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Human Nature Quotes

Browse 4693 quotes about Human Nature.

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Human Nature Quotes

“If someone does learn about the world from reading a novel of mine, that makes me very happy. It's probably not what brings me into the novel in the first place - I usually am pulled in by some big question about the world and human nature that I'm not going to resolve in the course of the novel. But I'm very devoted to getting my facts straight.”

IfsWorldFirstsHumansDoeFactsBigsCoursesReadingNovelHuman NatureMinesResolveDevotedVery HappyBig Questions
Author:Barbara Kingsolver
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“I can't begin to predict how news will be delivered to readers in, say, 100 years. But I do know one thing that hasn't changed: Whatever the delivery system, whether it's a magazine, book or blog, people like vivid writing, strong stories and credible people. So while the venue is changing rapidly, human nature isn't, which I find soothing.”

PeopleKnowsWritingYearsHumansI CanBookStoriesStrongOne ThingHuman NatureChangedReaderNewsMagazinesVividBlogsDeliverySoothingCredibleVenues
Author:Anna Quindlen
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“As I see it, there are two great forces of human nature: self-interest, and caring for others. Capitalism harnesses self-interest in a helpful and sustainable way, but only on behalf of those who can pay. Government aid and philanthropy channel our caring for those who can't pay. But to provide rapid improvement for the poor we need a system that draws in innovators and businesses in a far better way than we do today.”

WayNeedsHumansTwoSelfGovernmentTodayForceInterestPoorBusinessPayHuman NatureDrawsCapitalismCaringAidsImprovementHelpfulPhilanthropyBehalfRapidsSelf InterestBetter WaysInnovatorsCaring For OthersHarnessGovernment Aid
Author:Bill Gates
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“I've noticed that a lot of people do much better when all their resolutions are framed as 'Yes.' Not something like, "I'm going to give up French Fries," but something like "I'm going to eat three vegetables every day." "I'm going to hug more, kiss more, touch more." "I'm going to listen to more music." They do better when they frame things in the positive. And I think this is just part of human nature.”

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Author:Gretchen Rubin
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“There are three kinds of nature in man, as Nicetas Stethatos further explains: the carnal man, who wants to live for his own pleasure, even if it harms others; the natural man, who wants to please both himself and others; and the spiritual man, who wants to please only God, even if it harms himself. The first is lower than human nature, the second is normal, the third is above nature; it is life in Christ.”

IfsMenWantFirstsHumansKindSpiritualThreeChristNaturalPleasureHuman NaturePleaseNormalThirdsHarmAsceticism
Author:Tito Colliander
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“But he who has been earnest in the love of knowledge and of true wisdom, and has exercised his intellect more than any other part of him, must have thoughts immortal and divine. If he attain truth, and in so far as human nature is capable of sharing in immortality, he must altogether be immortal.”

IfsHumansHas BeensScienceReligionHuman NatureDivineCapableIntellectImmortalityImmortalEarnestTrue Wisdom
Book:Plato: The Complete Works: From the greatest Greek philosopher, known for The Republic, Symposium, Apology, Phaedrus, Laws, Crito, Phaedo, Timaeus, Meno, Euthyphro, Gorgias, Parmenides, Protagoras, Statesman and Critias
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“Human nature itself is evermore an advocate for liberty. There is also in human nature a resentment of injury, and indignation against wrong. A love of truth and a veneration of virtue. These amiable passions, are the "latent spark" . . . If the people are capable of understanding, seeing and feeling the differences between true and false, right and wrong, virtue and vice, to what better principle can the friends of mankind apply than to the sense of this difference?”

PeopleIfsHumansFeelingsPassionUnderstandingDifferencesLibertyPrinciplesVirtueSeeingMankindHuman NatureCapableVicesInjurySparksResentmentFreedom And LibertyFreedom LibertyIndignationLatentAmiableVenerationEvermoreAmerican LibertyTrue And False
Book:Novanglus and Massachusettensis; or, political essays, published in ... 1774 and 1775, on the principal points of controversy, between Great Britain and her colonies; the former by John Adams ... the latter by Jonathan Sewall [or rather, Daniel Leonard] ... To which are added a number of letters lately written by President Adams to the Hon. William Tudor, etc
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“I have long been settled in my own opinion that neither Philosophy, nor Religion, nor Morality, nor Wisdom, nor Interest, will ever govern nations or Parties, against their vanity, their Pride, their Resentment, or Revenge, or their Avarice, or Ambition. Nothing but Force and Power and Strength can restrain them.”

LongPhilosophyForceNationsInterestMy OwnPartyOpinionHuman NaturePrideMoralityAmbitionRevengeVanityResentmentAvaricePower And StrengthForce And Power
Book:John Adams: Writings from the New Nation, 1784-1826
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“Thus, experience has ever shown, that education, as well as religion, aristocracy, as well as democracy and monarchy, are, singly, totally inadequate to the business of restraining the passions of men, of preserving a steady government, and protecting the lives, liberties, and properties of the people . . . . Religion, superstition, oaths, education, laws, all give way before passions, interest, and power, which can be resisted only by passions, interest, and power.”

PeopleMenWayGivingWellsGovernmentLawPassionInterestLibertyDemocracyHuman NaturePropertySteadySuperstitionsMonarchyOathInadequateAristocracyRestraining
Author:John Adams
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“The form of government which you admire, when its principles are pure is admirable indeed. It is productive of every Thing which is great and excellent among men. But its principles are as easily destroyed as human nature is corrupted. Such a government is only to be supported by pure religion or Austere morals.”

