“We are simultaneously weird and wonderful . . . welcome to the human species.” -David Hugh Beaumont (born 1966)
“A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other.” -Charles Dickens (Charles John Huffam Dickens (1812 - 1870)): “A Tale of Two Cities” (1859), book I, chapter 3
“No human is perfect until you fall in love with them.” -Author Unknown
Humans are a simple breed,
Yet kindly in their way;
They’ll travel miles at break-neck speed
On a hot and dusty day,
And scramble through the biggest bunch
Of poison ivy plants,
To bring a lovely picnic lunch
To us hungry ants.
-Author Unknown
“Men have learned to travel farther and faster, though on errands not conspicuously improved. This, I believe, is called progress.” -Willis Fisher
Quizzical Show
Man puts on a quizzical show,
Going faster each day as we know,
Like a wheel down a hill,
We roll faster still;
But nobody knows where we go.
by C. W. Dalton: “Limericks and Rhymes for Critical Times” (1994)
“It is an old and ironic habit of human beings to run faster when we have lost our way.” -Rollo May (Rollo Reece May (1909 - 1994)): “Love and Will” (1969)
“If the human race wishes to have a prolonged and indefinite period of material prosperity they have only got to behave in a peaceful and helpful way toward one another.” -Winston Churchill (Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill (1874 - 1965))
“To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except exercise, get up early, or be respectable.” -Oscar Wilde (Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde (1854 - 1900))
“If one person stands in a place long enough, a que or line begins to form. Others will come along and form a line, not necessarily wanting to know why there is a line, but thinking that if they find a line, they must place themselves in it.” -David Hugh Beaumont (born 1966)
“When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other.” -Eric Hoffer (1902 - 1983): “The Passionate State of Mind” (1955)
What are humans?
“Man is a two-legged animal without feathers.” -Plato (about 427 B.C.E. - about 347 B.C.E.)
“Man is like a banana - when he leaves the bunch, he gets skinned.” -Author Unknown: proverb
“The question is this: Is man an ape or an angel? I am on the side of the angels.” -Benjamin Disraeli (1804 - 1881): speech (25 November 1864)
Being all fashioned of the self-same dust,
Let us be merciful as well as just.
-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 - 1882)
Why do people pay to go up to the top of tall buildings and then put money in binoculars to look at things on the ground?
“Human nature is the same all over the world; but its operations are so varied by education and habit that one must see it in all its dresses*.” -G. K. Chesterton (Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874 - 1936))
*dresses: human constructs such as culture, tradition, nationality, and so forth
A surprising number of humans cannot do one or more of the following.
- Blow bubbles with bubble gum.
- Snap their fingers.
- Wink (it somehow always turns into a blink).
- Use their turn signals properly.
- Roll their r’s when speaking.
- Remember what day of the week it is.
- Curl their tongues.
- Digest dairy products.
- Whistle.
- Remember the titles or words of any songs.
- Shuffle cards.
- Touch their toes without bending their knees.
- Parallel park.
- Wiggle their ears.
Despite some of them having the inability to do the things listed here, most humans somehow manage to lead fairly normal lives: holding jobs, going to school, driving, walking, and even eating food.
