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Human Nature Quotes

Browse 4693 quotes about Human Nature.

Human Nature Quotes

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”

Life Inspirational Wisdom Humor Motivational Action Success Leadership Business Human Nature Positive Inspirational Life Confidence Habit Discipline Determination Excellence Caring Moving Forward Motivational Sports Teamwork Self Discipline Bad Ass Changing Your Life Employee Engagement Bad Habits Great Success Doings Determination And Success Determination Motivational Greek Philosopher Good Habits Habits Of Mind Work To Be Done Small Business Owners Inspirational Determination Student Learning Inspirational Teamwork Best Performance Formula For Success Drive And Success Great Performance Motivational Teamwork Service Excellence Discipline And Self Control Common Life Business Person Success Is Not Measured Life Determination Team Motivational Daily Habits Creatures Of Habit Team Motivation Change Growth Employee Inspirational Moral Excellence Time For Yourself Inspiring Teamwork Work Habits Team Success Great Employee Academic Excellence Management Motivation Focus On Yourself Personal Excellence

Author:Will Durant

“We have long struggles with ourself, of which the outcome is one of our actions; they are, as it were, the inner side of human nature. This inner side is God's; the outer side belongs to men.”

Men Humans Long Action Sides Struggle Human Nature Outcomes Our Actions

Author:Honore de Balzac

“Running a multi-million dollar business can be frustrating at times, especially when someone does something I am not happy with. It might not even be their fault, but it is human nature to reach in an angry or heated way. However, I have learned an important and effective lesson. Rather than complain to my member of staff about their actions, I search my memory bank for things I find wonderful about them. This changes the energy around the issue instantly. People tend to live up to what you expect of them.”

“I also came to see that liberalism's superficial optimism concerning human nature caused it to overlook the fact that reason is darkened by sin. The more I thought about human nature the more I saw how our tragic inclination for sin causes us to use our minds to rationalize our actions. Liberalism failed to see that reason by itself is little more than an instrument to justify man's defensive ways of thinking. Reason, devoid of the purifying power of faith, can never free itself from distortions and rationalizations.”

Source: The Essential Martin Luther King, Jr.:

“There is a Destiny which has the control of our actions, not to be resisted by the strongest efforts of Human Nature.”

Humans Action Effort Destiny Human Nature Strongest Our Actions

Book:The writings of George Washington from the original manuscript sources, 1745-1799

Source: The writings of George Washington from the original manuscript sources, 1745-1799

“Trust life, even if you cannot trust people. For human nature is unreliable, but life itself is ruled by immutable law. Right action leads always, in the end, to victory.”

People Ifs Life Humans Ends Action Law Nature Human Nature Trust Victory Unreliable Right Action

Author:Goswami Kriyananda

“To the love of pleasure we may therefore ascribe most of the agreeable, to the love of action we may attribute most of the useful and respectable, qualifications. The character in which both the one and the other should be united and harmonised would seem to constitute the most perfect idea of human nature.”

Should Humans May Ideas Character Seems Action Perfect Pleasure United History Human Nature Attributes Respectable Roman Empire Qualifications

Book:The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

“Man, as an originator of action, is a union of desire and intellect.”

Men Action Desire Human Nature Unions Intellect

Book:The Nicomachean ethics

Source: The Nicomachean ethics

“Those who make a practice of comparing human actions are never so perplexed as when they try to see them as a whole and in the same light; for they commonly contradict each other so strangely that it seems impossible that they have come from the same shop.”

Trying Humans Whole Light Seems Action Practice Impossible Human Nature Diversity Compare Shops Human Actions Perplexed

Book:Complete Essays

Source: Complete Essays

“... nothing is more human than substituting the quantity of words and actions for their character. But using imprecise words is very similar to using lots of words, for the more imprecise a word is, the greater the area it covers.”

Humans Character Action Talking Greater Human Nature Areas Stupidity Quantity Words And Actions

Book:Precision and Soul: Essays and Addresses

Source: Precision and Soul: Essays and Addresses

“We Americans are not an inherently more violent people than folks in other countries. We're not inherently more prone to mental health problems. The main difference that sets our nation apart is what makes us so susceptible to so many mass shootings is that we don't do enough, we don't take the basic commonsense actions to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and dangerous people. What's different in America is it's easy to get your hands on a gun.”

“We all need to get the balance right between action and reflection. With so many distractions, it is easy to forget to pause and take stock.”

Needs Wisdom Reality Action Easy Community Leadership Forget Human Nature Health Balance Reflection Ideology Distraction Pauses

Author:Queen Elizabeth II

“The three hardest tasks in the world are neither physical feats nor intellectual achievements, but moral acts: to return love for hate, to include the excluded, and to say, 'I was wrong'.”

