Best Human Nature Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings Page 16

“When I read history, I [see] what typically happens to presidents and the other party during tumultuous times and how people react when the economy is collapsing and they're losing their homes, losing their pensions - it sort of tracks, what ended up happening, because some of that is human nature.”

People Humans Home Happens President Party Economy Human Nature Losing Happenings Track Pension

Author:Barack Obama

“I had this radical idea that the police should obey the law. My view was that any human system without adequate checks and balances will tend towards corruption and abuse. That's why you have meat inspectors. Not because you hate butchers, but because of an understanding of human nature.”

Should Humans Ideas Law Hate Understanding Views Human Nature Balance Abuse Police Corruption Checks Radical Meat Adequate Butchers Inspectors Radical Ideas

Author:Van Jones

“Take empathy, something added to human nature very recently and moving as we speak. Less than 300 years ago, Christians were enjoying watching a bear and dogs fight in a pit, racing Jews like horses, and had a life expectancy of less than 50 years. Today there are vegans who won't kill a fly, and yet wars too.”

Years Humans War Today Christian Moving Fighting Speak Enjoy Dog Human Nature Bears Empathy Years Ago Horse Jew Vegan Racing Pits Expectancy Life Expectancy Speak Less

Author:Frank Schaeffer

“Scenery is fine - but human nature is finer.”

Humans Human Nature Fine Scenery

Author:John Keats

“There is an electric fire in human nature tending to purify - so that among these human creatures there is continually some birth of new heroism. The pity is that we must wonder at it, as we should at finding a pearl in rubbish.”

Should Humans Literature Nature Wonder Fire Human Nature Birth Creatures Findings Pity Heroic Electric Heroism Pearls Rubbish

Book:The Complete Works of John Keats

Source: The Complete Works of John Keats

“It is not to be expected that human nature will change in a day.”

Humans Human Nature Expected

Author:Frank B. Kellogg

“It's true that many say that [they] object to the idea of "human nature," but it's not clear what that is supposed to mean. Are we different from ants?”

Humans Mean Ideas Different Clear Human Nature Objects Ants

Author:Noam Chomsky

“I'm always making things, and I have this ongoing practice of compelling stuff that strikes me. Over the course of my life doing this, I've trained myself to do the opposite of what's human nature, and that is to recoil from things I don't like.”

Humans Courses Stuff Practice Human Nature Opposites Strikes Compelling Ongoing Recoil

Author:Arthur Jafa

“Peter Kropotkin was surely on the left. He was one of the founders of what is now called 'sociobiology' or 'evolutionary psychology' with his book Mutual Aid, arguing that human nature had evolved in ways conducive to the communitarian anarchism that he espoused.”

Way Humans Book Left Psychology Human Nature Aids Arguing Mutual Peter Founders Evolutionary Psychology Anarchism Mutual Aid

Author:Noam Chomsky

“Marx's early manuscripts, with their roots in the Enlightenment and Romanticism, derived fundamental concepts such as alienation from a conception of human nature - what we would call genetically determined.”

Humans Human Nature Enlightenment Concepts Roots Fundamentals Determined Conception Alienation Romanticism Manuscripts

Author:Noam Chomsky

“To object that the facts about human nature set limits on our ability to change the world and ourselves makes about as much sense as the lament that our lack of wings sets limits on our ability to 'fly' as far as eagles under our own power.”

World Humans Facts Ability Human Nature Objects Limits Wings Changing The World Eagles Lament Ability To Change

Author:Noam Chomsky

“There is nothing more mysterious about the concept human nature than about the concept bee or chicken nature, at least for those who regard humans as creatures in the biological world.”

World Humans Human Nature Creatures Concepts Regard Mysterious Chickens Bees

Author:Noam Chomsky

“You want to teach all kids the skills that are on the better side of human nature: empathy, appreciating how one's behavior is affecting other people, resolving disagreements in ways that do not involve conflict, taking another's perspective, honesty.”

People Way Want Humans Kids Sides Teach Human Nature Honesty Perspective Skills Conflict Behavior Empathy Appreciate Disagreement

Author:Ross W. Greene

“We have forgotten that those skills on the more positive side of human nature have to be taught, have to be modeled, have to be practiced.”

