#human-condition — Public Fediverse posts

I believe in good and evil, but in a very reductionist and humanist way: 'Good' actions are *intended* to help others or to help yourself while harming no-one. 'Evil' actions are *intended* to hurt others or to help yourself at other's expense.

The problem comes down to the word 'intended'. You can easily *intend* good, but work evil, due to a flawed understanding of the world or even simple happenstance.

[contd]

#HumanCondition

# Empathy: Compare and Contrast

Captain G. M. Gilbert (US Army psychologist assigned to watching the defendants at the Nuremberg trials)

> “In my work with the defendants I was searching for the nature of evil and I now think I have come close to defining it. A lack of empathy. It’s the one characteristic that connects all the defendants, a genuine incapacity to feel with their fellow men. Evil, I think, is the absence of empathy.”

[contd]

#HumanCondition #quotes

A quotation from Samuel Johnson

He who has so little knowledge of human nature, as to seek happiness by changing any thing but his own dispositions, will waste his life in fruitless efforts, and multiply the griefs which he purposes to remove.

Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Essay (1750-04-07), The Rambler, No. 6

More about this quote: wist.info/johnson-samuel/35246…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #samueljohnson #attitude #externalities #grief #happiness #humannature #humanity #misery #pursuitofhappiness #reform #selfawareness #selfchange #unhappiness #wasteoftime #humancondition

A quotation from Carlyle

The tragedy of life is not so much what men suffer, but rather what they miss.

Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
(Attributed)

(Much) more about this quote: wist.info/carlyle-thomas/719/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #carlyle #thomascarlyie #opportunity #humancondition #loss #miss #missout #suffering #tragedy #unawareness

A quotation from Bill Watterson

   CALVIN: Do you believe in the Devil? You know, a supreme evil being dedicated to the temptation, corruption, and destruction of Man?
   HOBBES: I’m not sure Man needs the help.

Bill Watterson (b. 1958) American cartoonist
Calvin and Hobbes (1992-04-06)

More about this quote: wist.info/watterson-bill/85386…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #billwatterson #calvinandhobbes #adversary #belief #corruption #devil #humancondition #humannature #humanity #lucifer #Satan #selfdestructiveness #temptation

Her dog wouldn’t stop sniffing her breath. She thought it was weird but it saved her life.

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.upworthy.com/her-dog-wouldnt-stop-sniffing-her-breath-she-thought-it-was-weird-but-it-saved-her-life-ex1/

…the skin we all live in

mijn huid lief
geleend thuis dorst naar
omarming_

…my skin dear
this borrowed home thirsts
for embrace_

Music: Life, life
#ryuichisakamoto

#huidhonger #humancondition #humannature #oneplanet #bemindful #photography #photo

A quotation from Elizabeth Bear

Age had not yet defeated her on all fronts, though it was a war of attrition she knew she was fated to lose.

Elizabeth Bear (b. 1971) American author [pseud. for Sarah Bear Elizabeth Wishnevsky]
Bone and Jewel Creatures, ch. 3 (2010)

More about this quote: wist.info/bear-elizabeth/85135…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #elizabethbear #age #gettingold #growingold #humancondition #mortality #oldage

Greed

the heart is a void
sucking greedily
at anything around it

a vain attempt
to satisfy
its eternal hunger

until even the self
is swallowed

into the hollow cavern
of its unending lust

the person disappears

and the dark virus remains

the emptiness begins
to curl back upon itself

its bloody lips
attacking
in steady demise

until all that remains
is the ache
of never enough.

May 18, 1987 (rewritten June 2026)

A quotation from Josh Billings

Life aint mutch more than a farce enny how, but it iz quite necessary that the play should go on, and the farce be well ackted.
 
[Life ain’t much more than a farce anyhow, but it is quite necessary that the play should go on, and the farce be well-acted.]

Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Josh Billings’ Farmer’s Allminax, 1877-02 (1877 ed.

