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Human Nature Quotes

Browse 4693 quotes about Human Nature.

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Human Nature Quotes

“Love is like some fresh spring, first a stream and then a river, changing its aspect and its nature as it flows to plunge itself in some boundless ocean, where restricted natures only find monotony, but where great souls are engulfed in endless contemplation.”

ThinkingLoveFirstsSoulLove IsHuman NatureOceanSpringAspectFlowRiversEndlessContemplationStreamsThoughtfulBoundlessPlungeLove Is LikeMonotonyGreat Souls
Book:The Magic Skin: Or The Wild Ass's Skin
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“A penniless man who has no ties to bind him is master of himself at any rate, but a luckless wretch who is in love no longer belongs to himself, and may not take his own life. Love makes us almost sacred in our own eyes; it is the life of another that we revere within us; then and so begins for us the cruelest trouble of all.”

MenLoveMayEyeSufferingTroubleHuman NatureMastersSacredRateTiesLove Life
Book:The Magic Skin: Or The Wild Ass's Skin
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“Ambitious men spend their youth in rendering themselves worthy of patronage; it is their great mistake. While the foolish creatures are laying in stores of knowledge and energy, so that they shall not sink under the weight of responsible posts that recede from them, schemers come and go who are wealthy in words and destitute of ideas, astonish the ignorant, and creep into the confidence of those who have a little knowledge.”

MenLittlesIdeasSuccessEnergyMistakeHuman NatureYouthCreaturesAmbitionWeightResponsibleWorthyStoresFoolishIgnorantPostsWealthyAmbitiousComes And GoesCreepsRenderingGreat MistakesDestitutePatronageLittle KnowledgeAmbitious Man
Book:The Magic Skin: Or The Wild Ass's Skin
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“Ruling is hard. This was maybe my answer to Tolkien, whom, as much as I admire him, I do quibble with. Lord of the Rings had a very medieval philosophy: that if the king was a good man, the land would prosper. We look at real history and it's not that simple... Real-life kings had real-life problems to deal with... My people who are trying to rule don't have an easy time of it. Just having good intentions doesn't make you a wise king.”

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Author:George R. R. Martin
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“For human nature, being more highly pitched, selved, and distinctive than anything in the world, can have been developed, evolved,condensed, from the vastness of the world not anyhow or by the working of common powers but only by one of finer or higher pitch and determination than itself.”

WorldHumansHas BeensSelfCommonHuman NatureHigherDeterminationDistinctiveVastness
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Gerard Manley Hopkins (Illustrated)
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“Musick is certainly a very agreeable Entertainment, but if it would take the entire Possession of our Ears, if it would make us incapable of hearing Sense, if it would exclude Arts that have a much greater Tendency to the Refinement of human Nature; I must confess I would allow it no better Quarter than Plato has done, who banishes it out of his Common-wealth.”

IfsHumansArtDoneWealthCommonMusicGreaterHuman NatureMusicianEarsEntertainmentPossessionHearingTendenciesQuartersIncapablePlatoRefinement
Book:The Works of Joseph Addison: Including the Whole Contents of Bp. Hurd's Edition, with Letters and Other Pieces Not Found in Ay Previous Collection; and Macaulay's Essay on His Life and Works
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“Let those flatter, who fear: it is not an American art. To give praise where it is not due, might be well from the venal, but would ill beseem those who are asserting the rights of human nature.”

GivingHumansWellsArtMightRightsHuman NaturePraiseIllDuesFlattery
Book:Memoirs, Correspondence, and Private Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Late President of the United States
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“The spirit of God, like the sun, always gives all its light at once. The spirit of man resembles the pale moon, which has its phases, its absences and its returns, its lucidity and its spots, its fullness and its disappearance, which borrows all its light from the rays of the sun, and which still dares to intercept them on occasion.”

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Author:Victor Hugo
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“He, who, in view of its inconsistencies, says of human nature the same that, in view of its contrasts, is said of the divine nature, that it is past finding out, thereby evinces a better appreciation of it than he who, by always representing it in a clear light, leaves it to be inferred that he clearly knows all about it.”

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Book:The Confidence-man: His Masquerade
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“An indiscriminate distrust of human nature is the worst consequence of a miserable condition, whether brought about by innocence or guilt. And though want of suspicion more than want of sense, sometimes leads a man into harm; yet too much suspicion is as bad as too little sense.”

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Book:Israel Potter: Works of Melville
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“Robin [Williams] was a world treasure. As we mourn his tragic death, we must remember him for the great waves of laughter that he was able to illicit from us, how his humor and insights - though they came from a place of pain and uncertainty - connected us and reminded us of how flawed and fragile...how human we are. How we are capable of moments of inspired transcendence and others of unspeakable despair.”

WorldHumansMomentsWisdomRealityAblePainRememberCommunityLeadershipComedyHuman NatureHealthDespairCapableLaughterUnityInspiredIndividualityWaveInsightConnectedTreasureUncertaintyTragicFragileFlawedTranscendenceMournRobinsUnspeakable
Author:Glenn Close
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