“People’s business seemingly requires haste. The average person eats in a hurry and gets dyspepsia. He walks in a hurry and gets apoplexy. He talks in a hurry and begins to stutter. He does business in a hurry and becomes bankrupt. He votes in a hurry and gets corrupt politicians. He marries in a hurry and gets a divorce. He trains his children in a hurry and creates delinquents. He makes his will in a hurry and leaves a legal contest. He dies in a hurry and goes to the devil. And his tribe steadily increases! Moral: Slow down just a little, for haste makes a waste of the good things in life.” -Author Unknown
“To err is human; to forgive divine.” -Alexander Pope
“The last quarter of a century of my life has been pretty constantly and faithfully devoted to the study of the human race - that is to say, the study of myself, for in my individual person I am the entire human race compacted together. I have found that there is no ingredient of the race which I do not possess in either a small way or a large way.” -Mark Twain (pseudonym of Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835 - 1910))
“You can drop humans anywhere and they’ll thrive - only the rat does as well.” -Jeannette Desor (Jeannette Ann Desor (born 1942))
“Till now man has been up against Nature; from now on he will be up against his own nature.” -Dennis Gabor (Hungarian: Gábor Dénes; born Günszberg Dénes (1900 - 1979))
“After a lifetime of experience, we have finally come to the conclusion that, while people complain about having to wait in lines, they do indeed actually enjoy standing in lines because it gives them a feeling of importance to be part of something and it gives them something to talk about with others in their otherwise uneventful humdrum lives. It sounds more exciting to say, ‘I’ve been waiting in line all day,’” than to say, ‘I’ve been sitting around all day.’” -Author Unknown
“To err is human, but to really foul things up requires a computer.” -Author Unknown
“Man is wolf to man.” [translation to English]
“Homo homini lupus est.” [original Latin]
-Author Unknown
“The human race is faced with a cruel choice: work or daytime television.” -Author Unknown
Humans and Human Natures Facts
- An adult male human is called a man.
- A young male human is called a boy.
- An adult female human is called a woman.
- A young female human is called a girl.
- A very young human, either male or female, is called a baby, infant, toddler, or child.
- A human transitioning from childhood to adulthood is called an adolescent, a teenager, a youth, or a young adult.
- A group of humans is called people, a clan, a crowd, a mob, a riot, a family, a community, a band, a congregation, a nation, a tribe . . .
- The sounds made by humans are called crying, screaming, singing, talking, mumbling, humming, singing, yodeling, whistling, laughing . . .
- Humans are omnivores, or animals that eat both plants and animals.
“A group of birds is called a flock. A group of cattle is called a herd. A group of humans is called a traffic jam.” -David Hugh Beaumont (born 1966)
“It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this.” -Bertrand Russell (Bertrand Arthur William Russell (1872 - 1970))
“The majority, compose them how you will, are a herd, and not a very nice one.” -William Hazlitt (1778 - 1830)
“Humans are the tool-making animal.” -Author Unknown
“When you feel dog tired at night, it may be because you’ve growled all day long.” -Author Unknown
Understanding a Person
- If a person laughs in an exaggerated manner, even at things that are only mildly amusing, that person is lonely deep inside.
- If a person sleeps a lot, that person is sad.
- If a person speaks fast but seldom, that person holds deep secrets.
- If a person can’t cry, that person is trying to conceal emotional weakness.
- If a person eats in an odd manner, that person is tense.
- If a person cries about little things, that person is innocent and soft-hearted.
- If a person becomes angry over petty or small things, that person needs love.
by Author Unknown
Curiously, humans are the only primates that do not have pigment in the palms of their hands.
“Man - despite his artistic pretensions, his sophistication, and his many accomplishments - owes his existence to a six-inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains.” -Author Unknown
Five Things That Are Humanly Impossible
- Drawing the number six while making clockwise circles with your leg.
- Flying unaided by technology.
- Licking your elbows.
- Sneezing with your eyes open.
- Tickling yourself.
“Man is the only creature that refuses to be what he is.” -Albert Camus (1913 - 1960)
“The Sun, the Moon, and the stars would have disappeared long ago . . . had they happened to be within the reach of predatory human hands.” -Havelock Ellis (Henry Havelock ‘Havelock’ Ellis (1859 - 1939)): “The Dance of Life” (1923)
The average person laughs about 15 times a day.
“It is human nature to think wisely and act foolishly.” -Anatole France (pseudonym of Jacques Anatole François Thibault (1844 - 1924))
“Anyone is capable of anything; we have different modalities built into us, which can be initiated by external or internal events or conditions. The wimpy guy is capable of being a passable battlefield general. The awful woman is capable of being a caring mother. The desperately shy person can stand on a stage before an audience of thousands and entertain them. This is 99.999% true of human beings.” -David Hugh Beaumont (born 1966)
The average person walks the equivalent of twice around the world in a lifetime.
