Man desired concord; but nature knows better what is good for his species; she desires discord. Man wants to live easy and content; but nature compels him to leave ease… and throw himself into roils and labors. – Immanuel Kant, Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Purpose, 1787

In each generation the human mind in every man reverts to its starting-point; each new man is a primitive man. – Alexandre Vinet (1797–1847)

We are survival machines — robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes. – Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene

Man, when he is merely what he seems to be, is almost nothing. – Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin