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“While we maintain the unity of the human species, we at the same time repel the depressing assumption of superior and inferior races of men. There are nations more susceptible of cultivation, more highly civilized, more ennobled by mental cultivation than others—but none in themselves nobler than others.”
― Alexander von Humboldt, Cosmos: A Sketch of a Physical Description of the Universe: Part One, 1858

“I had written the sentence, 'You mustn't think that the evolution that gave rise to us was the only evolutionary possibility on this planet. . . . that cultural developments could be shaped through the mediation of another animal species. If the biological conditions were favorable, some civilization not inferior to our own could arise in the depths of the sea. . . . Would it do the same stupid things mankind has done? Would it invite the same historical calamities? What would we say if some animal other than man declared that its education and its numbers gave it the sole right to occupy the entire world and hold sway over all creation?”
― Karel Capek

“The difficulty is that, so long as unreason prevails, a solution of our troubles can only be reached by chance; for while reason, being impersonal, makes universal co-operation possible, unreason, since it represents private passions, makes strife inevitable. It is for this reason that rationality, in the sense of an appeal to a universal and impersonal standard of truth, is of supreme importance to the well-being of the human species.”
― Bertrand Russell, In Praise of Idleness and Other Essays

“Astronomy defined our home as a small planet tucked away in one corner of an average galaxy among million; biology took away our status as paragons created in the image of God; geology gave us the immensity of time and taught us how little of it our own species has occupied.”
― Stephen Jay Gould, Ever Since Darwin: Reflections in Natural History

“The dangers that we face are part of the process, now well underway, of the unification of the planet--in language, culture, science, and commerce. They are both driven by the identical technological advances--this critical and delicate time coincides with the widespread availability of nuclear weapons. At the present rate of change, it seems likely that in the period between now and 2061, the turning point for the human species will have been reached.

If we survive until then, our passage to the next apparition of Halley's Comet should be comparatively easy. That perihelion passage will be in March 2134, when the comet will make an unusually close encounter with the Earth. It will come as close as 0.09AU or 14 million kilometers, less than half the distance of the 1910 encounter. It will then be brighter than the brightest star. If there are those to do the commemorating, the years 2061 and 2134 should be celebrated for the courage, intelligence, and common purpose of a species forced by urgent necessity to come to its senses.”
― Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan, Comet

“Consider the species known as man. We lie, we cheat, we want what others have and take it; we make war upon each other and the earth; we harvest lives in multitude. We have mortgaged the planet and spent the cash on trifles.”
― Justin Cronin, The City of Mirrors

“Are we as a species evolving toward the best in ourselves or the worst? Let's not lose sight of who we are and who we wish to be.”
― Laurence Overmire, The One Idea That Saves The World: A Message of Hope in a Time of Crisis

“For a protector of life, who is moved by the diversity of life (biodiversity), it is unthinkable that the whole Earth should belong only to one animal species, humanity. Look at man, this person will say: look at him in Bosnia, Palestine, Rwanda, Kurdistan; or look at him in Finland, engaging in inheritance disputes or phone sex or the trade union movement: is man above all other forms of life? Does man have the right to rule the destiny of millions of basically similar species? Is man the living image of God?”
― Pentti Linkola, Can Life Prevail?

“Our probable ancestors, Homo erectus and Homo habilis -now extinct- are classified as of the same genus (Homo) but of different species, although no one (at least lately) has attempted the appropriate experiments to see if crosses of them with us would produce fertile offspring.”
― Carl Sagan, The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence

“By making our defenseless planet the ultimate beneficiary of our economic activity, we align our values with a different set of motivations. When we begin to see life as an interdependent mesh, we place the survival of the human species on equal footing with our economic interests and ourselves.”
― Said Elias Dawlabani, MEMEnomics: The Next Generation Economic System

“We have the neurological potential to be truly a wise species, unlike any other species on earth, yet we act like the dumbest species on earth. We are a stupid species with smart phones.”
― Abhijit Naskar

“The anthropologist Clifford Geertz says that humans are ‘symbolizing, conceptualizing, meaning-seekingâ€� animals. In our species, he says, ‘the drive to make sense out of our experience, to give it form and order, is evidently as real and as pressing as the more familiar biological needs.â€� To Geertz, a human being is an organism ‘which cannot live in a world it is unable to understand.”
― Robert Fulford, The Triumph of Narrative

“All issues in the society prevail, because the person thinks, the self is separate from the society. And this is the gravest mistake that any sentient species could ever make. With great sentience, comes great responsibility.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Citizens of Peace: Beyond the Savagery of Sovereignty

“The ability to laugh is what differentiates man from the beasts, but evidently one cannot always get oneself in a laughing mood.”
― Romain Gary

“The human species pretends it's so resilient. Mortal lives are one long game of make-believe. If you couldn't lie to yourselves, you'd cut your own throats to end your misery.'

I am struck by the word species, by the idea that he thinks I am something entirely else, like an ant or a dog or a deer. I am not sure he's wrong, but I don't like the thought. 'I don't feel particularly miserable right now.' I can't show him I'm afraid.

His mouth curls. 'What happiness do you have? Rutting and breeding. You'd go mad if you accepted the truth of what you are. You are nothing. You barely exist at all. Your only purpose is to create more of your kind because you die some pointless and agonising death.'

I look him in the eye. 'And?”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“Science is an extremely valuable avenue to truth. It is not the only one. To claim it is the only oneis what is legitimately called -scientism- and takes its place among the many fundametalisms of this world.”
― Robert N. Bellah, Religion in Human Evolution: From the Paleolithic to the Axial Age

“Science is an extremely valuable avenue to truth. It is not the only one. To claim it is the only one is what is legitimately called -scientism- and takes its place among the many fundamentalisms of this world.”
― Robert N. Bellah, Religion in Human Evolution: From the Paleolithic to the Axial Age

“Though normally the handshake simply confirmed the trustworthiness of an agreement, with perhaps an aura of divine protection, Attic grave reliefs suggest a further extension of the idea for they "show handshaking as a symbol of Faith at the parting between the dead and the living. Thus, handshaking was not only a sign of agreement among the living, but the gesture of trust and faith in the supreme departure." With us the handshake is hardly a conscious gesture, but nonetheless one does not expect to be attacked by someone with whom one has just shaken hands. A refusal of a proffered handshake, however, would make the ritual gesture conscious indeed: breaking the ritual raises ominous questions that would require an explanation.”
― Robert N. Bellah, Religion in Human Evolution: From the Paleolithic to the Axial Age

“Humans became able to move much more freely through the landscape because their support networks were more stable over time. These supportive relations between groups made it possible for sapiens to colonize forbidding environments with very limited foods supplies, supporting only very small residential groups. A band of a family or two would not be stable over the long term, without support from a wider network. While small groups can penetrate harsher environments, they need social risk management. They need to be able to reconnect at times of need.”
― Ronald J. Planer, From Signal to Symbol: The Evolution of Language

“The elaborated kinship systems of ethnographic report impose steep linguistic demands. These systems feature a small set of basic kin terms: “motherâ€� and (typically) “fatherâ€�, “husbandâ€�, “wifeâ€�.”
― Ronald J. Planer, From Signal to Symbol: The Evolution of Language

“Our deep-time ancestors very likely had the genetic resources needed for formal quantitative reasoning, but without the cultural invention of numerals and a umber line, those resources could not be exploited. The same may be true of language. The central role of cultural learning in the construction and transmission of language (qua social phenomenon) is enough to show that the use of language depends on cultural scaffolds, not just appropriate genetic potential.”
― Ronald J. Planer, From Signal to Symbol: The Evolution of Language