The phrase "Man's inhumanity to man" is first documented in the Robert Burns poem called Man was made to mourn: A Dirge in 1784. It is possible that Burns reworded a similar quote from Samuel von Pufendorf who in 1673 wrote, "More inhumanity has been done by man himself than any other of nature's causes."
Robert Burns
Notable uses of the phrase
In reference to man
"More inhumanity has been done by man himself than any other of nature's causes." Samuel von Pufendorf, 1673. "Man's inhumanity comes from within, due to the lack of cardinal virtues." An unknown Catholic priest, date unknown. "There is only one way in which one can endure man's inhumanity to man and that is to try, in one's own life, to exemplify man's humanity to man." Alan Paton. "The inhumanity of man toward man is our greatest sin." Ellen G. White, 1895. "Man's inhumanity to man is equaled only by man's inhumanity to himself." Edmund Bergler, 1949. "Man's inhumanity to man crosses continents and decades." Anthony Venutolo, 2009. "Why do we hunt and persecute each other? Why is our world so full of man's infamous inhumanity to man – and to woman?" Riane Eisler, 1987 , circa 1911
In reference to women
"Woman's Inhumanity to Man," a lecture topic by Emma Goldman, April 1912. ""Man's inhumanity to man"—the phrase is all too familiar... a profound silence prevailed about woman's inhumanity to woman. Women's aggression may not take the same form as men's, but girls and women are indeed aggressive, often indirectly and mainly toward one another." Phyllis Chesler, May 2009. "Man's inhumanity to woman – War has shattered many... women's lives." Marty Logan, 2006 "Man's inhumanity to man begins with man's inhumanity to woman." Marilyn Stasio, 2008
In reference to religion
"More of man's inhumanity to man has been done in the name of religion than any other cause." Author unknown, circa 1929. in 1964.
In reference to African-Americans
"This is the most tragic picture of man's inhumanity to man. I've been to Mississippi and Alabama and I can tell you that the hatred and hostility in Chicago are really deeper than in Alabama and Mississippi." Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 1966 "For most of this country's history, we in the African-American community have been at the receiving end of man's inhumanity to man. And all of us understand intimately the insidious role that race still sometimes plays – on the job, in the schools, in our health care system, and in our criminal justice system." Barack Obama, 2008
In reference to George Orwell's novel ''Nineteen Eighty-Four''
"Behind Nineteen Eighty-Four, there is a sense of injustice, a tormented sense of the way political systems suppress individual thought. Man's inhumanity to man." Jean Eloi, 2002
In reference to the cities of Europe
"It was in the great cities of Europe and among the hovels of the peasantry that my eyes were first fully opened to the extent and consequences of man's inhumanity to man." Edward Bellamy in support of socialism.
"When man's inhumanity to man shall cease from the earth, and justice and equity reign supreme, we may well be rid of both the trust and the labor union, each, in its way, a positive detriment to society." George Frazier Miller, 1910 & theorist of collectivist anarchism.
In reference to states
"The State, therefore, is the most flagrant, the most cynical, and the most complete negation of humanity. It shatters the universal solidarity of all men on the earth, and brings some of them into association only for the purpose of destroying, conquering, and enslaving all the rest. It protects its own citizens only; it recognizes human rights, humanity, civilization within its own confines alone. Since it recognizes no rights outside itself, it logically arrogates to itself the right to exercise the most ferocious inhumanity toward all foreign populations, which it can plunder, exterminate, or enslave at will." Mikhail Bakunin, September 1867
"The real US healthcare issue: moral deficiency…man's inhumanity to man" Title of MSNBC article on healthcare, 27 December 2009
In reference to crises
"All over the world we read of economic crises, social crises, ethnic conflicts and crises, national conflicts and crises, crises in family life, crises of poverty, crises of exploitation, crises of homelessness, crises of governmental oppression, crises of man's inhumanity to man and so on. The fundamental crisis is the turning away of men and women from spiritual and moral values." L. J. Mark Cooray, 1993
"Throughout all of human history, from the first murder to the present crises and catastrophes, we have faced famine, depression, wars and rumors of wars, countless examples of man's inhumanity to man." Gail B. Leatherwood, May 2009
In reference to the ancient world
"All of them covered in the darkness of man's inhumanity to man: Revolutions, expansionism..." ESermons, 2009?
In reference to the 20th century
"It has been the worst of all centuries, with more of war, more of man's inhumanity to man, more of conflict and trouble than any other century in the history of the world." Gordon B. Hinckley, 1999.
In reference to socialism in the 20th century
“The inhumanity of socialism as described by Edward Adams in 1913 has proven, that more inhumanity to man, since 1918, has been done in the name of socialism than any other cause. Dick Carpenter”
