All men are intrinsical rascals, and I am only sorry that not being a dog I can’t bite them.

When we have ceased to love the stench of the human animal, either in others or in ourselves, then are we condemned to misery, and clear thinking can begin.

To think ill of mankind and not wish ill to them, is perhaps the highest wisdom and virtue.

It is a sign of creeping inner death when we can no longer praise the living.

Since I no longer expect anything from mankind except madness, meanness, and mendacity; egotism, cowardice, and self-delusion, I have stopped being a misanthrope.

It disturbs me no more to find men base, unjust, or selfish than to see apes mischievous, wolves savage, or the vulture ravenous for its prey.

It is true that we are weak and sick and ugly and quarrelsome but if that is all we ever were, we would millenniums ago have disappeared from the face of the earth.

Principally I hate and detest that animal called man; although I heartily love John, Peter, Thomas, and so forth.