Humanist Sayings and Quotes

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old humanist quotes, humanist sayings, and humanist proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.

Hope is believing in something that eludes you. It's a desperate feeling in a desperate situation. Carroll Bryant
The true humanist maintains a just balance between sympathy and selection. Irving Babbitt
Three key humanist virtues are courage, cognition, and caring - not dependence, ignorance, or insensitivity to the needs of others. Paul Kurtz
Humanism is a rational philosophy informed by science, inspired by art, and motivated by compassion. American Humanist Association
Humanism is a philosophy of joyous service for the greater good of all humanity, of application of new ideas of scientific progress for the benefit of all. Linus Pauling
Humanism is the commitment to the use of reason in human affairs, applied in the service of compassion. Hans Jürgen Eysenck
The real enemy is the secular humanist mindset which seeks to destroy everything that is good in this society. Paul Weyrich
We have a great history; we have a great humanist face to put forward to the world. Emmanuel Macron
From the failure of the humanist tradition to participate fully or to act decisively, civilizations may perhaps crumble or perish at the hands of barbarians. But unless the humanist tradition itself in some form survives, there can really be no civilization at all. Louis Kronenberger
Being a Humanist means trying to behave decently without expectation of rewards or punishment after you are dead. Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
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. Corliss Lamont
We have to replace beauty, which is a cultural concept, with goodness, which is a humanist concept. Philippe Starck
Confucius was a humanist and an agnostic. Hu Shih
Humanists recognize that it is only when people feel free to think for themselves, using reason as their guide, that they are best capable of developing values that succeed in satisfying human needs and serving human interests. Isaac Asimov
This Humanist whom no beliefs constrained Grew so broad-minded he was scatter-brained. J. V. Cunningham
A person who has sympathy for mankind in the lump, faith in its future progress, and desire to serve the great cause of this progress, should be called not a humanist, but a humanitarian, and his creed may be designated as humanitarianism. Irving Babbit
What we need to do is to humanize the scientist and simonize the humanist. C.P. Snow
Humanism believes that the individual attains the good life by harmoniously combining personal satisfactions and continuous self-development with significant work and other activities that contribute to the welfare of the community. Corliss Lamont
Most men have bound their eyes with one or another handkerchief, and attached themselves to some one of these communities of opinion. Ralph Waldo Emerson
A humanist is someone who does the right thing even though she knows that no one is watching. Dick McMahan
Our humanist attitude should therefore throughout be to stress what we all have in common with each other and relegate quarrelsome religion to the private domain where it can do [less] harm. Hermann Bondi
Men are from Earth, women are from Earth. Deal with it. George Carlin
A humanist is anyone who rejects the attempt to describe or account for man wholly on the basis of physics, chemistry or animal behaviour. Joseph Wood Krutch
Humanists hold that ethical values are relative to human experience and need not be derived from theological or metaphysical foundations. Paul Kurtz
To be a believer does not make you superior to others; but to be a humanist does make it so! Mehmet Murat ildan
A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence. David Hume
The four characteristics of humanism are curiosity, a free mind, belief in good taste, and belief in the human race. E.M. Forster
Life has no meaning a priori. It is up to you to give it a meaning, and value is nothing but the meaning that you choose. Jean-Paul Sartre
Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge. Charles Darwin
The Humanist view of life is progressive and optimistic, in awe of human potential, living without fear of judgement and death, finding enough purpose and meaning in life, love and leaving a good legacy. Polly Toynbee
If you are not the hero of your own story, then you're missing the whle point of your humanity. Steve Maraboli
Humanity does not ask us to be happy. It merely asks us to be brilliant. Orson Scott Card
In this moral world we come from the world of nature into the world of humanity. Prasanna Rao Bandela
We live and move and have our being in the universal man. Prasanna Rao Bandela
The flower is yourself, your humanity. Daisaku Ikeda
Art is the liberation of the humanity inside yourself. Daisaku Ikeda
Human love, in turn, as all the emotions, were described as movements in the natural world, as movements having a beginning, a middle, and an end. Pamela Williams
I hate all national flags, because they are idols. What do we salute? I salute humanity, not a flag surrounded by an army. Anthony De Mello
Humanity brings us appreciably closer to that promised day when the former things should pass away, when there should be no more unnecessary death, when sorrow and crying should be no more. Vincenzo Berghella
One of the essential qualities of the clinician is interest in humanity, for the secret of the care of the patient is in caring for the patient. F.W. Peabody
Orange is red brought nearer to humanity by yellow. Wassily Kandinsky
It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity. Albert Einstein
I believe God touched the lives of each and every person who made a quote that guides humanity toward Heaven. John Taylor Wood
The superior man is satisfied and composed; the mean man is always full of distress. Confucius
If a man hasn't found something that he will die for, he isn't fir to live. Martin Luther King Jr.
Not in time, place or circumstance, but in man lies success. John Taylor Wood
Among men some are jewels and some are pebbles. John Taylor Wood
Man is a tool-making animal. Benjamin Franklin
Man without sense is like a blind man with a looking glass. John Taylor Wood
Treat humanity as an end and not as a means to reach an end. Emmanuel Kant
Reading makes a full man, meditation a profound man, disclosure a clear man. Benjamin Franklin
Only on paper has humanity yet achieved glory, beauty, truth, knowledge, virtue, and abiding love. George Bernard Shaw
Do not identify the enemies of your privilege with the enemies of humanity. Max Lerner
The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it. H.L. Mencken
Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron. Dwight Eisenhower
Passion is universal humanity. Without it religion, history, romance and art would be useless. Honoré de Balzac
Be the reason someone smiles. Be the reason someone feels loved and believes in the goodness in people. Roy Bennet
We have to allow ourselves to be loved by the people who really loves us, the people who really matter. Everbooks Editorial
I guess that's just part of loving people: You have to give things up. Sometimes you even have to give them up. Lauren Oliver
I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature. Jane Austen