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Human Nature Quotes

Browse 4693 quotes about Human Nature.

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Human Nature Quotes

“Happiness is only to be found in a recurrence to the principles of human nature; and these will prompt very simple measures.”

HumansHappinessFoundSimplePrinciplesHuman NaturePromptsRecurrence
Book:The works of Benjamin Disraeli, earl of Beaconsfield: embracing novels, romances, plays, poems, biography, short stories and great speeches
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“It is the talent of human nature to run from one extreme to another.”

HumansRunningTalentHuman NatureExtremes
Book:The Works of Jonathan Swift, D.D. Dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin: Accurately Revised in Six Volumes, Adorned with Copper-plates : with Some Account of the Author's Life and Notes Historical and Explanatory
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“He who expects from a great name in politics, in philosophy, in art, equal greatness in other things, is little versed in human nature. Our strength lies in our weakness. The learned in books are ignorant of the world. He who is ignorant of books is often well acquainted with other things; for life is of the same length in the learned and unlearned; the mind cannot be idle; if it is not taken up with one thing, it attends to another through choice or necessity; and the degree of previous capacity in one class or another is a mere lottery.”

IfsWorldMindHumansWellsLittlesArtBookPhilosophyLife IsLyingChoicesNamesClassTakenOne ThingHuman NatureGreatnessEqualDegreesWeaknessCapacityMereIgnorantLengthIdleLotteryVersatility
Book:Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)
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“There is that in the soul of man which must respond to the highest in virtue. It may not respond at once. Human nature can easily be over-faced by examples too remote and austere. Moreover, human nature can easily deny God because the whole race has long been in rebellion against Him. Yet there is that in human nature which calls out to the supreme examples of virtue: owns, as it were, the intention of God who made it, and feels the unmistakable homesickness of the soul.”

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Author:Bill Vaughan
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“Truth should be the first lesson of the child and the last aspiration of manhood; for it has been well said that the inquiry of truth, which is the love-making of it, the knowledge of truth, which is the presence of it, and the belief of truth, which is the enjoying of it, is the sovereign good of human nature.”

ShouldFirstsHumansWellsChildrenHas BeensSaidTruthLastsBeliefEnjoyHuman NatureLessonsAspirationSovereignManhoodInquiryLove MakingWell Said
Book:Literary recreations and miscellanies
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“I think that the desire to be cruel and to hurt (with words because any other way might be dangerous to ourself) is part of human nature. Parties are battles (most parties), a conversation is a duel (often). Everybody's trying to hurt first, to get in the dig that will make him or her feel superior, feel triumph.”

ThinkingWayFeelsTryingFirstsHumansMightDesireHurtPartyDangerousHuman NatureBattleConversationSuperiorsTriumphUnkindness
Book:The letters of Jean Rhys
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“The fact of our deriving constant pleasure from whatever is a type or semblance of divine attributes, and from nothing but that which is so, is the most glorious of all that can be demonstrated of human nature; it not only sets a great gulf of specific separation between us and the lower animals, but it seems a promise of a communion ultimately deep, close, and conscious, with the Being whose darkened manifestations we here feebly and unthinkingly delight in.”

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Book:Modern Painters: (pt.3) Of ideas of beauty
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“It appears an extraordinary thing to me, that since there is such a diabolical spirit in the depravity of human nature, as persecution for difference of opinion in religious tenets, there never happened to be any inquisition, any auto da fe, any crusade, among the Pagans.”

HumansSpiritDifferencesReligiousOpinionHappenedHuman NatureExtraordinaryIntolerancePersecutionPaganCrusadesDepravityExtraordinary ThingsInquisitionDiabolicalDifferences Of Opinion
Book:The Works of Laurence Sterne ...: With a Life of the Author, Written by Himself ...
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“I have so great a contempt and detestation for meanness, that I could sooner make a friend of one who had committed murder, than of a person who could be capable, in any instance, of the former vice. Under meanness, I comprehend dishonesty; under dishonesty, ingratitude; under ingratitude, irreligion; and under this latter, every species of vice and immorality in human nature.”

HumansPersonsHuman NatureCapableMurderSpeciesCommittedVicesInstanceFormerLatterContemptDishonestyImmoralityMeannessIngratitudeIrreligion
Book:The Works of Laurence Sterne, A. M.: A sentimental journey through France and Italy. The Koran: or, The life, character and sentiments of Tria Juncta in Uno. A political romance
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“Never since the dawn of human history, as far as I can find out, did people long settled in any region give a friendly welcome to newcomers. One of the disagreeable traits of our human nature seems to be to dislike on sight people who come later than the first settlers.”

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Book:Vermont Tradition: The Biography of an Outlook on Life
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“Government began in tyranny and force, began in the feudalism of the soldier and bigotry of the priest; and the ideas of justice and humanity have been fighting their way, like a thunderstorm, against the organized selfishness of human nature.”

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Book:Speeches, Lectures, and Letters
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“There do remain dispersed in the soil of human nature divers seeds of goodness, of benignity, of ingenuity, which, being cherished, excited, and quickened by good culture, do, by common experience, thrust out flowers very lovely, and yield fruits very pleasant of virtue and goodness.”

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Book:The Sermons and Expository Treatises of Isaac Barrow: With a Life of the Author
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“The highest greatness, surviving time and stone, is that which proceeds from the soul of man. Monarchs and cabinets, generals and admirals, with the pomp of court and the circumstance of war, in the lapse of time disappear from sight; but the pioneers of truth, though poor and lowly, especially those whose example elevates human nature, and teaches the rights of man, so that "a government of the people, by the people, for the people, may not perish from the earth;" such a harbinger can never be forgotten, and their renown spreads co-extensive with the cause they served so well.”

PeopleMenHumansWellsMayWarSoulGovernmentEarthCausesPoorTeachRightsHuman NatureExampleGreatnessCircumstancesFameHighestStonesSightCourtForgottenSpreadDisappearSurvivingPioneersCabinetsMonarchsLapsesRenownAdmiralHarbinger
Author:Charles Sumner
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