More about this quote: wist.info/billings-josh/84919/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #joshbillings #endurance #farce #humancondition #life #meaningoflife #part #performance #ridiculousness #role #stage #world

A quotation from Euripides

MESSENGER:       I have not now first learn’d that all
   Th’ affairs of mortal men are a mere shadow:
   Nor would I fear to say that those, who most
   Boast of their wisdom and their deep research,
   The widest in the paths of folly stray.
   No mortal man is happy: if the tide
   Of wealth flows in upon him, one may be
   More fortunate than others, happy never.
 
[ἌΓΓΕΛΟΣ: τὰ θνητὰ δ᾽ οὐ νῦν πρῶτον ἡγοῦμαι σκιάν,
   οὐδ᾽ ἂν τρέσας εἴποιμι τοὺς σοφοὺς βροτῶν
   δοκοῦντας εἶναι καὶ μεριμνητὰς λόγων
   τούτους μεγίστην μωρίαν ὀφλισκάνειν.
   θνητῶν γὰρ οὐδείς ἐστιν εὐδαίμων ἀνήρ:
   ὄλβου δ᾽ ἐπιρρυέντος εὐτυχέστερος
   ἄλλου γένοιτ᾽ ἂν ἄλλος, εὐδαίμων δ᾽ ἂν οὔ.]

Euripides (485?-406? BC) Greek tragic dramatist
Medea [Μήδεια], l. 1224ff (431 BC) [tr. Potter (1814)]

More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/euripides/84868/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #euripides #medea #meaningoflife #folly #fortune #happiness #humancondition #life #living #luck #pessimism #philosophers #prosperity #shadow #unhappiness #wealth #wisdom

A quotation from Bertrand Russell

I found one day in school a boy of medium size ill-treating a smaller boy. I expostulated, but he replied: “The bigs hit me, so I hit the babies; that’s fair.” In these words he epitomized the history of the human race.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Education and the Social Order [Education and the Modern World], ch. 2 “The Negative Theory of Education” (1932)

More about this quote: wist.info/russell-bertrand/847…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #bertrandrussell #abuse #bullying #history #humancondition #humannature #humanity #violence

A quotation from Einstein

I salute the man who is going through life always helpful, knowing no fear, and to whom aggressiveness and resentment are alien. Such is the stuff of which the great moral leaders are made who proffer consolation to mankind in their self-created miseries.
 
[Heil dem Manne, der stets helfend durchs Leben ging, keine Furcht kannte und dem jede Aggressivität und jedes Ressentiment fremd war! Von solchem Holz sind die Idealgestalten geschnitzt, die der Menschheit Trost bieten in den Situationen selbstgeschaffenen Leidens.]

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) German-American physicist
Essay (1953-05-23), “Aphorisms for Leo Baeck [Neun Aphorismen], No. 1, Essays Presented to Leo Baeck on the Occasion of His Eightieth Birthday (1954) [Einstein Archives 28-962]

More about this quote: wist.info/einstein-albert/8472…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #einstein #alberteinstein #aggression #calm #character #exemplar #fearlessness #friendliness #goodman #goodperson #helpfulness #humancondition #humanity #moralcharacter #moralleadership #peacefulness #philanthropy #resentment #virtue

The Barren Fields of Engineered Forever

https://tsvetoslavshalev.com/2026/06/28/the-barren-fields-of-engineered-forever/

A quotation from James Howell

In every Countrey the Sun riseth in the morning.