“I had a linguistics professor who said that it’s man’s ability to use language that makes him the dominant species on the planet. That may be. But I think there’s one other thing that separates us from animals. We aren’t afraid of vacuum cleaners.” - Jeff Stilson
“A man will be imprisoned in a room with a door that’s unlocked and opens inwards; as long as it does not occur to him to pull rather than push it.” -Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889 -1951): “Vermischte Bemerkungen” (1977, Peter Winch, translator), page 42
“The average person thinks he isn’t.” -Author Unknown
“Man is the animal that intends to shoot himself out into interplanetary space, after having given up on the problem of an efficient way to get himself five miles to work and back each day.” -Bill Vaughan (William Edward ‘Bill’ Vaughan (1915 - 1977))
Fifty-five percent of people yawn within five minutes of seeing someone else yawn. Reading about yawning makes most people yawn. You are close to yawning right now.
“When dealing with people, let us remember we are not dealing with creatures of logic. We are dealing with creatures of emotion, creatures bustling with prejudices, and motivated by pride and vanity.” -Dale Carnegie (Dale Harbison Carnegie (born Dale Breckenridge Carnegey (1888 - 1955)))
“People are inexterminable - like flies and bedbugs. There will always be some that survive in cracks and crevices - that’s us.” -Robert Frost (Robert Lee Frost (1874 - 1963))
“Man is the most intelligent of the animals - and the most silly.” -Diogenes of Sinope (also known as Diogenes the Cynic (about 412 B.C.E. - 323 B.C.E.))
“So great has been the endurance, so incredible the achievement, that as long as the Sun keeps a set course in Heaven, it would be foolish to despair of the human race.” -Ernest L. Woodward (Ernest Llewellyn Woodward (1890 - 1971))
“People are not perfect . . . except when they smile.” -Author Unknown
We are MFOL! . . . learning to be human . . . from bits and fragments of knowledge collected from hither and thither and yon . . .
“A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other.” -Charles Dickens (Charles John Huffam Dickens (1812 - 1870)): “A Tale of Two Cities” (1859), book I, chapter 3
“No human is perfect until you fall in love with them.” -Author Unknown
Humans are a simple breed,
Yet kindly in their way;
They’ll travel miles at break-neck speed
On a hot and dusty day,
And scramble through the biggest bunch
Of poison ivy plants,
To bring a lovely picnic lunch
To us hungry ants.
-Author Unknown
“Men have learned to travel farther and faster, though on errands not conspicuously improved. This, I believe, is called progress.” -Willis Fisher
Quizzical Show
Man puts on a quizzical show,
Going faster each day as we know,
Like a wheel down a hill,
We roll faster still;
But nobody knows where we go.
by C. W. Dalton: “Limericks and Rhymes for Critical Times” (1994)
“It is an old and ironic habit of human beings to run faster when we have lost our way.” -Rollo May (Rollo Reece May (1909 - 1994)): “Love and Will” (1969)
“If the human race wishes to have a prolonged and indefinite period of material prosperity they have only got to behave in a peaceful and helpful way toward one another.” -Winston Churchill (Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill (1874 - 1965))
“To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except exercise, get up early, or be respectable.” -Oscar Wilde (Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde (1854 - 1900))
“If one person stands in a place long enough, a que or line begins to form. Others will come along and form a line, not necessarily wanting to know why there is a line, but thinking that if they find a line, they must place themselves in it.” -David Hugh Beaumont (born 1966)
“When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other.” -Eric Hoffer (1902 - 1983): “The Passionate State of Mind” (1955)
What are humans?
“Man is a two-legged animal without feathers.” -Plato (about 427 B.C.E. - about 347 B.C.E.)
“Man is like a banana - when he leaves the bunch, he gets skinned.” -Author Unknown: proverb
“The question is this: Is man an ape or an angel? I am on the side of the angels.” -Benjamin Disraeli (1804 - 1881): speech (25 November 1864)
Being all fashioned of the self-same dust,
Let us be merciful as well as just.
