What is Misanthrope ?
Misanthrope refers to a general aversion or hatred towards humans. While some individuals may find it suffocating to be around people and prefer solitude, it does not necessarily mean that they hate all humans. As social beings, most people enjoy socializing, but misanthropes may choose to distance themselves from others due to personal preferences or past experiences.
It is important to note that being a misanthrope does not entail a desire to harm others. Rather, they simply do not enjoy interacting with people, find it difficult to communicate and share things with others, and may have trouble trusting others due to past negative experiences. As a result, they often avoid human society.
The word “misanthrope” originated from the Greek words μῖσος (mīsos) meaning “hatred” and ἄνθρωπος (ānthropos) meaning “man” or “human”.
Signs that you are a misanthrope –
- You don’t like to interact with others
- You like to spend time alone
- You don’t like to communicate with others not even with people you know
- You have difficult time making friends
- You don’t like and accept society norms
- You think you are best than others
Some of the famous misanthropes –
- Oscal Wilde
- Patricia Highsmith
- Franz Kafka
- Ludwig Wittgenstein
- Lord Byron George Gordon
Misanthropy quotes –
“Do you hate people?”
“I don’t hate them…I just feel better when they’re not around.”
― Charles Bukowski
“I’m tired of this back-slappin’ “isn’t humanity neat” bullshit. We’re a virus with shoes.”
― Bill Hicks
“I hate mankind, for I think myself one of the best of them, and I know how bad I am.”
― Samuel Johnson
“You call me a misanthrope because I avoid society. You err; I love society. Yet in order not to hate people, I must avoid their company.”
― Caspar David Friedrich
“Knowledge subverts love: in proportion as we penetrate our secrets, we come to loathe our kind, precisely because they resemble us.”
― Emil Cioran
“Man was born for society. However little He may be attached to the World, He never can wholly forget it, or bear to be wholly forgotten by it. Disgusted at the guilt or absurdity of Mankind, the Misanthrope flies from it: He resolves to become an Hermit, and buries himself in the Cavern of some gloomy Rock. While Hate inflames his bosom, possibly He may feel contented with his situation: But when his passions begin to cool; when Time has mellowed his sorrows, and healed those wounds which He bore with him to his solitude, think you that Content becomes his Companion? Ah! no, Rosario. No longer sustained by the violence of his passions, He feels all the monotony of his way of living, and his heart becomes the prey of Ennui and weariness. He looks round, and finds himself alone in the Universe: The love of society revives in his bosom, and He pants to return to that world which He has abandoned. Nature loses all her charms in his eyes: No one is near him to point out her beauties, or share in his admiration of her excellence and variety. Propped upon the fragment of some Rock, He gazes upon the tumbling waterfall with a vacant eye, He views without emotion the glory of the setting Sun. Slowly He returns to his Cell at Evening, for no one there is anxious for his arrival; He has no comfort in his solitary unsavoury meal: He throws himself upon his couch of Moss despondent and dissatisfied, and wakes only to pass a day as joyless, as monotonous as the former.”
― Matthew Gregory Lewis