Source: Pieces of Eight Pa

“The possibility of remedying imprudent actions is commonly an inducement to commit them.”

Action Motivation Human Nature Possibility Commit Temptation

Book:The Works of Lord Chesterfield: Including His Letters to His Son, Etc : to which is Prefixed, an Original Life of the Author

Source: The Works of Lord Chesterfield: Including His Letters to His Son, Etc : to which is Prefixed, an Original Life of the Author

“American business men must learn human nature to the point of accepting as necessary the Rabble Rouser of the Right. . . . To get fast action somebody must stir millions to genuine anger over conditions which are adversely affecting their lives.”

Men Life Humans Action Business Accepting Millions Learning Conditions Human Nature Genuine Business Man American Business

Author:Walter B. Pitkin

“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

“Things won are done, joy's soul lies in the doing.”

Soul Done Action Joy Lying Human Nature Wooing

Author:William Shakespeare

“The more I thought about human nature, the more I saw how our tragic inclination for sin/mistakes causes us to use our minds to rationalize our action.”

Mind Humans Use Action Causes Sin Mistake Saws Human Nature Tragic Inclination Our Actions Rationalize

Author:Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Nothing is so powerful as an insight into human nature... what compulsions drive a man, what instincts dominate his action. If you know these things abut a person, you can touch him at the core of his being.”

Ifs Knows Men Humans Persons Action Powerful Knowledge Human Nature Instinct Insight Core Compulsion

Author:William Bernbach

“When the days become longer and there is more sunshine, the grass becomes fresh and, consequently, we feel very happy. On the other hand, in autumn, one leaf falls down and another leaf falls down. The beautiful plants become as if dead and we do not feel very happy. Why? I think it is because deep down our human nature likes construction, and does not like destruction. Naturally, every action which is destructive is against human nature. Constructiveness is the human way. Therefore, I think that in terms of basic human feeling, violence is not good. Non-violence is the only way.”

“It may be those who do most, dream most.”

Inspirational May Dream Inspiration Action Success Inspiring Acting Human Nature Insightful

Book:Leacock on Life

Source: Leacock on Life

“Inference is founded upon obvious reasons. Regard to reputation has a less active influence, when the infamy of a bad action is to be divided upon a number, than when it is to fall singly upon one. A spirit of faction . . . will often hurry the persons of whom they were composed into improprieties and excesses for which they would blush in a private capacity.”

Source: America's Founding Documents: The Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the United States Constitution, the Federalist Papers, and the Bill of Rights

“The Americans, on the contrary, are fond of explaining almost all the actions of their lives by the principle of interest rightly understood; they show with complacency how an enlightened regard for themselves constantly prompts them to assist each other, and inclines them willingly to sacrifice a portion of their time and property to the welfare of the state.”

Source: Democracy in America: The Complete and Unabridged Volumes I and II

“Is not every action of Hamlet induced by a fanatical impulse, which tells him that duty consists in revenge alone? And dose it need superhuman efforts to recognize that revenge never can be duty? I say again that Hamlet thinks much, but that he is by no means wise.”

Thinking Needs Mean Action Effort Wise Human Nature Duty Revenge Impulse Dose Superhuman

Book:Wisdom and Destiny: Works of Maeterlinck

Source: Wisdom and Destiny: Works of Maeterlinck

“Really to believe in human nature while striving to know the thousand forces that warp it from its ideal development - to call for and expect much from men and women, and not to be disappointed and embittered if they fall short - to try to do good with people rather than to them - this is my religion on its human side. And if God exists, I think that he must be in the warm sun, in the kindly actions of the people we know and read of, in the beautiful things of art and nature, and in the closeness of friendships.”

“Human action can be modified to some extent, but human nature can not be changed”

Humans Action Nature Human Nature Changed Words Of Wisdom Can Not Human Actions

Author:Abraham Lincoln

“What you are will show in what you do.”

Shows Action Motivation Human Nature Mindset Work Related

Author:Thomas A. Edison

“The movies I like to make are very rich and full of passion. Some people see me as an action director, but action is not the only thing in my movies. I always like to show human nature - something deep inside the heart.”

People Humans Heart Shows Action Passion Rich Human Nature Directors Deep Inside

Author:John Woo

“Mars is the next frontier, what the Wild West was, what America was 500 years ago. It's time to strike out anew....Mars is where the action is for the next thousand years....The characteristic of human nature, and perhaps our simian branch of the family, is curiosity and exploration. When we stop doing that, we won't be humans anymore. I've seen far more in my lifetime than I ever dreamed. Many of our problems on Earth can only be solved by space technology....The next step is in space. It's inevitable.”