Careful Words

human (n.)

human (adj.)

  All that is human must retrograde if it do not advance.

Edward Gibbon (1737-1794): Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776). Chap. lxxi.

In bed we laugh, in bed we cry;

And, born in bed, in bed we die.

The near approach a bed may show

Of human bliss to human woe.

Isaac De Benserade (1612-1691):

O men with sisters dear,

O men with mothers and wives,

It is not linen you 're wearing out,

But human creatures' lives!

Thomas Hood (1798-1845): The Song of the Shirt.

  Mind is the great lever of all things; human thought is the process by which human ends are ultimately answered.

Daniel Webster (1782-1852): Address on laying the Corner-Stone of the Bunker Hill Monument, 1825. Vol. i. p. 71.

  When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826): Declaration of Independence.

Thus with the year

Seasons return; but not to me returns

Day, or the sweet approach of even or morn,

Or sight of vernal bloom or summer's rose,

Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine;

But cloud instead, and ever-during dark

Surrounds me; from the cheerful ways of men

Cut off, and for the book of knowledge fair

Presented with a universal blank

Of Nature's works, to me expung'd and raz'd,

And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out.

John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Lost. Book iii. Line 40.

  The human features and countenance, although composed of but some ten parts or little more, are so fashioned that among so many thousands of men there are no two in existence who cannot be distinguished from one another.

Pliny The Elder (23-79 a d): Natural History, Book vii. Sect. 8.

No more was seen the human form divine.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): The Odyssey of Homer. Book x. Line 278.

The canvas glow'd beyond ev'n Nature warm,

The pregnant quarry teem'd with human form.

Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774): The Traveller. Line 137.

Heaven's Sovereign saves all beings but himself

That hideous sight,—a naked human heart.

Edward Young (1684-1765): Night Thoughts. Night iii. Line 226.

How small of all that human hearts endure,

That part which laws or kings can cause or cure!

Still to ourselves in every place consigned,

Our own felicity we make or find.

With secret course, which no loud storms annoy,

Glides the smooth current of domestic joy.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784): Lines added to Goldsmith's Traveller.

  I may not here omit those two main plagues and common dotages of human kind, wine and women, which have infatuated and besotted myriads of people; they go commonly together.

Robert Burton (1576-1640): Anatomy of Melancholy. Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 3, Subsect. 13.

Yet do I fear thy nature;

It is too full o' the milk of human kindness.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 5.

  Alas! it is not till time, with reckless hand, has torn out half the leaves from the Book of Human Life to light the fires of passion with from day to day, that man begins to see that the leaves which remain are few in number.

Henry W Longfellow (1807-1882): Hyperion. Book iv. Chap. viii.

  Babylon in all its desolation is a sight not so awful as that of the human mind in ruins.

Scrope Davies: Letter to Thomas Raikes, May 25, 1835.

The human mortals.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act ii. Sc. 1.

A creature not too bright or good

For human nature's daily food;

For transient sorrows, simple wiles,

Praise, blame, love, kisses, tears, and smiles.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850): She was a Phantom of Delight.

Hail wedded love, mysterious law, true source

Of human offspring.

John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Lost. Book iv. Line 750.

Oh that the desert were my dwelling-place,

With one fair spirit for my minister,

That I might all forget the human race,

And hating no one, love but only her!

Lord Byron 1788-1824: Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Canto iv. Stanza 177.

Let observation with extensive view

Survey mankind, from China to Peru.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784): Vanity of Human Wishes. Line 1.

O God! it is a fearful thing

To see the human soul take wing

In any shape, in any mood.

Lord Byron 1788-1824: Prisoner of Chillon. Stanza 8.

Religion blushing, veils her sacred fires,

And unawares Morality expires.

Nor public flame nor private dares to shine;

Nor human spark is left, nor glimpse divine!

Lo! thy dread empire Chaos is restor'd,

Light dies before thy uncreating word;

Thy hand, great Anarch, lets the curtain fall,

And universal darkness buries all.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): The Dunciad. Book iv. Line 649.

  Mind is the great lever of all things; human thought is the process by which human ends are ultimately answered.

Daniel Webster (1782-1852): Address on laying the Corner-Stone of the Bunker Hill Monument, 1825. Vol. i. p. 71.

  For to err in opinion, though it be not the part of wise men, is at least human.

Plutarch (46(?)-120(?) a d): Against Colotes.

To err is human, to forgive divine.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Essay on Criticism. Part ii. Line 325.

Then gently scan your brother man,

Still gentler sister woman;

Though they may gang a kennin' wrang,

To step aside is human.

Robert Burns (1759-1796): Address to the Unco Guid.