Circumstances give in reality to every political principle its distinguishing color and discriminating effect. The circumstances are what render every civil and political scheme beneficial or noxious to mankind.

Yeah, I wasn’t chosen to be first. I was just chosen to command that flight. Circumstance put me in that particular role. That wasn’t planned by anyone.

Value is what you get.

There are minds so impatient of inferiority that their gratitude is a species of revenge, and they return benefits, not because recompense is a pleasure, but because obligation is a pain.

General consultant to mankind.

Surely the wake left behind by mankind’s forward march reveals its movement just as clearly as the spray thrown up elsewhere by the prow.

If you were to destroy the belief in immortality in mankind, not only love but every living force on which the continuation of all life in the world depended, would dry up at once.

All that mankind has done, thought or been: it is lying as in magic preservation in the pages of books.

Opposite to godliness is atheism in profession, and idolatry in practice. Atheism is so senseless and odious to mankind, that it never had many professors.

I’m the same kid who used to hop the trains with headphones and just go to downtown Manhattan, walk around and listen to music or walk through the city. The fame restricts that. It’s a small complaint in comparison to the benefits I get from it, but the restrictive part is what I don’t like – and the fact that it’s not reversible.

It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of others: or their case may, by change of circumstances, become his own.

Ambition never is in a greater hurry than I; it merely keeps pace with circumstances and with my general way of thinking.

Most people are basically a victim of the circumstances of their life. They have things like 9/11, they have terrorism threats, they have new war threats, they have economy problems, and they think, ‚What can I do? I’m basically a victim.‘

Mankind, the spirit of the earth, the synthesis of individuals and peoples, the paradoxical conciliation of the element with the whole, and of unity with multitude – all these are called Utopian, and yet they are biologically necessary.

Music is the wine which inspires one to new generative processes, and I am Bacchus who presses out this glorious wine for mankind and makes them spiritually drunken.

The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind.

Religion, born of the earth’s need for the disclosing of a god, is related to and co-extensive with not the individual man, but the whole of mankind.

Of mankind we may say in general they are fickle, hypocritical, and greedy of gain.

We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive.

Write injuries in dust, benefits in marble.

When men are easy in their circumstances, they are naturally enemies to innovations.

I received free health care.

We have the power to make this the best generation of mankind in the history of the world or to make it the last.

Humor is mankind’s greatest blessing.

It’s time to commit to finding the answer, to search for life beyond Earth. Mankind has a deep need to explore, to learn, to know. We also happen to be sociable creatures. It is important for us to know if we are alone in the dark.

The history of mankind is the instant between two strides taken by a traveler.

Example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at no other.

Concentration of executive power, unless it’s very temporary and for specific circumstances, let’s say fighting world war two, it’s an assault on democracy.

For every benefit you receive a tax is levied.

The doctor sees all the weakness of mankind; the lawyer all the wickedness, the theologian all the stupidity.

Our character is not so much the product of race and heredity as of those circumstances by which nature forms our habits, by which we are nurtured and live.

Over time, yes, countries will need to look at specific GMO products like they look at drugs today, where they don’t approve them all. They look hard at the safety and the testing. And they make sure that the benefits far outweigh any of the downsides.

Severities should be dealt out all at once, so that their suddenness may give less offense; benefits ought to be handed ought drop by drop, so that they may be relished the more.

It is possible that mankind is on the threshold of a golden age; but, if so, it will be necessary first to slay the dragon that guards the door, and this dragon is religion.

In truth, I did enjoy the benefits of a Harvard connection.

Throughout history, people have studied pure science from a desire to understand the universe rather than practical applications for commercial gain. But their discoveries later turned out to have great practical benefits.

When will mankind be convinced and agree to settle their difficulties by arbitration?

The greatest tragedy in mankind’s entire history may be the hijacking of morality by religion.

This self-love is the instrument of our preservation; it resembles the provision for the perpetuity of mankind: it is necessary, it is dear to us, it gives us pleasure, and we must conceal it.

Every age has its own poetry; in every age the circumstances of history choose a nation, a race, a class to take up the torch by creating situations that can be expressed or transcended only through poetry.

The President is going to benefit from me reporting directly to him when I arrive.

With the introduction of agriculture mankind entered upon a long period of meanness, misery, and madness, from which they are only now being freed by the beneficent operation of the machine.

I think it’s brought the world a lot closer together, and will continue to do that. There are downsides to everything; there are unintended consequences to everything. The most corrosive piece of technology that I’ve ever seen is called television – but then, again, television, at its best, is magnificent.

It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind.

My objection to Liberalism is this that it is the introduction into the practical business of life of the highest kind namely, politics of philosophical ideas instead of political principles.

The reason why the world lacks unity, and lies broken and in heaps, is, because man is disunited with himself.

What, man, defy the devil. Consider, he’s an enemy to mankind.

A state arises, as I conceive, out of the needs of mankind; no one is self-sufficing, but all of us have many wants.

You do not examine legislation in the light of the benefits it will convey if properly administered, but in the light of the wrongs it would do and the harms it would cause if improperly administered.

Fanatics are picturesque, mankind would rather see gestures than listen to reasons.

Do not let circumstances control you. You change your circumstances.

Man is not the creature of circumstances, circumstances are the creatures of men. We are free agents, and man is more powerful than matter.

Compassion, in which all ethics must take root, can only attain its full breadth and depth if it embraces all living creatures and does not limit itself to mankind.

Only aim to do your duty, and mankind will give you credit where you fail.

Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it.

All ways of living can be sanctified, and for each individual, the ideal way is that to which our Lord leads him through the natural development of his tastes and the pressure of circumstances.

Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man.

What important is man should live in righteousness, in natural love for mankind.

Most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts of life are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind.

Circumstances are beyond human control, but our conduct is in our own power.

In general, mankind, since the improvement of cookery, eats twice as much as nature requires.