James Howell (c. 1594–1666) Welsh historian and writer
Paroimiographia [Παροιμιογραφία]: Proverbs, or, Old Sayed Sawes & Adages, “English Proverbs” (1659)
[compiler]

More about this quote: wist.info/howell-james/84600/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #jameshowell #proverb #continuity #lifegoeson #commonality #dawn #day #difference #humancondition #nations #world

A quotation from Orwell

It is commonly assumed that what human beings want is to be comfortable. Well, we now have it in our power to be comfortable, as our ancestors had not. Nature may occasionally hit back with an earthquake or a cyclone, but by and large she is beaten. And yet exactly at the moment when there is, or could be, plenty of everything for everybody, nearly our whole energies have to be taken up in trying to grab territories, markets and raw materials from one another. Exactly at the moment when wealth might be so generally diffused that no government need fear serious opposition, political liberty is declared to be impossible and half the world is ruled by secret police forces. Exactly at the moment when superstition crumbles and a rational attitude towards the universe becomes feasible, the right to think one’s own thoughts is denied as never before. The fact is that human beings only started fighting one another in earnest when there was no longer anything to fight about.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1946-11-29), “As I Please” column, Tribune Newspaper

More about this quote: wist.info/orwell-george/84548/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #orwell #georgeorwell #comfort #fight #humancondition #humannature #imperialism #needs #possibilities #progress #struggle #war #wealth #aggression

A quotation from Euripides

MEDEA: I know indeed what evil I intend to do,
   But stronger than all my afterthoughts is my fury,
   Fury that brings upon mortals the greatest evils.
 
[ΜΉΔΕΙΑ: Καὶ μανθάνω μὲν οἷα τολμήσω κακά,
   θυμὸς δὲ κρείσσων τῶν ἐμῶν βουλευμάτων,
   ὅσπερ μεγίστων αἴτιος κακῶν βροτοῖς.]

Euripides (485?-406? BC) Greek tragic dramatist
Medea [Μήδεια], l. 1078ff (431 BC) [tr. Warner (1944)]

More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/euripides/84529/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #euripides #medea #anger #conscience #crime #evil #evildoing #fury #humancondition #humannature #intentions #judgment #misdeed #paassion #rage #reason #selfawareness #selfcontrol #selfdestructiveness #wrath

A quotation from Orwell

When one considers how things have gone since 1930 or thereabouts, it is not easy to believe in the survival of civilization. I do not argue from this that the only thing to do is to adjure practical politics, retire to some remote place and concentrate either on individual salvation or on building up self-supporting communities against the day when the atom bombs have done their work. I think one must continue the political struggle, just as a doctor must try to save the life of a patient who is probably going to die. But I do suggest that we shall get nowhere unless we start by recognizing that political behaviour is largely non-rational, that the world is suffering from some kind of mental disease which must be diagnosed before it can be cured.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1946-11-29), “As I Please” column, Tribune Newspaper

More about this quote: wist.info/orwell-george/49725/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #orwell #georgeorwell #civilization #humancondition #irrationality #madness #persistence #politics #struggle #surrender #rootcause

A quotation from Adlai Stevenson

Sacrifice, patience, understanding, and implacable purpose may be our lot of years to come. Let’s face it. Let’s talk sense to the American people. Let’s tell them the truth, that there are no gains without pains, that there — that we are now on the eve of great decisions, not easy decisions, like resistance when you’re attacked, but a long, patient, costly struggle which alone can assure triumph over the great enemies of man — war, poverty, and tyranny — and the assaults upon human dignity which are the most grievous consequences of each.

Adlai Stevenson (1900–1965) American diplomat, statesman
Speech (1952-07-26), Democratic National Convention, Chicago

More about this quote: wist.info/stevenson-adlai-ewin…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #adlaistevenson #candor #coldwar #conflict #decisions #honesty #humanrights #poverty #tyranny #war #challenge #struggle #humancondition #purpose #progress #sacrifice

going to bed too late is a mistake that can’t be undone. and 1 day is exactly enough time to forget that you shouldn’t do it again #Why #HumanCondition #HumanSuffering #GodsCruellestTrick

The one sign that someone is highly intelligent, according to literary genius Leo Tolstoy

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.upworthy.com/tolstoys-sign-someone-is-highly-intelligent-ex1/

Philosophers grapple with the human yearning for "transcendence"

Philosopher Simon Critchley explains the human need to find meaning beyond everyday life, seen in art and relationships.

