Man
‹ 3 · Outline · 5 ›
4.The dignity and greatness of man
4a.Man as image of God and kin to the divine
See also: Soul 6 · God 6b
The Book of PsalmsVol. 44
- p. 319Human being as marvelously made, known fully by his maker.read · scan
Herodotus, An Account of EgyptVol. 33
- p. 71–72Statues show men were merely honourable and good, far removed from gods.read · scan
The Bhagavad-Gita; or, Song CelestialVol. 45
- p. 830Human qualities, intellect, self-control, joy, grief, fear, shame, honor, are all gifts from the Lord; mankind arose from His thought.read · scan
Paul, The First Epistle of Paul to the CorinthiansVol. 45
- p. 494Men are carnal, jealous, and strife-prone, yet are God's building and temple, where God's Spirit dwells; human dignity and holiness.read · scan
Paul, The Second Epistle of Paul to the CorinthiansVol. 45
- p. 523Believers are the temple of the living God, called sons and daughters; humans in affliction, sorrow, and repentance.read · scan
Epictetus, The Golden Sayings of EpictetusVol. 2
- p. 120Man is more than paltry flesh; those who believe themselves born for fidelity and modesty think nobly of themselves.read · scan
- p. 121–122Men endowed with Reason are by nature fitted to commune with God.read · scan
- p. 137Man is preferred to honour, of high descent as a portion of God.read · scan
Saint Augustine, The Confessions of St. AugustineVol. 7
- p. 82Man is made in God's image, though contained in space from head to foot.read · scan
Sir Thomas More, UtopiaVol. 36
- p. 224The dignity of man's nature is tied to belief in the soul and providence.read · scan
Benvenuto Cellini, The Autobiography of Benvenuto CelliniVol. 31
- p. 250–252Suffering in prison shows how a man resembles the high good and God's power.read · scan
Francis Bacon, Essays, Civil and MoralVol. 3
- p. 42–43Denying God destroys man's nobility: kin to beasts by body, he is ignoble unless kin to God by spirit.read · scan
Sir Thomas Browne, Religio MediciVol. 3
- p. 326Man is a microcosm, image of God, with a divine part before the elements; mind not bounded by flesh.read · scan
John Milton, Poems Written at Horton, 1632-1638Vol. 4
- p. 44–47Human face is the express resemblance of the gods, lost through sensual folly.read · scan
John Milton, Paradise LostVol. 4
- p. 155Adam and Eve appear godlike, erect, with native honour, bearing the image of their Maker: truth, wisdom, sanctitude.read · scan
- p. 227Man is made in God's image from dust with the breath of life, given dominion over creatures, male and female.read · scan
- p. 246Raphael says God honoured Man, set his equal love on him and made him in his image.read · scan
- p. 249Man is defective in unity and must multiply his image; made in God's image, unlike the brute.read · scan
William Penn, Some Fruits of SolitudeVol. 1
- p. 331Man, noblest creature and image of God, sordidly worships gold for God.read · scan
Joseph Addison, The Vision of MirzaVol. 27
- p. 76–77Man was not made in vain, given his reserved eternity.read · scan
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Profession of Faith of a Savoyard VicarVol. 34
- p. 274Conscience makes man resemble the Deity and elevates him above the brutes.read · scan
Christopher Smart, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 486–488Man is the semblance and effect of God and love, elect saint.read · scan
- p. 488–490Man is chief of creatures, bearing God's name impressed on his face.read · scan
William Blake, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 588–591Man is God's child and care, bearing the human form divine.read · scan
Friedrich von Schiller, Letters upon the Aesthetic Education of ManVol. 32
- p. 240–241Man bears a predisposition for divinity; his personality is virtual infinite manifestation needing sensuousness to become real.read · scan
William Wordsworth, Prefaces to Various Volumes of PoemsVol. 39
- p. 273Believes in inherent, indestructible qualities of the human mind and the dignity of man.read · scan
William Ellery Channing, On the Elevation of the Laboring ClassesVol. 28
- p. 331Human dignity lies in the spiritual principle of reason and conscience, a ray of Divinity, which discerns immutable truth and right; few know what man is.read · scan
- p. 361Ideas that exalt humanity, such as nearness to God and the purpose of being, may grow in the laborer's mind.read · scan
- p. 365Channing reveres human nature as the temple of the Divinity, grieves at its degradation, and hopes for its high destiny.read · scan
Thomas Carlyle, Sir Walter ScottVol. 25
- p. 410Knox's message: men are created by God, not machines nor slaves of fellow-men or appetites.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, An Address Delivered before the Senior Class in Divinity CollegeVol. 5
