Humanitarianism Quotes

“There is no joy equal to that of being able to work for all humanity and doing what you're doing well.”
― R. Buckminster Fuller, Critical Path

“War can condition a person to be resilient, tolerant, dependable, strong, and capable of so much more than one who had experienced nothing of it; it can bring out the very best in us, but also the very worst. Where is it, I ask, the proper conduit through which a soldier should be raised from whence they would become an upstanding citizen of the world, instead of a single country?”
― Mike Norton

“Skepticism is my nature. Free Thought is my methodology. Agnosticism is my conclusion. Atheism is my opinion. Humanitarianism is my motivation.”
― Jerry DeWitt, Hope after Faith: An Ex-Pastor's Journey from Belief to Atheism

“As long as they killed people with conventional rather than nuclear weapons, they were praised as humanitarian statesmen. As long as they did not use nuclear weapons, it appeared, nobody was going to give the right name to all the killing that had been going on since the end of the Second World War, which was surely “World War Three.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Galápagos

“Politically, he was a humanitarian who did know right from left and was trapped uncomfortably between the two. He was constantly defending his Communist friends to his right-wing enemies and his right-wing friends to his Communist enemies, and he was thoroughly detested by both groups, who never defended him to anyone because they thought he was a dope.”
― Joseph Heller, Catch-22

“[T]hose who are in a position of strength have a responsibility to protect the weak.”
― Thomas Cushman, A Matter of Principle: Humanitarian Arguments for War in Iraq

“Sometimes, a war saves people.”
― Jose Ramos-Horta, A Matter of Principle: Humanitarian Arguments for War in Iraq

“Over time, I have come to believe that there is a killer and a saint in all of us. But...I choose to focus on the future and the *potential* in people.”
― Agnes Kamara-umunna, And Still Peace Did Not Come: A Memoir of Reconciliation

“Yesterday I was stupid, so I wanted to change the world. Today, I am more stupid, so I am changing the world. And tomorrow there will be a hundred more stupid like me, for this stupidity for changing the world can never accept any excuse for inaction, even if that excuse happens to be a most rational reason.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Operation Justice: To Make A Society That Needs No Law

“My Cosmic Soldiers (The Sonnet)

Bloodline is of no consequence,
We gotta pass on galvanizing ideas.
I may quite easily die without heir,
World is in care of my cosmic soldiers.

My life is the best book I've written,
Rest are just spoils of my pilgrimage.
Embark as explorer transcending words,
Service to the world is truest of homage.

You may know me from the gifs,
You may know me from my sonnets.
Mere knowing counts for nothing,
Sail the sea forgetting safety nets.

My soldiers are my gift to cosmos,
archaic narrowness is no match for them.
I got martyred in the making of a life,
to shine as beacon for generations to come.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Divine Refugee

“To understand me, you have to listen as a human, not as believer or nonbeliever, but as human.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Neurosonnets: The Naskar Art of Neuroscience

“That Day I'll Call You Human (Sonnet)

I shall call you all human,
the day you bring down all borders,
like you brought down the Berlin wall.

I shall call you all human,
the day you abolish all military,
like you abolished the SS.

I shall call you all human,
the day you eradicate fundamentalism,
like you eradicated polio.

I shall call you all human,
the day you ban the oligarchs,
like you tackled corona.

If you can't be a tsunami, be a flash flood -
if you can't be a flash flood, be a garden hose,
and wash away the inhumanities around you.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Neurosonnets: The Naskar Art of Neuroscience

“I do not stand on this side, nor on that. I stand where the walls between hearts crumble.”
― Bhuwan Thapaliya

“I Am The Naskar (Sonnet 2100)

I am the Naskar,
and I bridge people.

Unlike religious salesmen,
I don't offer you a promised land -
because there is nothing to promise,
that land of love and life already exists -

it exists in your neurons - all you need to do is,
bring down the walls that keep you foreign,
all you need to do is, denounce the pills
that keep you alien in your own home.

