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Human Nature Quotes

Browse 4693 quotes about Human Nature.

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Human Nature Quotes

“A sad truth of human nature is that it is hard to care for people when they are abstractions, hard to care when it is not you or somebody close to you. Unless the world community can stop finding ways to dither in the face of this monstrous threat to humanity those words Never Again will persist in being one of the most abused phrases in the English language and one of the greatest lies of our time.”

PeopleWorldWayHumansHardCareFacesLyingHumanityLanguageCommunityHuman NatureFindingsThreatPhrasesOur TimePersistAbstractionEnglish LanguageMonstrousSad Truth
Book:An Ordinary Man: An Autobiography
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“Spiritual realization is theoretically the easiest thing and in practice the most difficult thing there is. It is the easiest because it is enough to think of God. It is the most difficult because human nature is forgetfulness of God.”

ThinkingHumansEnoughSpiritualDifficultPracticeHuman NatureRealizationDifficult ThingsForgetfulness
Book:Prayer Fashions Man: Frithjof Schuon on the Spiritual Life
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“The loss of the religious understanding of the human condition—that Man is a fallen creature for whom virtue is necessary but never fully attainable—is a loss, not a gain, in true sophistication. The secular substitute—the belief in the perfection of life on earth by the endless extension of a choice of pleasures—is not merely callow by comparison but much less realistic in its understanding of human nature.”

MenHumansEarthChoicesBeliefUnderstandingReligiousLossPleasureVirtueConditionsHuman NatureCreaturesGainsPerfectionEndlessFallenComparisonSubstitutesRealisticHuman ConditionSecularExtensionsSophistication
Book:Our Culture, What's Left of it: The Mandarins and the Masses
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“To meditate for world peace, to pray for a better world, and to work for social justice and environmental protection while continuing to purchase the flesh, milk, and eggs of horribly abused animals exposes a disconnect that is so fundamental that it renders our efforts absurd, hypocritical, and doomed to certain failure.”

WorldCertainSocialJusticePrayerAnimalEffortMeditationSocietyHuman NatureFailurePrayingSocial JusticeFundamentalsEnvironmentalProtectionFleshAbsurdEggsMilkComposerContinuingDoomedAbsurdityHypocriteEnvironmental ProtectionRenderingHypocriticalAbused AnimalsPray For PeaceDisconnecting
Book:The World Peace Diet: Eating for Spiritual Health and Social Harmony
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“But, did the Divinity [of Christ] suffer? [...] The holy fathers explained this point through the aforementioned clear example of the red-hot iron, it is the analogy equated for the Divine Nature which became united with the human nature. They explained that when the blacksmith strikes the red-hot iron, the hammer is actually striking both the iron and the fire united with it. The iron alone bends (suffers) whilst the fire is untouched though it bends with the iron.”

HumansSufferingFatherChristUnitedClearFireHuman NatureExampleDivineHolyRedHotStrikesDivinityIronHammersAnalogiesDivine NatureRed HotBlacksmiths
Author:Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria
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“Christianity has such a contemptible opinion of human nature that it does not believe a man can tell the truth unless frightened by a belief in god. No lower opinion of the human race has ever been expressed.”

MenBelieveHumansDoeBeliefRaceChristianityOpinionHuman NaturePositive AtheismHuman RaceTelling The TruthFrightenedBelief In God
Book:Ingersoll the Magnificent: To which Has Been Added a Special Arrangement of Some Gems from Ingersoll for Inspiration, Wisdom, and Courage
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“A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe; a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts, and his feelings as something separate from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of consciousness.”

HumansKindWholeFeelingsUniverseNatureHuman BeingsSpaceAnimalConsciousnessCompassionHuman NatureSelf AwarenessWhole WorldOur TimeDelusionVegetarianVeganAnimal RightsEcologyTime And SpaceVegetarianismRelativitySelf ConsciousnessSelf CompassionThoughts And FeelingsInterconnectedHuman ConsciousnessHuman AnimalAnimal WorldHuman ThoughtSave Mother EarthHumans And AnimalsHuman ConnectionHuman ActionsConscious AwarenessSpace TimeAnimal CompassionSpiritual NatureCommon HumanitySave The EnvironmentOne With NatureAnimals In NatureLimited TimeWeb Of LifeHuman CompassionEnvironmental PollutionLiving RightDivine BeautyParts Of A WholeKind ThoughtsExperiencing ThingsMind ThoughtsInterconnected WorldCaring And CompassionSimple ThoughtsEarth Community
Book:The Ultimate Quotable Einstein
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“A fundamental element of human nature is the need for creative work, for creative inquiry, for free creation without the arbitrary limiting effects of coercive institutions. A decent society should maximize the possibilities for this fundamental human characteristic to be realized.”

