It is the poverty connected with our species which subordinates one man to another. It is not inequality which is the real misfortune, it is dependence.
I know enough to know that no man is an island.
It is time in the West to defend not so much human rights as human obligations.
It's wonderful to move forward technologically, but we cannot forget that we are human beings who thrive on relationships, who thrive on interconnectivity, who thrive on sharing your feelings and emotions.
You ask why I'm fascinated by the human figure? As a human animal, I am interested in some of my fellow animals: in their minds and bodies.
People live, work, walk, play, shop, study, and eat with other people. There are few desert dwellers who live alone without depending in some way on people.
You can't walk alone. Many have given the illusion, but none have really walked alone. Man is not made that way. Each man is bedded in his people, their history, their culture, and their values.
But I think 'Love, Actually' has a very realistic view of human nature in line with the latest scientific evidence. The opening scene, where Hugh Grant's character talks about the arrivals gate at Heathrow, is about friendship and connection, it's about who we really are as a species.
From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: that we are here for the sake of each other - above all for those upon whose smile and well-being our own happiness depends, and also for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy. Many times a day I realize how much my own outer and inner life is built upon the labors of my fellow men, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received.
Most of us really aren't horribly unique. There are 6 billion of us. Put 'em all in one room and very few would stand out as individuals. So maybe we ought to think of worth in terms of our ability to get along as a part of nature, rather than being the lords over nature.
Responsible global behaviour is ultimately an act of self-preservation of, by, and for the global beast that modern technological humanity has become.
We may think we live in a digital age. But there are some things technology will never replace.
We must live in groups; other people are like nutrients for us, and are absolutely essential for our survival.
But it has, in addition, an even more precious quality - a consciousness of the human intelligence, the human spirit and that man is a social creature.
I think 'The Color Purple' is so bursting with love, the need for connection, the showing of the need for connection around the globe.
No man is an island; but some are peninsulas.
Every man in the world is better than someone else and not as good as someone else.
In the final analysis, the progress of our civilization will be retarded if any large body of citizens falls behind. Without the help of thousands of others, any one of us would die, naked and starved.
The community of masses of human beings has produced an order of life in regulated channels which connects individuals in a technically functioning organisation, but not inwardly from the historicity of their souls.
There is no real independent self, aloof from other human beings, inspecting the world, inspecting other people. You are, in fact, connected not just via Facebook and Internet, you're actually quite literally connected by your neurons.
All people owe their lives to surrounding society.
A true community is not just about being geographically close to someone or part of the same social web network. It's about feeling connected and responsible for what happens. Humanity is our ultimate community, and everyone plays a crucial role.
We are at a point in human evolution when human solidarity on a global scale is absolutely vital for the survival of the human species. That means understanding that ... we are all co-inhabitants of this planet.
It is easier to treat people as objects to be manipulated if you have never learned any other way to see them.
We are all cells in the same body of humanity.