Humans Sides Human Nature Taught Skills Forgotten

Author:Ross W. Greene

“I think what happens in the world, and I think it's part human nature and part programming, is we become an emulation of what we see. We become clones of each other.”

Thinking World Humans Happens Human Nature Programming Emulation

Author:Alicia Keys

“The American founders, when framing their governments, looked to the Bible for insights into human nature, civic virtue, social order, political authority and other concepts essential to the establishment of a political society. They saw in Scripture political and legal models - such as republicanism, separation of powers, and due process of law - that they believed enjoyed divine favor and were worthy of emulation in their polities.”

“[John] Adams never had an optimistic view of human nature, and his experience in the Congress and abroad only deepened his suspicion that his fellow Americans might not have the character to sustain a republican government.”

Humans Character Government Might Views Human Nature Republican Fellows Congress Optimistic Suspicion Republican Government

Author:Gordon S. Wood

“I'm a Nietzschean about human nature. The bulk of humanity is exhausted and superfluous, miscreant, confused, latently criminal, opportunistic. I rely on that. That's leverage, man.”

Men Humans Humanity Human Nature Criminals Rely Confused Exhausted Superfluous

Author:Cody Wilson

“Will there be a time when equality will exist? I think given human nature there will always be conflict.”

Thinking Humans Given Human Nature Conflict

Author:Hozier

“People say human nature is a very vague expression, people tend to say human nature is corruptible anyway and it comes from a theological point of view, goes back to the Garden of Eden, that there is always this corrupt gene waiting to be activated that we inherited from the very beginning. I don't believe in that theological excuse.”

People Believe Humans Waiting Views Human Nature Expression Garden Don't Believe Excuse Point Of View Genes Vague Eden Theological Garden Of Eden

Author:Wole Soyinka

“Greed in human nature may now come near to enslaving all humanity by means of the Machine - so fast and far has progress gone with it. This will be evident to anyone who stops to study the modern mechanistic Moloch and takes time to view it in its larger aspects.”

Humans May Mean Humanity Views Gone Study Progress Modern Human Nature Aspect Machines Greed Take Time Evident

Author:Frank Lloyd Wright

“Human beings have Love for one another inborn in them - Love, reassembler of our ancient nature, who tries to make one out of two and to heal human nature.”

Trying Humans Two Human Beings Human Nature Ancient Heal

Book:Symposium or Drinking Party

Source: Symposium or Drinking Party

“I think it's every artist's nature to want to escape. It's also human nature in a way, depending on your personality, to want to get away from it all.”

Thinking Way Want Humans Artist Human Nature Personality Get Away

Author:Tavares Strachan

“A lot of the people in history who I really admire lived before the hyperinformation age we're living in. Even if they were governing or solving problems in consequential periods, like the Civil War or the world wars or the Great Depression or the Cold War, they had a period of time and space to actually think, to be private and you read their biographies, and they had time to think about what was happening and how to respond. I don't think human nature has changed in the last 50-150 years, but the stresses, the demands on those of us in public life have just exploded.”

“Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone.”

Men Belief Fun Business Human Nature Capitalism Economics Environmental Good Corporations Political Ideology American Capitalism

Author:John Maynard Keynes

“I cry at the end of every episode of "Girls." I'm just so overwhelmed by the truthfulness with which [Lena Dunham] conveys human nature.”

Humans Ends Girl Human Nature Cry Episodes Overwhelmed Truthfulness

Author:Felicity Jones

“Many people prefer a view of human nature that includes a true side and a false side - in other words, humans have a single genuine aim and the rest is decoration, evasion, or cover-up. That's intuitive, but it's incomplete. A study of the brain necessitates a more nuanced view of human nature.”

People Humans Sides Views Brain Study Human Nature Aim Genuine Intuitive Incomplete Decoration Cover Ups Evasion

Book:Incognito: The Secret Lives of The Brain

Source: Incognito: The Secret Lives of The Brain

“We had one or another form of state capitalism during an extremely brief period of human history, which tells us essentially nothing about human nature. If you look at human societies and human interactions, you can find anything. You find selfishness, you find altruism, you find sympathy.”