NeedsShouldHumansCreativeEffectsHuman NatureCreationPossibilityElementsInstitutionsFundamentalsCharacteristicsDecentInquiryArbitraryCreative Work
Book:The Chomsky - Foucault Debate: On Human Nature
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“It’s in our interest to take care of others. Self-centrednes s is opposed to basic human nature. In our own interest as human beings we need to pay attention to our inner values. Sometimes people think compassion is only of help to others, while we get no benefit. This is a mistake. When you concern yourself with others, you naturally develop a sense of self-confidence . To help others takes courage and inner strength.”

PeopleThinkingNeedsHumansSelfSometimesHelpingWisdomCareSpiritualValuesInterestHuman BeingsPayAttentionMistakeCompassionCourageWiseHuman NatureDevelopmentConfidenceWise WordsWords Of WisdomBenefitsConcernConcernedCaringTake CareSelf ConfidenceHelping OthersSensesDevelopingPay AttentionInner StrengthSpiritual WisdomOpposingSense Of SelfEgoismCaring For OthersTibetan
Author:Dalai Lama
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“We obey people we don't trust, to buy things we don't need, to impress people we don't like, using money we don't have, for gratifications that don't last, killing animals we don't hate, for pleasures that don't satisfy, dreaming of a life we don't deserve, and praying for an afterlife that doesn't exist, we are a stupid species”

PeopleLifeNeedsDreamLastsHatePleasureAnimalHuman NatureStupidTrustPrayingDeserveSpeciesKillingStupiditySillySatisfiedAfterlifeImpressGratificationDon't TrustDon't HateSillinessSelf-satisfactionAnimal AbuseKilling AnimalsYou Can't Fix Stupid
Author:Philip Wollen
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“The conservative "thinks of political policies as intended to preserve order, justice, and freedom. The ideologue, on the contrary, thinks of politics as a revolutionary instrument for transforming society and even transforming human nature. In his march toward Utopia, the ideologue is merciless.”

ThinkingHumansPoliticalOrderJusticeHuman NaturePolicyInstrumentsConservativeContraryPreservesRevolutionaryMarchTransformingUtopiaIdeologuesTransforming Society
Book:The Politics of Prudence
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“No matter how happy anyone is with their choices, I believe it's human nature to wonder about the path not taken.”

BelieveHumansMatterChoicesI BelieveWonderPathTakenHuman Nature
Book:Jeneration X: One Reluctant Adult's Attempt to Unarrest Her Arrested Development; Or, Why It's Never Too Late for Her Dumb Ass to Learn Why Froot Loops Are Not for Dinner
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“Watch human nature; we are so built that if we do not get thrilled in the right way, we will get thrilled in the wrong. If we are without the thrill of communion with God, we will try to get thrilled by the devil, or by some concoction of human ingenuity.”

IfsWayTryingHumansWatchesHuman NatureDevilBuiltCommunionThrillRight WayIngenuityCommunion With God
Book:Biblical Ethics / The Moral Foundations of Life / The Philosophy of Sin: Ethical Principles for the Christian Life
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“And all men are ready to pass judgement on the priest as if he was not a being clothed with flesh, or one who inherited a human nature.”

IfsMenHumansHuman NatureReadyFleshJudgementPriestsJudgemental
Book:A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church: St. Chrysostom: On the priesthood; Ascetic treatises; Select homilies and letters; Homilies on the statutes
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“Judgment can be acquired only by acute observation, by actual experience in the school of life, by ceaseless alertness to learn from others, by study of the activities of men who have made notable marks, by striving to analyze the everyday play of causes and effects, by constant study of human nature.”

MenHumansMadePlaySchoolCausesStudyEffectsHuman NatureActivityJudgmentMarkConstantStriveEverydayObservationJudgementNotableCause And EffectAlertnessAlertness Is
Book:Keys to Success
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“Freemasonry is a science of symbols, in which, by their proper study, a search is instituted after truth, that truth consisting in the knowledge of the divine and human nature of God and the human Soul.”

