Browse 4693 quotes about Human Nature.
“A fondness for power is implanted in most men, and it is natural to abuse it when acquired.”
Source: The Works of Alexander Hamilton: Miscellanies, 1774-1789: A full vindication; The farmer refuted; Quebec bill; Resolutions in Congress; Letters from Phocion; New-York Legislature, etc
“Great Ambition, unchecked by principle, or the love of Glory, is an unruly Tyrant.”
Source: The Works of Alexander Hamilton: Correspondence [contin.] 1795-1804; 1777; 1791. Letters of H. G. 1789. Address to public creditors. 1790. Vindication of funding system. 1791
“There may be in every government a few choice spirits, who may act from more worthy motives. One great error is that we suppose mankind more honest than they are. Our prevailing passions are ambition and interest.”
Source: The Works of Alexander Hamilton
“Ambition without principle never was long under the guidance of good sense.”
Source: The Works of Alexander Hamilton: Correspondence [contin.] 1795-1804; 1777; 1791. Letters of H. G. 1789. Address to public creditors. 1790. Vindication of funding system. 1791
“It is a general principle of human nature, that a man will be interested in whatever he possesses, in proportion to the firmness or precariousness of the tenure by which he holds it.”
Source: The Federalist, on the new constitution, written in 1788, with an appendix, containing the letters of Pacificus and Helvidius on the proclamation of neutrality of 1793, also the original articles of confederation and the constitution of the United States
“Men are rather reasoning than reasonable animals for the most part governed by the impulse of passion.”
Source: The Works of Alexander Hamilton: Correspondence [contin.] 1795-1804; 1777; 1791. Letters of H.G. 1789. Address to public creditors. 1790. Vindication of funding system. 1791
“Take mankind as they are, and what are they governed by? Their passions.”
Source: Jan. 1787-May 1788.-v. 5.June 1778-Nov. 1789.-v. 6. Dec. 1789-Aug. 1790
“The passions of a revolution are apt to hurry even good men into excesses.”
Source: Papers
“Has it not. . . invariably been found that momentary passions, and immediate interests, have a more active and imperious control over human conduct than general or remote considerations of policy, utility and justice?”
Source: The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788
“The same state of the passions which fits the multitude, who have not a sufficient stock of reason and knowledge to guide them, for opposition to tyranny and oppression, very naturally leads them to a contempt and disregard of all authority.”
Source: Citizen Hamilton: The Wit and Wisdom of an American Founder
“Take mankind in general, they are vicious-their passions may be operated upon.”
Source: Jan.1787-May 1788
“A fondness for power is implanted in most men, and it is natural to abuse it when acquired. This maxim, drawn from the experience of all ages, makes it the height of folly to intrust any set of men with power which is not under every possible control; perpetual strides are made after more as long as there is any part withheld.”
Source: The Works of Alexander Hamilton: Miscellanies, 1774-1789: A full vindication; The farmer refuted; Quebec bill; Resolutions in Congress; Letters from Phocion; New-York Legislature, etc
“It is a general principle of human nature, that a man will be interested in whatever he possesses, in proportion to the firmness or precariousness of the tenure by which he holds it; will be less attached to what he holds by a momentary or uncertain title, than to what he enjoys by a durable or certain title; and, of course, will be willing to risk more for the sake of the one, than for the sake of the other.”
Source: The Federalist: On the New Constitution
“Men are rather reasoning than reasonable animals for the most part governed by the impulse of passion. This is a truth well understood by our adversaries who have practised upon it with no small benefit to their cause. For at the very moment they are eulogizing the reason of men & professing to appeal only to that faculty, they are courting the strongest & most active passion of the human heart - VANITY!”
Source: The Works of Alexander Hamilton: Correspondence [contin.] 1795-1804; 1777; 1791. Letters of H.G. 1789. Address to public creditors. 1790. Vindication of funding system. 1791
“In all general questions which become the subjects of discussion, there are always some truths mixed with falsehoods. I confess, there is danger where men are capable of holding two offices. Take mankind in general, they are vicious, their passions may be operated upon. We have been taught to reprobate the danger of influence in the British government, without duly reflecting how far it was necessary to support a good government. We have taken up many ideas upon trust, and at last, pleased with our own opinions, establish them as undoubted truths.”
“No one ever became extremely wicked suddenly.”
“Be aware that a halo has to fall only a few inches to be a noose.”
“Intolerance has been the curse of every age and state.”
“People have a way of becoming what you encourage them to be - not what you nag them to be.”
“The malignity that never forgets or forgives is found only in base and ignoble natures, whose aims are selfish, and whose means are indirect, cowardly, and treacherous.”
Source: Life and Campaigns of George B. McClellan, Major-General, U. S. Army
“Religion divides us, while it is our human characteristics that bind us to each other.”
“The pilots I worked with in the aerospace industry were willing to put on almost anything to keep them safe in case of a crash, but regular people in cars don't want to be uncomfortable even for a minute.”
“One of the things that made me suffer no regret when I was called away from the cramped intellectual jail of atheism into a wider and more wonderful world, was my growing conviction that my fellow atheists were shallow, men without insight into real human nature.”
