“The biggest mischief in the past century has been perpetrated by Rousseau with his doctrine of the goodness of human nature. The mob and the intellectuals derived from it the vision of a Golden Age which would arrive without fail once the noble human race could act according to its whims.” HumansHas BeensAgePastRaceVisionFailingSocietyCenturyHuman NatureGoodnessNobleDoctrineGoldenHuman RaceMischiefWhimGolden Age Author:Jacob Burckhardt
“It's all nonsense to say that the Fifteenth Century can't possibly speak to the Twentieth, because it is the Fifteenth and not the Twentieth, and because those two Centuries haven't got a Common Denominator. They have. It's Human Nature.” HumansTwoSpeakCommonCenturyHuman NatureHavensNonsenseCommon Denominator Author:Frederick Rolfe
“Also our fellow competitors, who are indeed the people just mentioned - we do not compete with men who lived a hundred centuries ago, or those yet not born, or the dead, or those who dwell near the Pillars of Hercules, or those whom, in our opinion or that of others, we take to be far below us or far above us. So too we compete with those who follow the same ends as ourselves; we compete with our rivals in sport or in love, and generally with those who are after the same things; and it is therefore these whom we are bound to envy beyond all others. Hence the saying.” PeopleMenEndsSportsBornOpinionCenturyHuman NatureHundredFellowsBoundsEnvyCompetitorsRivalsPillars Author:Aristotle
“Though I admire republican principles in theory, yet I am afraid the practice may be too perfect for human nature. We tried a republic last century, and it failed. Let our enemies try next. I hate political experiments.” TryingHumansMayLastsPoliticalHateNextPerfectEnemyPrinciplesPracticeCenturyHuman NatureTheoryRepublicanI HateExperimentsAdmireRepublic Author:Robert Walpole
“But the 20th century suffered "two" ideologies that led to genocides. The other one, Marxism, had no use for race, didn't believe in genes and denied that human nature was a meaningful concept. Clearly, it's not an emphasis on genes or evolution that is dangerous. It's the desire to remake humanity by coercive means (eugenics or social engineering) and the belief that humanity advances through a struggle in which superior groups (race or classes) triumph over inferior ones.” BelieveHumansMeanTwoUseDesireHumanityBeliefSocialRaceClassStruggleGroupsCenturyDangerousHuman NatureEvolutionConceptsMeaningfulSuperiorsIdeologyTriumphGenocideDeniedGenesEngineeringInferiors20th CenturyEmphasisMarxismEugenicsRemakesSocial Engineering Author:Steven Pinker
“My opinions about human nature are shared by many psychologists, linguists, and biologists, not to mention philosophers and scholars going back centuries.” HumansOpinionCenturyHuman NaturePhilosopherScholarPsychologistBiologistLinguists Author:Steven Pinker
“Soviet-style communism failed, not because it was intrinsically evil, but because it was flawed. It allowed too few people to usurp too much power. Twenty-first century market capitalism, American-style, will fail for the same reasons. Both are edifices constructed by human intelligence, undone by human nature.” PeopleFirstsHumansReasonEvilToo MuchFailingCenturyStyleHuman NatureCapitalismTwentiesCommunismSovietFlawedUndoneEdificeHuman IntelligenceToo Much Power Book:Ordinary Person's Guide To Empire Source: Ordinary Person's Guide To Empire
“Machine intelligence of a human nature could be a century away, and immortality is at least a millennium away, if not unattainable altogether.” IfsHumansCenturyHuman NatureMachinesImmortalityMillenniumUnattainable Author:Michael Shermer