HumansSoulGodTruthScienceKnowledgeStudyHuman NatureDivineSymbolsHuman SoulMasonsMasonicMasonryFreemasonry
Book:The Mystic Tie: Or, Facts and Opinions, Illustrative of the Character and Tendency of Freemasonry
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“I am not conscious of a single experience throughout my three months' stay in England and Europe that made me feel that after all East is East and West is West. On the contrary, I have been convinced more than ever that human nature is much the same, no matter under what clime it flourishes, and that if you approached people with trust and affection you would have ten-fold trust and thousand-fold affection returned to you.”

PeopleIfsFeelsHumansHas BeensMadeMatterThreeHuman NatureTrustMonthsThousandTenConsciousEuropeEnglandWestAffectionEastConvincedContraryFoldsThree MonthsEast And West
Book:The Essential Gandhi: An Anthology of His Writings on His Life, Work, and Ideas
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“When it comes to explaining human thought and behavior, the possibility that heredity plays any role at all still has the power to shock. To acknowledge human nature, many think, is to endorse racism, sexism, war, greed, genocide, nihilism, reactionary politics, and neglect of children and the disadvantaged. Any claim that the mind has an innate organization strikes people not as a hypothesis that might be incorrect but as a thought it is immoral to think.”

PeopleThinkingMindHumansChildrenStillsWarPlayMightRolesHuman NaturePossibilityBehaviorRacismOrganizationClaimsGreedStrikesAcknowledgeShockNeglectSexismGenocideHypothesisImmoralInnateExplainingNihilismReactionariesHuman ThoughtHeredityDisadvantaged
Book:The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature
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“We suffer not from overproduction but from undercirculation. You have heard of technocracy. I wish I had those fellows for my competitors. I'd like to take the automobile it is said they predicted could be made now that would last fifty years. Even if never used, this automobile would not be worth anything except to a junkman in ten years, because of the changes in men's tastes and ideas. This desire for change is an inherent quality in human nature, so that the present generation must not try to crystallize the needs of the future ones.”

IfsMenNeedsTryingYearsHumansMadeSaidIdeasLastsUsedDesireSufferingWishQualityGenerationsHeardHuman NatureTasteTenFellowsFiftyDaily LifeInherentCompetitorsAutomobile
Author:Charles Kettering
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“H. G. Wells was not the only one to mention Churchill and Hitler in the same breath: "Churchill and Hitler are striving to change the nature of their respective countrymen by forcing and hammering violent methods on them. Man may be suppressed in this manner but he cannot be changed. Ahimsa [non-violence in the Hindu tradition], on the other hand, can change human nature and sooner than men like Churchill and Hitler."”

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Author:Mahatma Gandhi
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“There is no need to invent an ego that is separate from the divine if our basic human nature is trusted. If we trust ourselves, we know how to avoid interfering with nature and how to live in harmony. When we know God as an unseen, loving, and accepting power at the heart of everything, allowing us to make our own choices, then God is a trusted part of our nature.”

IfsKnowsNeedsHumansHeartGodChoicesAcceptingKnow HowHuman NatureDivineEgoHarmonyAllowingTrustedInterfereUnseenKnowing God
Author:Wayne Dyer
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“Human nature is such that humans can turn to God anywhere at any time, and by believing in His care and protection, and thinking in accordance with this belief, fill their hearts with peace and poise, rebuild their bodies into health and strength, and surround themselves with harmonious and joyous conditions.”

ThinkingBelieveHumansHeartGodBodyCareTurnsBeliefConditionsHuman NatureProtectionSurroundJoyousHarmoniousPoiseTurn To GodHealth And Strength
Author:Emmet Fox
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“The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated."Mark McCormack, Author and sports entrepreneur"Psychologists tell us that money is a satisfier, not a motivator... Recognition is. That's why we do what we do... Recognition is critical to self-esteem. Without it, we feel undervalued, even insignificant. Money is nice, sure. But once you establish a basis of monetary rewards, without the accompanying verbal and social affirmation, the employee will quickly become disgruntled and ask for more. Eventually, more will never be enough.”

FeelsHumansSelfEnoughAsksSocialSportsInspiringPrinciplesNiceHuman NatureSelf EsteemBasesMarkEntrepreneurRewardsCriticalEsteemRecognitionEmpoweringEmployeeAffirmationInsignificantAppreciatedCravingPsychologistMonetaryUndervaluedDisgruntledWhy We Do What We Do
Author:John Baldoni
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