- p. 26Man's being is boundless; though low in evil and weakness, he is born to the perfect and the divine, and the sentiment of virtue reveals it.read · scan
- p. 26–27In the soul of man is instant justice; the just man partakes of God, and he who renounces himself comes to himself.read · scan
- p. 30Christ alone appreciated the worth and greatness of man; God incarnates himself in man and man's life is itself a miracle.read · scan
- p. 37Man is the wonderworker amid miracles; true Christianity holds faith in the infinitude of man.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Man the ReformerVol. 5
- p. 43Man's high calling as rational and spiritual being, fallen into common and mean life, called to be a free, upright reformer.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Over-SoulVol. 5
- p. 135–136All spiritual being lies in man; no wall between man the effect and God the cause; the soul transcends time and space.read · scan
John Greenleaf Whittier, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1346–1347The God-like soul of man will work upward against bondage.read · scan
Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Two Years Before the MastVol. 23
- p. 100A human being made in God's likeness flogged like a beast offends human dignity.read · scan
Walt Whitman, Preface to Leaves of GrassVol. 39
- p. 398–399Nothing in the known universe is more divine than men and women; to be is as great as to perceive.read · scan
4b.Man as lord of creation
See also: Animal 8a
The Book of PsalmsVol. 44
- p. 151–152What is man that God is mindful of him? Made little lower than God, crowned with glory and dominion over creatures.read · scan
Sophocles, AntigoneVol. 8
- p. 260Chorus hymns man as the most wonderful and fearful creature, skilled at sea, plough and mastering beasts.read · scan
- p. 260–266Chorus hymns man as the strangest and most wonderful of living things, supreme in skill over sea, earth and beasts.read · scan
Francis Bacon, Proœmium, Epistle Dedicatory, Preface, and Plan of the Instauratio MagnaVol. 39
- p. 141–142Man's role and limits: servant and interpreter of nature.read · scan
Christopher Marlowe, The Tragical History of Doctor FaustusVol. 19
- p. 224Mephistophilis claims heaven was made for man, so man is more excellent than heaven.read · scan
William Shakespeare, The TempestVol. 46
- p. 455–458Miranda's wonder: 'How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world.' Prospero notes it is new only to her.read · scan
Sir Thomas Browne, Religio MediciVol. 3
- p. 264–265Man as humble creature whose reason is meant to read God's works and who can requite his Creator only by doing His will.read · scan
- p. 286Man's place in creation: made to render God homage, as angels do in the other world; not the sole end of all things.read · scan
- p. 290Mere natural existence is not true living according to the dignity of humanity.read · scan
John Milton, Paradise LostVol. 4
- p. 108Man is described as a new race, less in power than the angels but more favored by God, and a target of attack.read · scan
- p. 125Satan speaks of man as an upstart race that may replace the fallen angels.read · scan
- p. 165–170Man's dignity rests in his appointed work.read · scan
- p. 227Man is made in God's image from dust with the breath of life, given dominion over creatures, male and female.read · scan
- p. 249Man is set above the creatures as God's substitute and needs a peer, unlike brutes.read · scan
- p. 261Man is the sum of growth, sense and reason, for whom the creation exists.read · scan
- p. 261Satan scorns man as a creature of clay raised from dust and set as lord of the world.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48
- p. 160–161Man's dignity in innocence was dominion over creatures; now he is subject to them.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, Minor WorksVol. 48
- p. 413Man is the most beautiful creature God has formed; his large heart is unsatisfied by every object.read · scan
Voltaire, Letters on the EnglishVol. 34
- p. 142–143Boileau's satire mocks man's pride in thinking himself nature's prop and lord of animals, asking how many lords he has.read · scan
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Profession of Faith of a Savoyard VicarVol. 34
- p. 255Man ranks first in creation through will and intelligence, the only being able to survey the whole system.read · scan
- p. 256Man is lord of creation, unique in using fire, contemplating the stars, discerning order and virtue; rejects comparing himself to brutes.read · scan
John Woolman, The Journal of John WoolmanVol. 1
- p. 176Man is the most noble of visible creatures under God's providence.read · scan
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in FranceVol. 24
- p. 228Man is a wonderful structure, partly a creature of his own making, destined for no trivial place in creation.read · scan
