a hundred million times longer. Compared to a star, we are like mayflies, fleeting ephemeral creatures who live out their lives in the course of a single day.”
― Carl Sagan, Cosmos

“Jason took me by the shoulders—not out of anger, or in a clinging way, but as a brother. “Promise me one thing. Whatever happens, when you get back to Olympus, when you’re a god again, remember. Remember what it’s like to be human.”
A few weeks ago, I would have scoffed. Why would I want to remember any of this?
At best, if I were lucky enough to reclaim my divine throne, I would recall this wretched experience like a scary B-movie that had finally ended. I would walk out of the cinema into the sunlight, thinking Phew! Glad that’s over.
Now, however, I had some inkling of what Jason meant. I had learned a lot about human frailty and human strength. I felt…different toward mortals, having been one of them. If nothing else, it would provide me with some excellent inspiration for new song lyrics!”
― Rick Riordan, The Burning Maze

“Profit should never come at the cost of human blood. Any government that places profit before people is pure evil.”
― Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem

“Faith is a marvel, and yet no human being is excluded from it; for that in which all human life is united is passion, and faith is a passion.”
― Søren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling

“Capitalism is a social system owned by the capitalistic class, a small network of very wealthy and powerful businessmen, who compromise the health and security of the general population for corporate gain.”
― Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem

“வானம் மனிதனை எப்போதுமே பெரும் கனவில் ஆழ்த்துகிறது. அவனது வாழ்க்கையின் வெற்றிதோல்விகள் சுக துக்கங்கள் அனைத்துமே மண்ணுடன் சம்பந்தப்பட்டவை. அதற்கு அப்பால் பிரமாண்டமான அலட்சியத்துடன் வெளித்து கிடக்கிறது வானம். நம் வாழ்க்கையும், இந்த பூமியும் எத்தனை அற்பமானவை என அது நம்மிடம் சொல்லிக் கொண்டிருக்கிறது”
― Jeyamohan

“Humility is a virtue of the heavenly, not arrogance. Are we the most superior beast on earth? No, not in strength and not in intelligence. It is very arrogant to assume that we are the most intelligent species when we keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again. Both rats and monkeys have been shown to learn from error, yet we have not. More people have died in the name of religion than any other cause on earth. Is massacring God’s creations really serving God – or the devil? And what father would want to see his children constantly divided and fighting? What God would allow a single human life to be sacrificed for monetary gain? Again, the Creator or the devil?”
― Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem

“Human life is worth preserving. But human lives? They come and go like so much chaff, never tipping the scales."
"What a remarkable calculation," said Nikolai. "And a convenient one for a mass murderer.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Rule of Wolves

“Giving is the master key to success, in all applications of human life.”
― Bryant McGill, Voice of Reason

“[...] But then,
What is not vain, by God, in lives of men?
All is in vain! We play at blind man's buff
Until hard edges break into out path.
Man life's is error. Where, then, is relief?
In shedding tears or wrestling down my grief?”
― Jan Kochanowski, Treny

“Endangering human life for profit should be a universal crime.”
― Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem

“A human being becomes human not through the casual convergence of certain biological conditions, but through an act of will and love on the part of other people. If this is not the case, then humanity becomes — as it is already to a large extent — no more than a rabbit-warren. But this is no longer a “free-range” warren but a “battery” one, in the conditions of artificiality in which it lives, with artificial light and chemical feed.”
― Italo Calvino, Italo Calvino: Letters, 1941-1985 - Updated Edition

“He drew from under the table a sheet of strangely scented yellow-Chinese paper, the brushes, and slab of India ink. In cleanest, severest outline he had traced the Great Wheel with its six spokes, whose centre is the conjoined Hog, Snake, and Dove (Ignorance, Anger, and Lust), and whose compartments are all the heavens and hells, and all the chances of human life.”
― Rudyard Kipling, Kim

“If I spoke to Rodman in those terms, saying that my grandparents' lives seem to me organic and ours what? hydroponic? he would ask in derision what I meant. Define my terms. How do you measure the organic residue of a man or a generation? This is all metaphor. If you can't measure it, it doesn't exist.”
― Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose

“Just imagine, among 8.7 million species, only one has become smart enough to ponder over the meaning of life. This simple evolutionary fact itself implies the gravitas of human life.”
― Abhijit Naskar

“We all mourn the passage of time in our own particular way.”
― Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Journey to the End of the Night

“Human life is itself a philosophy, loaded with knowledge and science in its brain”
― Ehsan Sehgal

“The alternative to universalism is not an extreme individualism. Any possible, and certainly any desirable, human life is social.”
― J.L. Mackie, Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong

“May my feet land
on the safe ends
of Your robes,
for human land
drinks human blood
and feasts on its remains.”
― Mitta Xinindlu

“May my hands
be held by Your hands,
for human hands
were loving me yesterday
but are murdering me today.”
― Mitta Xinindlu

“May my eyes be filled with sanity,
for this generation
is piercing me with its inhumanity.”
― Mitta Xinindlu

“May I dwell in Your heaven,
as I no longer feel safe on this earth even.”
― Mitta Xinindlu

“My feet are stumbling on many dead bodies.”
― Mitta Xinindlu

“My hands are replete
with burns and bruises
from the spears of those
who You lovingly created
in Your image just as I was crested.”
― Mitta Xinindlu

“My eyes are filled
with images of my people killed.
My body is garmented
in agony, trauma, confusion, and fume.”
― Mitta Xinindlu

“Where can I take refuge
from these dirty souls
who seek my blood?
To whom should I run to brood
these now broken soles,
and eyes filled with floods?
Lead me to where it’s safest.
Lead me to where it’s kindest.”
― Mitta Xinindlu

“Sapiens (Sonnet 1410)

Sapiens is a promise
to stand grounded in people,
Sapiens is a duty
to stand firm on principle.

Sapiens is an alarm
to wake up from apathy,
Sapiens is mindful revolt
against inherited atrocity.

Sapiens is rightful rebellion
against dehumanizing intellect,
Sapiens is sentient uproar
against puritanism boneheaded.

Sapiens is the saintly answer
to the clarion call of life,
True sapiens is saintly sapiens,
all else is desecration of life.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Dervis Vadisi: 100 Promissory Sonnets

“Not sure if human life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short, if it carries God in its heart, love in its feelings, flowers in its thoughts, justice in its character, and truth in its life.”
― Ehsan Sehgal

“If you think your life is worth nothing, just zoom out, and you'll realize, in the vastness of space and time, the entire humankind is worth nothing. What's a mere 70-80 years, live it out anyway! What you got to lose, except your meaninglessness! Life's meaning comes from life, life's meaning is measured by life. Live life to lift up those around, that's the greatest meaning of life you can find.”
― Abhijit Naskar, World War Human: 100 New Earthling Sonnets