MenHumansGovernmentFormReligionMoralPrinciplesHuman NatureMoralityPureAdmireDestroyedExcellentProductiveAdmirableForms Of Government
Book:Warren-Adams Letters: Being Chiefly a Correspondence Among John Adams, Samuel Adams, and James Warren ... 1743-1814
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“[T]he liberty, the unalienable, indefeasible rights of men, the honor and dignity of human nature, the grandeur and glory of the public, and the universal happiness of individuals, were never so skillfully and successfully consulted as in that most excellent monument of human art, the common law of England.”

MenHumansArtLawIndividualFreedomCommonLibertyRightsHuman NatureHonorGloryDignityUniversalEnglandExcellentMonumentGrandeurCommon LawUnalienable Rights
Book:The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations
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“Our sense of the full range of human nature, like our diet, has been steadily reduced. No matter how nourishing it might be, anything wild gets pulled - though as we'll see, some of the weeds growing in us have roots reaching deep into our shared past. Pull them if you want, but they'll just keep coming back again and again.”

IfsWantHumansHas BeensMatterMightPastGrowingHuman NatureRootsRangeDietsReachingWeedAgain And AgainComing BackBack Again
Author:Christopher Ryan
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“Why would so many risk their reputations, families, careers—even presidential legacies—for something that runs against human nature? Were monogamy an ancient, evolved trait characteristic of our species, as the standard narrative insists, these ubiquitous transgressions would be infrequent and such horrible enforcement unnecessary. No creature needs to be threatened with death to act in accord with its own nature.”

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Author:Christopher Ryan
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“Fun... human nature... does no one any harm... Regular as clockwork the old excuses came back into the alert, sad and dissatisfied brain--nothing ever matched the deep excitement of the regular desire. Men always failed you when it came to the act. She might just as well have been to the pictures.”

MenHumansWellsDoeHas BeensMightDesireFunBrainHuman NatureExcuseHarmExcitementDissatisfiedMatchedClockwork
Book:The Collected Edition: Brighton rock
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“It is proposed that a form of free dialogue may well be one of the most effective ways of investigating the crisis which faces society, and indeed the whole of human nature and consciousness today. Moreover, it may turn out that such a form of free exchange of ideas and information is of fundamental relevance for transforming culture and freeing it of destructive misinformation, so that creativity can be liberated.”

WayHumansWellsMayIdeasWholeTodayFacesFormTurnsCultureConsciousnessCreativityHuman NatureInformationCrisisFundamentalsDialogueDestructiveTransformingRelevanceLiberatedMisinformationInvestigating
Book:Science, Order, and Creativity
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“People are not prepared or able to rejoice in suffering unless they experience a massive biblical revolution of how they think and feel about the meaning of life. Human nature and American culture make it impossible to rejoice in suffering. This is a miracle in the human soul wrought by God through His Word.”

PeopleThinkingFeelsHumansSoulAbleSufferingCultureImpossibleHuman NatureRevolutionMiraclePreparedMeaning Of LifeMassiveRejoiceBiblicalHuman SoulAmerican Culture
Author:John Piper
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“Gargoyles were the complement to saints; Leonardo's caricatures were complementary to his untiring search for ideal beauty. And gargoyles were the expression of all the passions, the animal forces, the Caliban gruntings and groanings which are left in human nature when the divine has been poured away. Leonardo was less concerned than his Gothic predecessors with the ethereal parts of our nature, and so his caricatures, in their expression of passionate energy, merge imperceptibly into the heroic.”

HumansHas BeensPassionEnergyLeftForceAnimalHuman NatureDivineExpressionConcernedIdealsSaintPassionateHeroicGothicPredecessorsCaricaturesComplementEtherealLeonardoComplementaryGroaningGargoylesCaliban
Author:Kenneth Clark
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“I believe that He was made man, joining the human nature with the divine in one person; being conceived by the singular operation of the Holy Ghost, and born of the blessed Virgin Mary, who, as well after as before she brought Him forth, continued a pure and unspotted virgin.”

MenBelieveHumansWellsPersonsMadeI BelieveBornHuman NatureDivineHolyPureBlessedGhostOperationsMaryVirginsJoiningHoly GhostVirgin MaryBlessed Virgin Mary
Book:The Works of the Rev. John Wesley: The doctrine of original sin, and tracts on various subjects of polemical divinity
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“Compassion does not only refine and civilize human nature, but has something in it more pleasing and agreeable, than what can be met with in such an indolent happiness, such an indifference to mankind, as that in which the stoics placed their wisdom. As love is the most delightful passion, pity is nothing else but love softened by a degree of sorrow: In short, it is a kind of pleasing anguish, anguish as well as generous sympathy, that knits mankind together, and blends them in the same common lot.”

HumansWellsKindDoeTogetherPassionLove IsCommonCompassionMankindHuman NatureSorrowMetsDegreesPityIndifferenceGenerousAnguishDelightful
Book:The spectator
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“I hear my father-in-law's response..."Naïve, dreaming Adam. He who would do battle with the many-headed hydra of human nature must pay a world of pain & his family must pay it along with him! & only as you gasp your dying breath shall you understand, your life amounted to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean!" Yet what is any ocean but a multitude of drops?”

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Author:David Mitchell
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