William Ellery Channing, On the Elevation of the Laboring ClassesVol. 28
- p. 311The spirit of man is not forever weighed down by toil for animal life; men grasp their vocation and true happiness.read · scan
Thomas De Quincey, Levana and Our Ladies of SorrowVol. 27
- p. 319The newborn is raised upright as king of the world, symbolizing human grandeur greater than the stars.read · scan
Thomas Carlyle, Inaugural Address at EdinburghVol. 25
- p. 381–382The ideal suggests something higher is still possible for man in this world.read · scan
Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the BeagleVol. 29
- p. 11Notes that reckless destruction of trees by settlers has produced sterility on the island.read · scan
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 993–994Man is called the roof and crown of things yet alone perpetually moans and toils.read · scan
- p. 1019–1020Questions whether man, Nature's crowning race, is too base to be final.read · scan
Sir Archibald Geikie, Geographical EvolutionVol. 30
- p. 325Man has changed nature, and geographical environment has moulded his progress.read · scan
- p. 326Geography asks how problems bear on man, the undisputed lord of this marvellously ordered world.read · scan
- p. 349Man emerges as a rude hunter, then becomes a geographical force, contending with nature to subdue the earth and leave his stratum.read · scan
- p. 350–351Man's blind struggle with the earth, his learning by bitter experience to be nature's minister and interpreter, and his role as God's fellow-worker.read · scan
4c.Man as end in himself, with absolute worth
See also: Duty 1a · Principle 3 · Will 5 · Liberty 1b
Confucius, The Sayings of ConfuciusVol. 44
- p. 31–32After his stables burnt he asked whether anyone was hurt, not about the horses.read · scan
Sir Thomas More, UtopiaVol. 36
- p. 142All the goods in the world cannot countervail a man's life.read · scan
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, A Discourse upon the Origin and the Foundation of the Inequality among MankindVol. 34
- p. 217Giving up liberty degrades one's nature and offends the author of one's being.read · scan
Immanuel Kant, Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of MoralsVol. 32
- p. 338Rational beings are persons, ends in themselves with absolute worth, unlike irrational things that have merely relative value as means.read · scan
- p. 339–340Humanity in oneself and others must always be treated as an end, never merely as means; man is not a thing.read · scan
- p. 340–341Humanity has capacities for perfection whose neglect fails to advance humanity as an end in itself.read · scan
- p. 344–345Dignity, an intrinsic worth above all value with no equivalent, belongs to morality and to humanity as capable of it.read · scan
- p. 346Autonomy is the basis of the dignity of human and every rational nature.read · scan
- p. 347Rational nature is distinguished from the rest of nature by setting itself an end; the rational being is the subject of all ends.read · scan
- p. 348Rational beings, as ends in themselves and lawgivers, have dignity above all merely physical beings; called persons.read · scan
- p. 348Absolute worth of man lies in his dignity as rational creature, independent of wants and external relations.read · scan
- p. 350–351Dignity of humanity consists in capacity to be universally legislative.read · scan
- p. 359A man finds his personal worth in obeying the law, outweighing any agreeable condition.read · scan
Friedrich Schiller, William TellVol. 26
- p. 458–459He dies comforted that the majesty of man will be maintained by other hands.read · scan
Friedrich von Schiller, Letters upon the Aesthetic Education of ManVol. 32
- p. 216–217Man is both material and end for the political artist, whose inner being and personality must be respected.read · scan
- p. 273–274Man is never solely individual obeying nature; his dignity lies in acting as a rational being.read · scan
William Wordsworth, Prefaces to Various Volumes of PoemsVol. 39
- p. 280Pleasure-giving is a homage to the native dignity of man.read · scan
William Ellery Channing, On the Elevation of the Laboring ClassesVol. 28
- p. 331–332Man is a free being who decides his own destiny and perfects himself by conflict; he is an end, not a mere part of a machine.read · scan
Walt Whitman, Preface to Leaves of GrassVol. 39
- p. 389–390Not nature, wealth or learning suffice for the ideal of man; largeness of spirit is needed.read · scan
4d.The equal worth of all men regardless of rank
See also: Aristocracy 3a
Stories from the Thousand and One NightsVol. 16
- p. 231–232All men are alike in origin, yet their condition differs greatly.read · scan
John Webster, The Duchess of MalfiVol. 47
- p. 774Princes share the same passions and reason as vicars, only ruining provinces instead of neighbours.read · scan
Thomas Hobbes, Of Man, Being the First Part of LeviathanVol. 34
