Human Spirit Quotes

“There is a desire within each of us,
in the deep center of ourselves
that we call our heart.
We were born with it,
it is never completely satisfied,
and it never dies.
We are often unaware of it,
but it is always awake.

It is the Human desire for Love.
Every person in this Earth yearns to love,
to be loved, to know love.
Our true identity, our reason for being
is to be found in this desire.

Love is the "why" of life,
why we are functioning at all.
I am convinced
it is the fundamental energy
of the human spirit.
the fuel on which we run,
the wellspring of our vitality.

And grace,
which is the flowing,
creative activity, of love itself,
is what makes all goodness possible.

Love should come first,
it should be the beginning of,
and the reason for everything.”
― Gerald May, Living in Love

“You can't take the sky from me.”
― Joss Whedon

“You had a choice: you could either strain and look at things that appeared in front of you in the fog, painful as it might be, or you could relax and lose yourself”
― Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

“If you are a future donor recipient, remember: your family should be a part of your transformative journey. Both parties will experience growth as they find balance in your new life stage.”
― Gregory S. Works, Triumph: Life on the Other Side of Trials, Transplants, Transition and Transformation

“Be okay with having health-essential boundaries.”
― Gregory S. Works, Triumph: Life on the Other Side of Trials, Transplants, Transition and Transformation

“I understood that centuries of chains and lashes will not kill the spirit of man nor the sense of truth within him.”
― Ayn Rand, Anthem

“Ed Sanders chuckled. “The ivy-covered walls at Columbia University have limited the depth of your insight, Professor Gilmore. The rehearsal flight is a ploy cooked up in the White House to take advantage of Cindy Divine’s immense popularity.”
― Shafter Bailey, Cindy Divine: The Little Girl Who Frightened Kings

“Aristotle taught that stars are made of a different matter than the four earthly elements— a quintessence— that also happens to be what the human psyche is made of. Which is why man’s spirit corresponds to the stars. Perhaps that’s not a very scientific view, but I do like the idea that there’s a little starlight in each of us.”
― Lisa Kleypas, Love in the Afternoon

“That's it. Love makes us all strong.”
― E.A. Bucchianeri, Brushstrokes of a Gadfly

“This world… belongs to the strong, my friend! The ritual of our existence is based on the strong getting stronger by devouring the weak.”
― Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

“The world in which you were born is just one model of reality. Other cultures are not failed attempts at being YOU: they are unique manifestations of the human spirit.”
― Wade Davis

“Millions cheer the warrior
spilling blood across the ring
while the one who stands for peace
is ridiculed and shamed.
Must hearts forever suffer
from ignorance and greed?
Can bombs heal our souls
or set our spirits free?”
― Aberjhani, Songs from the Black Skylark zPed Music Player

“Arts, culture, and creativity are essential to the human experience, helping us understand our emotions and fostering empathy.”
― Suman Pokhrel

“Faith belongs to the human spirit. Faith is faith. Humanity is divided by religion, religion is the divider of humanity. If every human could be removed of their blindfolds and see that faith is in itself faith and that this is something which belongs to each and every human being, then at that time the dividers of religion will suddenly mean nothing and we will all see that we are united by faith in and of itself. There is only one faith and it is called faith. And no man needs to prove to another man that what he believes in exists, because even if it does not exist, his faith is his belief that it is there, that something is there, and that in itself is faith. So I do not need to prove to any man that what I believe in exists or not, there is no such contest between man, my faith breathes in the body of my belief; the fact that I believe is the breath of my faith.”
― C. JoyBell C.

“The human spirit is tremendously resilient. It can withstand the most horrific of circumstances, whether of human or divine creation... It is not these larger-than-life situations that beat us. It's the little things.”
― Sheila Williams, The Shade of My Own Tree: A Novel

“Philosophy cannot be extinguished, though men will try ... The spirit seeks the light, that is its nature. It wishes to return to its origin, and must forever try to reach enlightenment.”
― Iain Pears, The Dream of Scipio

“An active life serves the purpose of giving man the opportunity to realize values in creative work, while a passive life of enjoyment affords him the opportunity to obtain fulfillment in experiencing beauty, art, or nature. But there is also purpose in that life which is almost barren of both creation and enjoyment which admits of but one possibility of high moral behavior: namely, in man's attitude to his existence, an existence restricted by external forces. A creative life and a life of enjoyment are banned to him. But not only creativeness and enjoyment are meaningful. If there is a meaning in life at all, then there must be a meaning in suffering. Suffering is an ineradicable part of life, even as fate and death. Without suffering and death human life cannot be complete.

The way in which a man accepts his fate and all the suffering it entails, the way in which he takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity-even under the most difficult circumstances- to add a deeper meaning to his life. It may remain brave, dignified, and unselfish. Or in the bitter fight for self-preservation he may forget his human dignity and become no more than an animal. Here lies the chance for a man either to make use of or to forgo the opportunities of attaining the moral values that a difficult situation may afford him. And this decides whether he is worthy of his sufferings or not.

