About being human
“The highest quality of an individual is to be human. The phrase “to be human” means to follow life wherever it may lead, up and down, down and up, from the bottom of the world to the top, from darkness into light, through each degree of good and evil. As the circle of knowledge widens, life grows more beautiful and heroic. We are a part of everything – men, women, books, cities, railroads – all made from the same atoms and molecules, all living together and dying together, joined into one imperishable unity that can never be divided”.
George Whitman, from the book Shakespeare and Company – a History of the Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart