Jack Levine Quotes

The proper study of Mankind is Man.

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; The proper study of mankind is man.

We never know we are beings till we love. And then it is we know the powers and potentialities of human existence.

What a piece of work is a man

There are metaphysical problems, problems of human existence, that philosophy has never known how to grasp in all their concreteness and that only the novel can seize.

What exactly is it that humans do that is specifically human? There has to be something. How odd it is for billions of people to be alive, yet not one of them is really quite sure of what makes people people.

We're not inherently anything but human.

The true science and study of man is man.

Man would be otherwise. That is the essence of the specifically human.

Think of something finite molded into the infinite, and you think of man.

The earth is the very quintessence of the human condition.

Any art worthy of its name should address 'life', 'man', 'nature', 'death' and 'tragedy'.

The two basic topics which fascinate me are 'What is reality?' and 'What constitutes the authentic human being?'

Humanity, you never had it from the beginning." That was my motto.

Many are the wonders of the world, and none so wonderful as man.

I believe in man. I believe in mankind, as the worst and the best that has happened to this world.

There's no victory-condition for being human.

Man himself has become our greatest hazard and our only hope. So that today, St. John the apostle may well be paraphrased: In the end is the Word, and the Word is Man - and the Word is with Men.

The human condition itself inspires me.

I desire therefore I exist.

A philosopher once asked, "Are we human because we gaze at the stars, or do we gaze at them because we are human"?

The world is little, people are little, human life is little. There is only one big thing — desire.

The apparatus defeats its own purpose if its purpose is to create a humane existence on the basis of a humanized nature.

However incoherent a human existence may be, human unity is not bothered by it.

Harold could no longer pass a stranger without acknowledging the truth that everyone was the same, and also unique; and that this was the dilemma of being human.