- p. 408–409Hobbes argues men are naturally equal and rejects Aristotle's claim that the wise are born to command and others to serve.read · scan
Sir Thomas Browne, Religio MediciVol. 3
- p. 329–330Beggar and rich share a common soul whose genealogy is God, equally on the way to salvation.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48
- p. 45–46All men, great and small, rest on the same earth, as low as the meanest, infants and beasts.read · scan
- p. 272Christ is seen in all persons and conditions, as Father, Brother, poor, rich, doctor, priest and sovereign.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, Minor WorksVol. 48
- p. 379–380Natural condition is equality with all mankind; great men's excesses come from not knowing what they are.read · scan
Alexander Pope, Solitude; On a Certain Lady at Court; Essay on ManVol. 40
- p. 430Worth makes the man; differences of dress and rank are superficial beside wise and foolish.read · scan
Oliver Goldsmith, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 528–529Even the peasant learns to venerate himself as man.read · scan
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Tragedy of Faust, Part IVol. 19
- p. 43–45Among the common people Faust says 'Here am I man, I feel it here.'read · scan
Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6
- p. 85–87The social, friendly, honest man alone fulfils Nature's plan, whatever his rank.read · scan
- p. 177–179Exhorts the poet to preserve the dignity of Man with soul erect and trust the Universal Plan.read · scan
- p. 492–494Man's godlike form and countenance divine; the slavish man denies the 'Royalty of Man'.read · scan
- p. 509–511'A Man's a Man for a' that': worth of an honest man lies in character, not silks or rank.read · scan
William Ellery Channing, On the Elevation of the Laboring ClassesVol. 28
- p. 320One dignity belongs equally to all human beings, laborer or not.read · scan
- p. 341–343Men should follow their genius in diverse pursuits yet recognize brotherhood and honor one another.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, The American ScholarVol. 5
- p. 18Man is one and has wronged himself; the mass live vicariously through hero or poet, honoring the dignity of common human nature.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, An Address Delivered before the Senior Class in Divinity CollegeVol. 5
- p. 38–39Say 'I also am a man'; all men have sublime thoughts and value their few real hours.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, New England ReformersVol. 5
- p. 268Every man is equal to church, state and other men; differences in power are superficial and compensated.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1252–1253The peasant, lowly great, is the heart of the scene and public child of earth and sky.read · scan
John Greenleaf Whittier, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1342–1344He saw only man and woman in his slaves, reverencing the human.read · scan
James Russell Lowell, Abraham LincolnVol. 28
- p. 445The rights of human nature are unitary; oppression is the same whatever the color of the oppressed.read · scan
Walt Whitman, Preface to Leaves of GrassVol. 39
- p. 391The great poet bestows on everything its fit proportions and nourishes men and women.read · scan
- p. 391–393Men and women are not dreams or dots; even the illiterate are sacred and perfect, and none is degraded for ignorance or sin.read · scan
James Russell Lowell, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1383Lincoln as a new hero of the new soil, valued for human worth and sincerity, not birth.read · scan
Matthew Arnold, The Study of PoetryVol. 28
- p. 85–86For a' that asserts the independence, equality and dignity of the honest man above rank.read · scan
4e.Self-trust and the divinity of the individual
See also: Custom and Convention 4a · Soul 6 · Education 9a
Ralph Waldo Emerson, The American ScholarVol. 5
- p. 17Self-trust and the divine in man: the great man shapes nature and other men's minds by serene conviction.read · scan
- p. 18–19A man comprehends the particular natures of all men; each can do for himself what philosophers and bards did.read · scan
- p. 22The single person gains new importance: the world is nothing, the man is all; the law of nature lies within him.read · scan
- p. 22The disgrace is not to be a unit, an individual character, but reckoned by party or section.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, An Address Delivered before the Senior Class in Divinity CollegeVol. 5
- p. 28The sentiment makes man illimitable and corrects seeking greatness by following the great.read · scan
- p. 30–31Imposed creeds defraud a man of his manly right to nature, virtue and truth.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Man the ReformerVol. 5
