To insult someone we call him 'bestial. For deliberate cruelty and nature, 'human' might be the greater insult.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that cruelty is a more human trait than the animalistic nature often attributed to us.
Isaac Asimov emphasizes the paradox of human behavior by contrasting the terms 'bestial' and 'human.' While bestial implies a lack of rationality and morality, Asimov argues that the calculated and deliberate cruelty that some humans exhibit is far more sinister, indicating that it is our humanity that can lead to the darkest actions.
In practice
In a debate about human nature, this quote could illustrate the depths of human cruelty.
Democracy cannot survive overpopulation. Human dignity cannot survive it. Convenience and decency cannot survive it. As you put more and more people into the world, the value of life not only declines, but it disappears. It doesn't matter if someone dies.
Science does not promise absolute truth, nor does it consider that such a thing necessarily exists. Science does not even promise that everything in the Universe is amenable to the scientific process.
Democracy cannot survive overpopulation.
Although the time of death is approaching me, I am not afraid of dying and going to Hell or (what would be considerably worse) going to the popularized version of Heaven. I expect death to be nothingness and, for removing me from all possible fears of death, I am thankful to atheism.
A subtle thought that is in error may yet give rise to fruitful inquiry that can establish truths of great value.
During the century after Newton, it was still possible for a man of unusual attainments to master all fields of scientific knowledge. But by 1800, this had become entirely impracticable.
There is one regard in which bullies show real perception when compared with their victims; it is their silent good-natured pleasure of the moment.
I'm not interested in anybody's guilt. Guilt is a luxury that we can no longer afford. I know you didn't do it, and I didn't do it either, but I am responsible for it because I am a man and a citizen of this country and you are responsible for it, too, for the very same reason... Anyone who is trying to be conscious must begin to dismiss the vocabulary which we've used so long to cover it up, to lie about the way things are.
But this momentous question, like a fire bell in the night, awakened and filled me with terror.
The end of labor is to gain leisure.
Causal analysis provides absolutely no value judgment, and a value judgment is absolutely not a causal explanation.
But think about how evil that is for one man to think that he's actually more valuable than a woman, because as a human being your worth is immeasurable.
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