“Golf gives you an insight into human nature, your own as well as your opponent's.”
“People who live in glass houses must reeeeeallly trust their neighbors.”
“Human nature is not a machine to be built after a model, and set to do exactly the work prescribed for it, but a tree, which requires to grow and develop itself on all sides, according to the tendency of the inward forces which make it a living thing.”
Source: The Classical Utilitarians: Bentham and Mill
“Man needs his difficulties because they are necessary to enjoy success.”
Source: Wings of Fire: An Autobiography
“I always compare marriage to communism. They're both institutions that don't conform to human nature, so you're going to end up with lying and hypocrisy.”
“One human nature is common to all the descendants of Adam, and it is, for all men, guilty and polluted”
“The depravity which sin has produced in human nature extends to the whole of it. There is no part of man's nature which is unaffected by it. Man's nature is all of a piece, and what affects it at all affects it altogether”
Source: Studies in Theology: Lectures Delivered in Chicago Theological Seminary
“It's human nature to be timid in the face of obstacles, but I have learned to believe that challenges are opportunities for genius to shine. In order to feel alive, we have to accomplish things that we once believed we could not.”
“The principle that human nature, in its psychological aspects, is nothing more than a product of history and given social relations removes all barriers to coercion and manipulation by the powerful.”
“Humans have certain properties and characteristics which are intrinsic to them, just as every other organism does. That's human nature.”
“The human body is capable of amazing physical deeds. If we could just free ourselves from our perceived limitations and tap into our internal fire, the possibilities are endless.”
Source: Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner
“Human beings are not intrinsically selfish, which isolates us from others. We are essentially social animals who depend on others to meet our needs. We achieve happiness, prosperity and progress through social interaction. Therefore, having a kind and helpful attitude contributes to our own and others' happiness.”
“Human nature is so constructed that it gives affection most readily to those who seem least to demand it.”
Source: The Conquest of Happiness
“The only thing that one really knows about human nature is that it changes. Change is the one quality we can predicate of it. The systems that fail are those that rely on the permanency of human nature, and not on its growth and development. The error of Louis XIV was that he thought human nature would always be the same. The result of his error was the French Revolution. It was an admirable result.”
Source: The Collected Works of Oscar Wilde
“Poor human nature, what horrible crimes have been committed in thy name!”
Source: Anarchism: Top Crime Collections
“I have never, in all my various travels, seen but two sorts of people I mean men and women, who always have been, and ever will be, the same. The same vices and the same follies have been the fruit of all ages, though sometimes under different names.”
Source: The works of the Right Honourable Lady Mary Wortley Montagu: including her correspondence, poems, and essays
“There is nothing that can be changed more completely than human nature when the job is taken in hand early enough.”
Source: George Bernard Shaw: The Collected Plays (Illustrated): 60 plays including Caesar and Cleopatra, Pygmalion, Saint Joan, The Apple Cart, Cymbeline, Androcles And The Lion, The Man Of Destiny, The Inca Of Perusalem and Macbeth Skit
“My nature is subdued to what it works in, like the dyer's hand.”
“I will smile at friend and foe alike and make every effort to find, in him or her, a quality to praise, now that I realize the deepest yearning of human nature is the craving to be appreciated.”
Source: The Greatest Salesman in the World: Featuring the Ten Vows of Success. The end of the story
“It is to the credit of human nature that, except where its selfishness is brought into play, it loves more readily than it hates.”
Source: Nathaniel Hawthorne: Collected Novels: Scarlet Letter / House of Seven Gables / Blithedale Romance / Fanshawe / Marble Faun: Library of America #10
“The center of human nature is rooted in ten thousand ordinary acts of kindness that define our days.”
Source: Eight little piggies: reflections in natural history
“... In contrast to the "banality of evil," which posits that ordinary people can be responsible for the most despicable acts of cruelty and degradation of their fellows, I posit the "banality of heroism," which unfurls the banner of the heroic Everyman and Everywoman who heed the call to service to humanity when their time comes to act. When that bell rings, they will know that it rings for them. It sounds a call to uphold what is best in human nature that rises above the powerful pressures of Situation and System as the profound assertion of human dignity opposing evil.”
“The hero is known for achievements; the celebrity for well-knowns. The hero reveals the possibilities of human nature. The celebrity reveals the possibilities of the press and media. Celebrities are people who make news, but heroes are people who make history. Time makes heroes but dissolves celebrities.”
“The most mortifying infirmity in human nature, to feel in ourselves, or to contemplate in another, is perhaps cowardice.”
Source: The essays of Elia. [Followed by] The last essays of Elia
“In a different time, in a different place, it is always some other side of our common human nature that has been developing itself. The actual truth is the sum of all these.”
“We are reassured almost as foolishly as we are alarmed; human nature is so constituted.”
Source: Les Miserables Volume Two
“There are no perfect human beings! Persons can be found who are good, very good indeed, in fact, great. There do in fact exist creators, seers, sages, saints, shakers, and movers...even if they are uncommon and do not come by the dozen. And yet these very same people can at times be boring, irritating, petulant, selfish, angry, or depressed. To avoid disillusionment with human nature, we must first give up our illusions about it.”