Ifs Humans Looks States Form Human Nature Periods Capitalism Selfishness Interaction Altruism Human History Human Society

Author:Noam Chomsky

“Adam Smith is an egalitarian, he believed in equality of outcome, not opportunity. He is an enlightenment figure, pre-capitalist. He says, suppose in England, one landowner got most of the land and other people would have nothing to live on. He says it wouldn't matter much, because the rich land owner, by virtue of his sympathy for other people would distribute resources among them, so that by an invisible hand, we would end up with a pretty egalitarian society. That is his conception of human nature.”

People Humans Ends Matter Hands Opportunity Virtue Rich Land Human Nature Figures Enlightenment Resources England Invisible Outcomes Owners Conception Adam Capitalist Invisible Hand

Author:Noam Chomsky

“In studying language we can discover many basic properties of this cognitive structure, its organization, and also the genetic predispositions that provide the foundation for its development. So in this respect, linguistics, first of all, tries to characterize a major feature of human cognitive organization. And second, I think it may provide a suggestive model for the study of other cognitive systems. And the collection of these systems is one aspect of human nature.”

Thinking Trying Firsts Humans May Language Study Human Nature Development Majors Models Aspect Organization Foundation Structure Property Features Collections Cognitive Linguistics

Author:Noam Chomsky

“For one thing, studying language is by itself a part of a study of human intelligence that is, perhaps, the central aspect of human nature. And second, I think, it is a good model for studying other human properties, which ought to be studied by psychologists in the same way.”

Thinking Way Humans Language Study One Thing Human Nature Ought Models Aspect Property Psychologist Human Intelligence

Author:Noam Chomsky

“When I went in there, we used drum machine on "Time After Time" and "Human Nature".We don't use the drum machine to play a pattern. You play the pattern by being consistent.”

Humans Play Use Used Human Nature Machines Patterns Consistent

Author:Miles Davis

“Is war an inevitable outcome of competing interests in a complex society? In other words, would war be the same even if human nature were very different? There are mathematical models of large groups working together that lead to conflict on a reliable basis. So there's a whole other view of war that is not psychological at all.”

“Communism is an aspiration, an aspiration is an ideal, a dream, a longing of something that would be perfect, but hard to build because it has to clash with human nature and against the egotism of humans and the egotism of the elites which usually try to guarantee their own interests above those of their nations and of their own people. But they are the ones that prevail because they have the economic power, the political power and the military power.”

“A lot of people just go to movies that feed into their preexisting and not so noble needs and desires: They just go to action pictures, and things like that. But if you go to foreign films, if you go to documentaries, if you go to independent films, if you go to good films, you will become a better person because you will understand human nature better. Movies record human nature in a better way than any other art form, that's for sure.”

People Ifs Way Needs Humans Persons Art Action Film Form Desire Records Human Nature Independent Noble Documentaries Better Ways Better Person Independent Film Good Films

Author:Roger Ebert

“I think if I were reading to a grandchild, I might read Tolstoy's War and Peace. They would learn about Russia, they would learn about history, they would learn about human nature. They would learn about, "Can the individual make a difference or is it great forces?" Tolstoy is always battling with those large issues. Mostly, a whole world would come alive for them through that book.”

Ifs Thinking World Humans Book War Whole Might Reading Individual Force Differences Issues Alive Human Nature Russia Whole World Making A Difference Grandchildren

Author:Doris Kearns Goodwin

“The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.”

“With abstract work, I never was quite sure what it was that felt right about the painting, but I did know that I responded to it and I liked whatever it was offering me. That's something that seems to happen as well when I'm writing, where maybe things that don't necessarily make a lot of logical sense are put together, and yet we struggle to make sense of these things somehow. I'm not quite sure why that is; it's something about human nature, I guess.”

Writing Together Struggle Human Nature Painting Make Sense Abstract Logical

Author:Kurt Wagner

“I think it's human nature to go and to watch things that are done, and see the flaws, but I cannot think of anything that we would want to go so far as to completely change or redo to be honest with you. I think there are characters, you look at the Thor: Ragnarok trailer, there are characters that can evolve and can continue to change and grow throughout.”