- p. 54Reform rests on conviction of an infinite worthiness in man; man must be honored in us.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-RelianceVol. 5
- p. 59Man is his own star; the honest and perfect man commands all influence and fate.read · scan
- p. 60Each man is new in nature; envy is ignorance and imitation suicide; he must take himself as his portion.read · scan
- p. 62Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist; nothing is sacred but the integrity of one's own mind.read · scan
- p. 62–63Demands evidence that you are a man rather than judging by actions; he simply is.read · scan
- p. 66A great soul disregards foolish consistency; character and nature cannot be violated, and men reveal their virtue or vice unconsciously.read · scan
- p. 67The true man is the centre of things, a cause, a country and an age; institutions are the lengthened shadow of one man.read · scan
- p. 68Man should know his worth; like the drunkard made duke, he is a sot who now and then wakes to find himself a prince.read · scan
- p. 69The aboriginal self is spontaneity or intuition, one with all things; men lie in the lap of immense intelligence, receivers of its truth.read · scan
- p. 69–70The soul's relation to the divine is direct and pure; its sanity and majesty are opposed by reverence for the past.read · scan
- p. 71Man is timid and apologetic, unlike the rose, living in past and future rather than the present; he must live with nature and God to be strong.read · scan
- p. 72Describes the soul raised above passion and circumstance in vision of identity; man takes the way from man, not to man, finding good within.read · scan
- p. 72–73Man as soul that becomes; virtue is height and power; the self-relying soul reveals divinity within, shown also in nature's growth and all history.read · scan
- p. 73The soul should stay at home rather than beg from men; isolation, as elevation, precedes true society.read · scan
- p. 75–76A stoic should tell men they are not leaning willows; self-trust brings new powers and reveals divinity in man.read · scan
- p. 76–77The self-helping, self-reliant man is welcomed and honored by gods and men.read · scan
- p. 78–79The self accompanies a man everywhere; place is nothing and travel cannot escape the sad self.read · scan
- p. 79Every great man is unique; insist on yourself and never imitate, for genius cannot be taught by another.read · scan
- p. 82What a man is, not what he has, is permanent property; a man is better than a town.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, FriendshipVol. 5
- p. 117Each man has all in himself and is absolutely insulated; seeking completion in Europe, persons or books is idolatry.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, MannersVol. 5
- p. 214A man, small among nature's objects, by moral quality equals the majesty of the world.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, NatureVol. 5
- p. 226–227Nature's beauty seems unreal until human figures as good as itself appear; rapture in nature protests false society.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, PoliticsVol. 5
- p. 247Character is the end of nature, the crowning of her king; individual worth is the aim of human development.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, New England ReformersVol. 5
- p. 257–258The human spirit is equal to all energies alone; man is more often injured than helped by his means.read · scan
- p. 261Society treats human defects as organic and incurable, denying man's higher possibilities.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, BeautyVol. 5
- p. 298Men hold themselves cheap, yet man contains all elements and is a fagot of thunderbolts; we value only humble utilities and deprecate romance of character.read · scan
- p. 300–301Every man is entitled to be valued by his best moment, when his genius reappears.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, English TraitsVol. 5
- p. 470–471Society's end is giving importance to individuals, each encouraged to be what he is.read · scan
John Stuart Mill, On LibertyVol. 25
- p. 257Cultivating individuality makes human beings noble and beautiful and the race better worth belonging to.read · scan
- p. 258–259Individuality is development; cultivating it brings human beings nearer to the best they can be.read · scan
- p. 310Mental expansion and elevation of individuals is the ultimate aim; small men accomplish no great thing.read · scan
Walt Whitman, Preface to Leaves of GrassVol. 39
- p. 397Men are good or grand only through consciousness of their inner supremacy; the soul masters nature, passion and death.read · scan
James Russell Lowell, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1382The self-poised man on solid earth, fed from within, is the measure of manhood.read · scan
‹ 3 · Outline · 5 ›