#philosophy, #meaningoflife, #simoncritchley, #humancondition, #transcendence

https://newsletter.tf/philosopher-critchley-human-search-for-meaning/

Philosopher Simon Critchley says humans always look for meaning beyond normal life. This search is seen in art and strong connections with others.

#philosophy, #meaningoflife, #simoncritchley, #humancondition, #transcendence
https://newsletter.tf/philosopher-critchley-human-search-for-meaning/

A quotation from Cesare Pavese

I’ve made a lot of stupid mistakes. Everyone does in this life. The real affliction of old age is remorse.
 
[Ho fatto molti stupidi errori, se ne fanno nella vita. I veri acciacchi dell’età sono i rimorsi.]

Cesare Pavese (1908–1950) Italian writer. essayist, literary critic
The Moon and the Bonfire [La Luna e i Falò], ch. 8 [The Cavaliere] (1950) [tr. Sinclair (1952)]

More about this quote: wist.info/pavese-cesare/83914/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #cesarepavese #gettingold #growingold #humancondition #mistakes #oldage #regrets #remorse

A quotation from Primo Levi

The ascent of the privileged, not only in the Lager [prison camp] but in all human coexistence, is an anguishing but unfailing phenomenon: only in utopias is it absent. It is the duty of righteous men to make war on all undeserved privilege, but one must not forget that this is a war without end. Where there exists power exercised by the few or by only one against the many, privilege is born and proliferates, even against the will of the power itself; but on the other hand it is normal for power to tolerate and encourage it.

Primo Levi (1919-1987) Italian Jewish chemist and writer
The Drowned and the Saved, ch. 2 “The Grey Zone” (1986) [tr. Rosenthal (1888)]

More about this quote: wist.info/levi-primo/83942/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #primolevi #abuseofpower #concentrationcamp #domination #humancondition #humannature #imbalanceofpower #privilege #prison #prisoncamp

I've got mixed emotions about Fanon's Black Skin, White Masks on anti-Enlightenment grounds.

https://philosophics.blog/2026/05/23/black-skin-white-masks-chapter-5/?utm_source=masto&utm_medium=social

#philosophy #psychology #books #blog #podcast #blm #postenlightenment #enlightenment #reason #rationality #writing #reading #humancondition #decolonialism #history #choice #fanon #bookreview #language

A quotation from Shelley

All things that we love and cherish,
   Like ourselves must fade and perish;
Such is our rude mortal lot —
   Love itself would, did they not.

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) English poet
Poem (1820), “Death,” st. 4, Posthumous Poems (1824)

More about this quote: wist.info/shelley-percy-bysshe…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #shelley #percybisheshelley #cherishing #death #humancondition #humannature #love #mortality

A quotation from Ingersoll

For me, it is hard to see the plan or design in earthquakes and pestilences. It is somewhat difficult to discern the design or the benevolence in so making the world that billions of animals live only on the agonies of others. The justice of God is not visible to me in the history of this world. When I think of the suffering and death, of the poverty and crime, of the cruelty and malice, of the heartlessness of this “design” and “plan,” where beak and claw and tooth tear and rend the quivering flesh of weakness and despair, I cannot convince myself that it is the result of infinite wisdom, benevolence, and justice.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator
Essay (1881-11) “The Christian Religion,” “Part 2” North American Review, Vol. 133, No. 300

More about this quote: wist.info/ingersoll-robert-gre…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #robertingersoll #robertgreeningersoll #circleoflife #divinejustice #divinelove #divineplan #divinewisdom #evil #foodchain #God #Godslove #history #humancondition #intelligentdesign #malice #meaningoflife #predation #problemofevil #problemofsuffering #suffering #theodicy

…analysis paralysis_

#beachlife🛟 #humancondition #conceptphoto #amsterdambeach #photodiary #photography