Thinking Done Character Honest Human Nature Being Honest Evolve Flaws

Author:Kevin Feige

“For a very long time, people have been saying to me, "What if you want to do this approach with every kid?" For a behaviorally challenging kid, you're parenting this way just to help bring the kid's behavior under control and to greatly reduce conflict. But you want to teach all kids the skills that are on the better side of human nature: empathy, appreciating how one's behavior is affecting other people, resolving disagreements in ways that do not involve conflict, taking another's perspective, honesty.”

People Long Helping Kids Challenges Teach Human Nature Honesty Perspective Conflict Behavior Empathy Appreciate What If Disagreement

Author:Ross W. Greene

“I always like to remain a fan, put it that way: and I like to hold the idealised version of what these artists are like. Greed is one of those components of human nature that's inherent in everyone, and sometimes it is an unpleasant thing to engage in.”

Sometimes Artist Human Nature Greed

Author:DJ Shadow

“What feminism sought to do, when you get right down to it feminism was brought to us by a bunch of angry women whose major grievance and beef was with human nature and God. And they sought to reverse, undo, change, whatever, basic human nature, things that we're born with.”

Feminism Human Nature Grievance

Author:Rush Limbaugh

“My version of relativism is pluralistic and attributes functions to morality that in combination with human nature place limits on what could count as a true morality. Unlike many other relativists, I do not hold that people are subject to a morality because they all belong to a certain group. That is, I don't hold that being a member of a group makes one's subject to some set of generally accepted norms. What is true is that others around us teach us morality and moral language, so they inevitably influence us.”

People Language Moral Teach Influence Human Nature Morality Accepted Norm Relativism

Author:David Wong

“I think it's kind of human nature to always want to see these things as a competitive dynamic, that either technology companies have to win or the banks have to win and one of them is going to lose. It's not as black and white.”

Thinking Kind Winning Black Technology Human Nature Black And White

Author:Patrick Collison

“If we are ever going to save this society and the world, there has got to be a way for us to work together. That may be more than we can ever hope to achieve, just because of human nature.”

World Together Achieve Human Nature Working Together

Author:John Lithgow

“You can't fight human nature. Ego is going to get the best of everyone. You're going to think you can trust someone when you can't. People who come in the Big Brother house have a strong sense of self and often it gets handed to them when they get evicted.”

People Thinking Fighting House Strong Human Nature Brother Ego Sense Of Self

Author:Julie Chen

“I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.”

“The desire for story is very, very deep in human beings. We are the only creature in the world that does this; we are the only creature that tells stories, and sometimes those are true stories and sometimes those are made up stories. Then there are the larger stories, the grand narratives that we live in, which are things like nation and family and clan and so on. Those stories are considered to be treated reverentially. They need to be part of the way in which we conduct the discourse of our lives and to prevent people from doing something very damaging to human nature.”

People World Sometimes Desire Human Nature Very Deep True Story

Author:Salman Rushdie

“It's not enough say, "Look, bankers were immensely greedy and that they committed lots of frauds." I mean, that's not, they were set free, that sort of particular proclivity in human nature was set free to do its best and its worst. Politicians and regulators are consumers of ideas. They never have any ideas of their own, it would take too much like hard work to develop ideas, you get them off menus and you pick the ones that suit you. Financial services were set free to go beyond their rightful place, a place by which they have been restrained in the past.”

Mean Enough Past Worst Human Nature Hard Work Politician Financial Committed Fraud Greedy

Author:Robert Skidelsky, Baron Skidelsky

“I think it's good to have your own selfish interests, whether it's liking chocolate ice cream or wanting a new car. It's just human nature is that. We have our own selfish interests. I think we have interests that go beyond our self to friends, to family first, maybe to friends, maybe to community. I think that's important to think about those spheres of influence that radiate from you.”

Thinking Important Interest Community Influence Car Human Nature Selfish Chocolate New Car

Author:Les Wexner

Human Nature Quotes

Related topics

Human Nature Quotes