What is Humanism? As Explained by Several Famous Humanists

100% pure win. I loved every second of it.

Point of order. This is technically what is known (for lack of a better term) as movement humanism.

Actual Humanism can be understood, in a nutshell, as the position that humanity has claimed all responsibilities that were previously ascribed to deities.  This is the position of Humanism Manifesto I. What may surprise many atheists today is precisely what Humanism originally sought to achieve, namely, a better religion:

There is great danger of a final, and we believe fatal,
identification of the word religion with doctrines and methods which
have lost their significance and which are powerless to solve the
problem of human living in the Twentieth Century. Religions have always
been means for realizing the highest values of life. Their end has been
accomplished through the interpretation of the total environing
situation (theology or world view), the sense of values resulting
therefrom (goal or ideal), and the technique (cult), established for
realizing the satisfactory life. A change in any of these factors
results in alteration of the outward forms of religion. This fact
explains the changefulness of religions through the centuries. But
through all changes religion itself remains constant in its quest for
abiding values, an inseparable feature of human life.

Today man’s
larger understanding of the universe, his scientific achievements, and
deeper appreciation of brotherhood, have created a situation which
requires a new statement of the means and purposes of religion. Such a
vital, fearless, and frank religion capable of furnishing adequate
social goals and personal satisfactions may appear to many people as a
complete break with the past. While this age does owe a vast debt to the
traditional religions, it is none the less obvious that any religion
that can hope to be a synthesizing and dynamic force for today must be
shaped for the needs of this age. To establish such a religion is a
major necessity of the present. It is a responsibility which rests upon
this generation.

It should come as no surprise that most of the signatories were Unitarians and other adherents to liberal religion.

The Second Humanism Manifesto opened up Humanism to the non-religious:

Many kinds of humanism exist in the contemporary world. The varieties
and emphases of naturalistic humanism include “scientific,” “ethical,”
“democratic,” “religious,” and “Marxist” humanism. Free thought,
atheism, agnosticism, skepticism, deism, rationalism, ethical culture,
and liberal religion all claim to be heir to the humanist tradition. Humanism traces its roots from ancient China, classical Greece and
Rome, through the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, to the scientific
revolution of the modern world. But views that merely reject theism are
not equivalent to humanism. They lack commitment to the positive belief
in the possibilities of human progress and to the values central to it.
Many within religious groups, believing in the future of humanism, now
claim humanist credentials. Humanism is an ethical process through which
we all can move, above and beyond the divisive particulars, heroic
personalities, dogmatic creeds, and ritual customs of past religions or
their mere negation.

Now that’s something we can all get behind.