And when I've drawn all my mortal breaths,
I'll take leave with one final declaration -
let there be gods - not one, not three,
but billions upon billions -

let each human be a god unto themselves -
without fear, without prejudice -
without superstition, without cynicism -
let each mind rise triumphant over malice.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Neurosonnets: The Naskar Art of Neuroscience

“Kindness is free. Sprinkle that shit everywhere!”
― Sara Ellie MacKenzie

“Fundamentalists radicalize children for illegal terrorism, nationalists radicalize children for legal terrorism, I radicalize children for peace-n-oneness, using only their brain and backbone.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Little Planet on The Prairie: Dunya Benim, Sorumluluk Benim

“The world needs missionaries of love, missionaries of reason, not mercenaries of organized religion, out to harvest convert vegetation.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The God Sonnets: Naskar Art of Theology

“The whole world is my diary, I am the world's destiny.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Visvavatan: 100 Demilitarization Sonnets

“I am not a prophet, I'm a prototype -
I am not an exception, I'm an invitation;
undaunted, undeceived, and undivided,
we're the road to humanitarian detonation.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The God Sonnets: Naskar Art of Theology

“If the trees refused to endure storms,
no human habitat could flourish anywhere.
If the one human refuses to take pains,
whole humanity will collapse and disappear.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The God Sonnets: Naskar Art of Theology

“Black, white, brown, red, yellow, hetero, homo, trans, poor, rich, literate, illiterate, weak, strong – all are my sisters and brothers.”
― Abhijit Naskar, I Am The Thread: My Mission

“Oneness is the seed of infinity.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Iftar-e Insaniyat: The First Supper

“Death by Starvation or Boredom”
Many toil for scraps and cheap wages, surviving one fragile breath at a time— just one more breath...

While others, bloated with excess, labor only to escape boredom, pretending they’re saving a world drowning in the greed they created, and the power they refuse to let go.

The first walks a tightrope between breath and hunger. The second, cushioned by comfort, drifts closer to spiritual starvation, their soul numbed by excess.

And here lies the cruel symmetry— fate, with its blunt hands, levels the field by offering death either way: starvation... or boredom.

But the greatest tragedy belongs to those who die of both.”
― Louis Yako, سرطان في كل مكان [Cancer Everywhere]

“Naskar sonnet is a self-contained unit of civilization, indifferent to literary convention.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Kral Fakir: When Calls The Kainat

“I take care of the world as my family, and someone somewhere will take care of my immediate family when I am not there, that's the kind of blind illogical faith that actually makes a difference.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Kral Fakir: When Calls The Kainat

“I look after the world as family, so the world may look after my family, when I'm not there - that's the kind of blind faith that actually makes a difference.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Nazmahal: Palace of Grace

“Drunken Humanitarian (Sonnet)

Go, get drunk, my friend!

Get so drunk with a vision unseen,
even monsoon begins to cry!
Get so drunk with an unbent cause,
even bosons bow to thy might!

Get so drunk with incorruptibility,
you emerge a walking Wardencliffe.
Get so drunk with accountability,
no Rorschach can analyze your spirit.

Get so drunk with uncontaminated justice,
every government keeps a file on you!
Get so drunk with untainted love,
conclaves convene to decipher you!

Any ape can find salvation in liquid escape,
takes a human to endure through devastation.
Any rodent of the gutter can drown in alcohol,
it takes a giant to drink the world's poison.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Divine Refugee

“No hero, no charlatan saint,
no prophet out to herd a flock;
unhinged in duty, an unflinching flame,
I'm just a signpost on the cosmic clock.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Sonnets From The Mountaintop

“I don't live, I combust
(Constitution of Humanity, S.2708)

I'm not a nerd,
I'm the manufacturing plant
of humanitarian nerds,
whose nationality is humanity,
whose worship is reason,
whose madness is world uplift,
whose culture is integration.

I don't think, I roar.
I don't write, I pour.
I don't live, I combust,
so you may outgrow the shore.

I'm not a citizen of the planet,
I'm the Engine of Earth Society.
I'm bound by no constitution,
I'm the Constitution of Humanity.

Cleansed of all newage gullibility,
immunized against organized bigotry,
neither vegetable nor animal,
cometh the call, cometh the tsunami.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Nazmahal: Palace of Grace

“I'm not a citizen of the planet,
I'm the Engine of Earth Society.
I'm bound by no constitution,
I'm the Constitution of Humanity.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Nazmahal: Palace of Grace