-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 - 1882)
Why do people pay to go up to the top of tall buildings and then put money in binoculars to look at things on the ground?
“Human nature is the same all over the world; but its operations are so varied by education and habit that one must see it in all its dresses*.” -G. K. Chesterton (Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874 - 1936))
*dresses: human constructs such as culture, tradition, nationality, and so forth
A surprising number of humans cannot do one or more of the following.
- Blow bubbles with bubble gum.
- Snap their fingers.
- Wink (it somehow always turns into a blink).
- Use their turn signals properly.
- Roll their r’s when speaking.
- Remember what day of the week it is.
- Curl their tongues.
- Digest dairy products.
- Whistle.
- Remember the titles or words of any songs.
- Shuffle cards.
- Touch their toes without bending their knees.
- Parallel park.
- Wiggle their ears.
Despite some of them having the inability to do the things listed here, most humans somehow manage to lead fairly normal lives: holding jobs, going to school, driving, walking, and even eating food.
“People’s business seemingly requires haste. The average person eats in a hurry and gets dyspepsia. He walks in a hurry and gets apoplexy. He talks in a hurry and begins to stutter. He does business in a hurry and becomes bankrupt. He votes in a hurry and gets corrupt politicians. He marries in a hurry and gets a divorce. He trains his children in a hurry and creates delinquents. He makes his will in a hurry and leaves a legal contest. He dies in a hurry and goes to the devil. And his tribe steadily increases! Moral: Slow down just a little, for haste makes a waste of the good things in life.” -Author Unknown
“To err is human; to forgive divine.” -Alexander Pope
“The last quarter of a century of my life has been pretty constantly and faithfully devoted to the study of the human race - that is to say, the study of myself, for in my individual person I am the entire human race compacted together. I have found that there is no ingredient of the race which I do not possess in either a small way or a large way.” -Mark Twain (pseudonym of Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835 - 1910))
“You can drop humans anywhere and they’ll thrive - only the rat does as well.” -Jeannette Desor (Jeannette Ann Desor (born 1942))
“Till now man has been up against Nature; from now on he will be up against his own nature.” -Dennis Gabor (Hungarian: Gábor Dénes; born Günszberg Dénes (1900 - 1979))
“After a lifetime of experience, we have finally come to the conclusion that, while people complain about having to wait in lines, they do indeed actually enjoy standing in lines because it gives them a feeling of importance to be part of something and it gives them something to talk about with others in their otherwise uneventful humdrum lives. It sounds more exciting to say, ‘I’ve been waiting in line all day,’” than to say, ‘I’ve been sitting around all day.’” -Author Unknown
“To err is human, but to really foul things up requires a computer.” -Author Unknown
“Man is wolf to man.” [translation to English]
“Homo homini lupus est.” [original Latin]
-Author Unknown
“The human race is faced with a cruel choice: work or daytime television.” -Author Unknown
Humans and Human Natures Facts
- An adult male human is called a man.
- A young male human is called a boy.
- An adult female human is called a woman.
- A young female human is called a girl.
- A very young human, either male or female, is called a baby, infant, toddler, or child.
- A human transitioning from childhood to adulthood is called an adolescent, a teenager, a youth, or a young adult.
- A group of humans is called people, a clan, a crowd, a mob, a riot, a family, a community, a band, a congregation, a nation, a tribe . . .
- The sounds made by humans are called crying, screaming, singing, talking, mumbling, humming, singing, yodeling, whistling, laughing . . .
- Humans are omnivores, or animals that eat both plants and animals.
