Ian Mcewan Quotes

Humanity is best described as inhumanity.

I think that fiction has a part to play in urging us, as a species, toward compassion.

No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity. But I know none, and therefore am no beast.

Nature is cruel but we don't have to be

When men are inhuman, take care not to feel towards them as they do towards other humans.

Look into your own heart, discover what it is that gives you pain and then refuse, under any circumstance whatsoever, to inflict that pain on anybody else.

One shouldn't be afraid of the humans. Well, I am not afraid of the humans, but of what is inhuman in them.

People can be ignorant and still have loving, human qualities.

Man becomes man only by his intelligence, but he is man only by his heart.

There is only one way in which one can endure man's inhumanity to man and that is to try, in one's own life, to exemplify man's humanity to man.

Well, I think that if you sincerely try to imagine what life is like for another person - not in a mocking way, not in a satirical way, but in a sincere, compassionate way - I don't think that's exploitive.

Gentleness is the antidote for cruelty.

Only when the sense of the pain of others begins does man begin.

The great gift of human beings is that we have the power of empathy.

It's interesting that one of the definitions of the word 'human' is 'sympathetic.' More and more people are beginning to show that they understand why that is important.

I'm very human.

As adults, we do know more, but we don't know enough. People can be very unthinkingly callous.

I am a compassionate human being. I am who I am.

I'm human, I feel, I understand. That's the highest level of love, is understanding - when you can understand someone, when you can love them with their flaws and their faults. So I understand, I consider. I may speak the truth, but I'll consider your feelings, too.

A man, to be greatly good, must imagine intensely and comprehensively; he must put himself in the place of another and of many others; the pains and pleasures of his species must become his own.

She has no imagination and that means no compassion.

I have empathy; I am humane. I understand human misery.

Where there is no human connection, there is no compassion. Without compassion, then community, commitment, loving-kindness, human understanding, and peace all shrivel. Individuals become isolated, the isolated turn cruel, and the tragic hovers in the forms of domestic and civil violence. Art and literature are antidotes to that.

Basic emotions can be conveyed through anything. As long as you show people that you're human, they'll relate to it.

I always think you have to show a degree of humanity and sensitivity when you're dealing with people in extreme circumstances.