[Ads-l] Loving Humanity and Hating People

[Ben Zimmer]

A later formulation, from Linus of "Peanuts" fame: "I love mankind... it's
people I can't stand!" (Nov. 12, 1959)

http://home.assets.gocomics.com/peanuts/1959/11/12


On Fri, Dec 22, 2017 at 12:30 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole <
adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:

> Excellent Dostoyevsky citation, Ben.
>
> Here is a version of the sentiment written in German in 1832 by Ludwig
> Börne who was describing the attitude of the poet Lord Byron.
>
> Year: 1832
> Title: Briefe aus Paris
> Author: Ludwig Börne
> Volume 2
> Publisher: Hoffmann und Campe, Hamburg, Germany
> Database: deutschestextarchiv.de
>
> http://www.deutschestextarchiv.de/book/show/boerne_paris02_1832
> http://www.deutschestextarchiv.de/book/view/boerne_paris02_1832/?hl=
> Byron&p=192
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Byron haßte die Menschen, weil er die Menschheit, das Leben, weil er
> die Ewigkeit liebte.
> [End excerpt]
>
> [Begin translation]
> Byron hated men because he loved mankind, life, because he loved eternity.
> [End translation]
>
> Garson
>
>
> On Thu, Dec 21, 2017 at 3:07 PM, Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:
> > "The more I love humanity in general, the less I love man in particular."
> > Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov (1880, transl. by Constance
> > Garnett, 1912)
> >
> >
> > On Thu, Dec 21, 2017 at 2:19 PM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu>
> > wrote:
> >
> >> Edna St. Vincent Millay's 1919 play "Aria da Capo" has the line "I love
> >> humanity but I hate people."  The idea must be older than that.  Can
> anyone
> >> point me to earlier variants on this quotation?
> >>
>

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