“A group of birds is called a flock. A group of cattle is called a herd. A group of humans is called a traffic jam.” -David Hugh Beaumont (born 1966)
“It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this.” -Bertrand Russell (Bertrand Arthur William Russell (1872 - 1970))
“The majority, compose them how you will, are a herd, and not a very nice one.” -William Hazlitt (1778 - 1830)
“Humans are the tool-making animal.” -Author Unknown
“When you feel dog tired at night, it may be because you’ve growled all day long.” -Author Unknown
Understanding a Person
- If a person laughs in an exaggerated manner, even at things that are only mildly amusing, that person is lonely deep inside.
- If a person sleeps a lot, that person is sad.
- If a person speaks fast but seldom, that person holds deep secrets.
- If a person can’t cry, that person is trying to conceal emotional weakness.
- If a person eats in an odd manner, that person is tense.
- If a person cries about little things, that person is innocent and soft-hearted.
- If a person becomes angry over petty or small things, that person needs love.
by Author Unknown
Curiously, humans are the only primates that do not have pigment in the palms of their hands.
“Man - despite his artistic pretensions, his sophistication, and his many accomplishments - owes his existence to a six-inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains.” -Author Unknown
Five Things That Are Humanly Impossible
- Drawing the number six while making clockwise circles with your leg.
- Flying unaided by technology.
- Licking your elbows.
- Sneezing with your eyes open.
- Tickling yourself.
“Man is the only creature that refuses to be what he is.” -Albert Camus (1913 - 1960)
“The Sun, the Moon, and the stars would have disappeared long ago . . . had they happened to be within the reach of predatory human hands.” -Havelock Ellis (Henry Havelock ‘Havelock’ Ellis (1859 - 1939)): “The Dance of Life” (1923)
The average person laughs about 15 times a day.
“It is human nature to think wisely and act foolishly.” -Anatole France (pseudonym of Jacques Anatole François Thibault (1844 - 1924))
“Anyone is capable of anything; we have different modalities built into us, which can be initiated by external or internal events or conditions. The wimpy guy is capable of being a passable battlefield general. The awful woman is capable of being a caring mother. The desperately shy person can stand on a stage before an audience of thousands and entertain them. This is 99.999% true of human beings.” -David Hugh Beaumont (born 1966)
The average person walks the equivalent of twice around the world in a lifetime.
“I had a linguistics professor who said that it’s man’s ability to use language that makes him the dominant species on the planet. That may be. But I think there’s one other thing that separates us from animals. We aren’t afraid of vacuum cleaners.” - Jeff Stilson
“A man will be imprisoned in a room with a door that’s unlocked and opens inwards; as long as it does not occur to him to pull rather than push it.” -Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889 -1951): “Vermischte Bemerkungen” (1977, Peter Winch, translator), page 42
“The average person thinks he isn’t.” -Author Unknown
“Man is the animal that intends to shoot himself out into interplanetary space, after having given up on the problem of an efficient way to get himself five miles to work and back each day.” -Bill Vaughan (William Edward ‘Bill’ Vaughan (1915 - 1977))
Fifty-five percent of people yawn within five minutes of seeing someone else yawn. Reading about yawning makes most people yawn. You are close to yawning right now.
“When dealing with people, let us remember we are not dealing with creatures of logic. We are dealing with creatures of emotion, creatures bustling with prejudices, and motivated by pride and vanity.” -Dale Carnegie (Dale Harbison Carnegie (born Dale Breckenridge Carnegey (1888 - 1955)))
“People are inexterminable - like flies and bedbugs. There will always be some that survive in cracks and crevices - that’s us.” -Robert Frost (Robert Lee Frost (1874 - 1963))
“Man is the most intelligent of the animals - and the most silly.” -Diogenes of Sinope (also known as Diogenes the Cynic (about 412 B.C.E. - 323 B.C.E.))
“So great has been the endurance, so incredible the achievement, that as long as the Sun keeps a set course in Heaven, it would be foolish to despair of the human race.” -Ernest L. Woodward (Ernest Llewellyn Woodward (1890 - 1971))
“People are not perfect . . . except when they smile.” -Author Unknown
We are MFOL! . . . learning to be human . . . from bits and fragments of knowledge collected from hither and thither and yon . . .