Do not think that these considerations are unworldly and too far removed from real life. It is true that only a few people are capable of reaching such high moral standards. Of the prisoners only a few kept their full inner liberty and obtained those values which their suffering afforded, but even one such example is sufficient proof that man's inner strength may raise him above his outward fate. Such men are not only in concentration camps. Everywhere man is confronted with fate, with the chance of achieving something through his own suffering.”
― Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning

“I guess you can't live at full-on intensity forever. Lying on the bed of my cell in the dark, trembling, waiting for the soldiers to come in and shoot me - you just can't keep doing that. There's something in the human spirit that won't let you live that way.”
― John Marsden, A Killing Frost

“In that nanosecond of enlightenment I knew that the human spirit survives the death of the physical body and I understood that my wandering soul needed to get back into its earthly habitat.”
― Janet Bettag

“The human creature is such a deceptively simple thing to look at. You can watch someone peel an orange or trip up a flight of stairs and forget that inside they are both strange and infinite.

Take a human by the wrist and you have in your hand a piece of unending longing.”
― Katherine Rundell, The Poisoned King

“Conscious human malevolence can break the spirit even tragedy could not shake.”
― Jordan B. Peterson

“With every step into the unknown, the human spirit transforms the impossible into the next great frontier.”
― Amit Ray, Walking the Path of Compassion

“Shukhov started to pick out the cabbage in his bowl. There was only one piece of potato and that turned up in the bowl he got from Caesar. It wasn't much of a potato. It was frostbitten of course, a little hard and on the sweet side. And there was hardly any fish, just a piece of bone here and there without any flesh on it. But every little fishbone and every piece of fin had to be sucked to get all the juice out of it-it was good for you. All this took time but Shukhov was in no hurry now. He'd had a real good day-he'd managed to get an extra helping at noon and for supper too. So he could skip everything else he wanted to do that evening. Nothing else mat-tered now.”
― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

“Imagine a world where humans are completely captive… Over time, people lose their creativity, vitality, and sense of freedom.”
― Ken Breniman, Subversive Acts of Humanity : A Survival Guide for Choosing Evolution over Self-Destruction

“Papers identify monkeys, not the human spirit.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Nazmahal: Palace of Grace

“A volley thundered — and the prisoner kneeling beside Peter collapsed lifelessly into the dirt. Three more men fell elsewhere along the line.
“Reload!” the State Security lieutenant kept commanding. “Aim!”
Peter turned his gaze toward the NKVD squad. A rifle was pointed straight at his chest, the bayonet gleaming. He looked into the barrel.
“Can a crude piece of lead really destroy my unique soul forever? No — that is absurd!”
In a state of shock, he felt himself tearing away from reality, rising above the turmoil into a silvery, radiant height. Below, his body knelt on the ground. But his essence — his soul — watched what was happening with bitter irony from above. His gaze turned toward the beautiful light descending from the heavens.
Peter shuddered. The rifle was still aimed at his chest. Yet he felt no fear. Now he knew: his soul could not die — it was impossible. His essence, his spirit — and therefore he himself — were immortal.
“Stand down!” the NKVD lieutenant said with relief. “This time you are spared. But if there is any further sabotage, there will be no mercy.”
— Volodymyr Shablia, Stone. Book One


Context note: During a prisoner transport in Stalin’s USSR, Peter witnesses an execution and is moments away from being shot himself. Facing death, fear gives way to a profound inner realization about the immortality of the human spirit.”
― Володимир Шабля, Камень. Биографический роман: Часть первая. Первые шаги к свету и обратно

“A son. An heir. Fragile — born too soon, and yet deeply desired.”
The thought had barely formed when the father took the newborn into his arms and fell in love at first sight. Afraid to harm him, yet unable to resist, he gently kissed the baby’s cheek.
“He is not Alexander, as I once imagined,” he realized suddenly. “He is Peter. My son is Peter.”
When the parents chose the name, they did not know its ancient Greek meaning. Nor could they imagine how precisely it would define the boy’s fate: Peter — a stone, a rock.
From the very moment of his painful birth, he would stand like a rock against suffering and injustice, enduring hardship, surviving cruelty, and emerging stronger — destined to fulfill a mission of goodness, reason, honesty, and justice.
— Volodymyr Shablia, Stone. Book One


Context note:
Born into a turbulent era of war, revolution, repression, and uncertainty, Peter enters the world fragile — yet claimed by history itself. This moment of birth marks the quiet beginning of a life shaped by endurance, moral strength, and resistance to cruelty.”
― Володимир Шабля, Камень. Биографический роман: Часть первая. Первые шаги к свету и обратно

“This is [our] true predicament: together with the fear of man we have lost the love of man, the affirmation of man, the will to man."
— Friedrich Nietzsche”
― Rollo May, Love and Will

“Whatever happens in the external world, human love and grief, pity and compassion are what matter. These emotions transcend even death.”
― Rollo May, Love and Will

“You can be forgotten, abandoned, wounded, and still choose to become someone kind, curious, and full of light.”
― James Doyle, To Rise Above Your Fear: One Season at a Time