: What would you call non human "people"? I'm trying to have a dialogue where one character says something to the lines of "You're being really hard on yourself. You're only human." That line

Vote Up Vote Down

You could try going in the negative. "You're not a god."

Or, "You're not infallible."

Or, "Nobody is perfect."

You could try going sympathetic. "We all make mistakes. Welcome to the club."

Or, "How about that, you are normal, after all."

Or, "You've only got six limbs, you can't be expected to catch every thing."

Remember the point of saying "you are only human," and translate that. The point is that humans are fallible, make mistakes, they aren't perfect, and expecting them to be so is unrealistic.

It is actually not very good writing to engage in such cliché, even in dialogue. You should not want your reader to translate what you are saying into a cliché they know and think, 'Ah, he really means only human.'

If I am reading about ant folk, I expect them to come up with their own clichés, not borrow those of humans.

(0)