Best human-nature & contrary Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“Analysis of rebellion leads at least to the suspicion that, contrary to the postulates of contemporary thought, a human nature does exist, as the Greeks believed. Why rebel if there is nothing permanent in oneself worth preserving? ... Rebellion, though apparently negative, since it creates nothing, is profoundly positive in that it reveals the part of man which must always be defended.”

Ifs Men Humans Doe Human Nature Negative Oneself Contrary Self Worth Contemporary Permanent Analysis Greek Rebellion Rebel Suspicion

Author:Albert Camus

“Nothing can be more contrary to nature, to reason, to religion, than cruelty; hence as inhuman man is generally considered as a monster; such monsters, however, have existed; and the heart almost bleeds at the recital of the cruel acts such have been guilty of; it teaches us, however, what human nature is when left to itself; not only treacherous, but desperately wicked.”

Men Humans Heart Has Beens Reason Left Teach Human Nature Contrary Monsters Cruelty Guilty Wicked Inhuman Treacherous Recitals

Book:Miscellaneous Works of the Rev. Charles Buck, Author of the Theological Dictionary, Containing the Young Christian's Guide; Or, Suitable Directions, Cautions, and Encouragement, to the Believer on His First Entrance Into the Divine Life, a Treatise on Religious Experience: in which Its Nature, Evidences, and Advantages, are Considered; Together with Anecdotes, Religious, Moral, and Entertaining, Alphabetically Arranged, and Interpersed with a Variety of Useful Observations

Source: Miscellaneous Works of the Rev. Charles Buck, Author of the Theological Dictionary, Containing the Young Christian's Guide; Or, Suitable Directions, Cautions, and Encouragement, to the Believer on His First Entrance Into the Divine Life, a Treatise on Religious Experience: in which Its Nature, Evidences, and Advantages, are Considered; Together with Anecdotes, Religious, Moral, and Entertaining, Alphabetically Arranged, and Interpersed with a Variety of Useful Observations

“[H]e that thinks absolute power purifies men's blood, and corrects the baseness of human nature, need read the history of this, or any other age, to be convinced to the contrary.”

Thinking Men Needs Humans Age Blood Human Nature Absolutes Convinced Contrary Absolute Power Baseness

Book:The Second Treatise of Civil Government

Source: The Second Treatise of Civil Government

“Socialism cannot function, because its economic reward structure is contrary to human nature.”

Humans Economic Human Nature Function Structure Rewards Contrary Socialism

Author:Frans de Waal

“My only fear is doing something contrary to human nature - the wrong thing, the wrong way, or at the wrong time.”

Way Humans Human Nature Contrary Wrong Things Wrong Way Wrong Time

Book:The Modern Library Collection of Greek and Roman Philosophy 3-Book Bundle: Meditations; Selected Dialogues of Plato; The Basic Works of Aristotle

Source: The Modern Library Collection of Greek and Roman Philosophy 3-Book Bundle: Meditations; Selected Dialogues of Plato; The Basic Works of Aristotle

“The Idols of Tribe have their foundation in human nature itself, and in the tribe or race of men. For it is a false assertion that the sense of man is the measure of things. On the contrary, all perceptions as well of the sense as of the mind are according to the measure of the individual and not according to the measure of the universe. And the human understanding is like a false mirror, which, receiving rays irregularly, distorts and discolors the nature of things by mingling its own nature with it.”

Men Mind Humans Wells Universe Individual Understanding Race Human Nature Perception Mirrors Foundation Contrary Rays Idols Receiving Tribes Assertion Mingling

Book:New Atlantis and The Great Instauration

Source: New Atlantis and The Great Instauration

“We have been told over and over that "you can't change human nature", but the study of emic realities shows quite the contrary, that almost anything can become "human nature" if society defines it as such.”

Ifs Humans Has Beens Shows Reality Study Human Nature Contrary Can't Change Reality Shows

Book:Quantum Psychology: How Brain Software Programs You and Your World

Source: Quantum Psychology: How Brain Software Programs You and Your World

“I hate the world and almost all the people in it. I hate the Labour Congress and the journalists who send men to be slaughtered, and the fathers who feel a smug pride when their sons are killed, and even the pacifists who keep saying human nature is essentially good, in spite of all the daily proofs to the contrary. I hate the planet and the human race—I am ashamed to belong to such a species.”

People Men World Feels Humans Hate Father Race Human Nature Planets Son Pride I Hate Species Congress Proof Contrary Journalist Human Race Ashamed Spite Labour Pacifist Hate The World

Book:Autobiography

Source: Autobiography

“There is in every breast a sensibility to marks of honor, of favor, of esteem, and of confidence, which, apart from all considerations of interest, is some pledge for grateful and benevolent returns. Ingratitude is a common topic of declamation against human nature; and it must be confessed, that instances of it are but too infrequent and flagrant both in public and in private life. But the universal and extreme indignation which it inspires, is itself a proof of the energy and prevalence of the contrary sentiment.”

Source: The Federalist Papers: A Collection of Essays Written in Favour of the New Constitution

“This position will not be disputed so long as it is admitted that the desire of reward is one of the strongest incentives of human conduct, or that the best security for the fidelity of mankind is to make their interest coincide with their duty. Even the love of fame, the ruling passion of the noblest minds... would on the contrary deter him from the undertaking, when he foresaw that he must quit the scene before he could accomplish the work.”

“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

“No quality of human nature is more remarkable, both in itself and in its consequences, than that propensity we have to sympathize with others, and to receive by communication their inclinations and sentiments, however different from, or even contrary to our own.”

Humans Different Quality Human Nature Communication Consequence Contrary Remarkable Sentiments Inclination Propensity

Book:A Treatise on Human Nature: Being an Attempt to Introduce the Experimental Method of Reasoning Into Moral Subjects; and Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion

Source: A Treatise on Human Nature: Being an Attempt to Introduce the Experimental Method of Reasoning Into Moral Subjects; and Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion

“I believe that the basic nature of human beings is gentle and compassionate. It is therefore in our own interest to encourage that nature, to make it live within us, to leave room for it to develop. If on the contrary we use violence, it is as if we voluntarily obstruct the positive side of human nature and prevent its evolution.”

Ifs Believe Humans Use I Believe Sides Interest Human Beings Rooms Healing Violence Human Nature Evolution Conflict Contrary Gentle Compassionate Conflict Resolution Conflict Of Interest

Author:Dalai Lama

“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.”

Thinking Humans Political Order Justice Human Nature Policy Instruments Conservative Contrary Preserves Revolutionary March Transforming Utopia Ideologues Transforming Society

Book:The Politics of Prudence

Source: The Politics of Prudence

“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.”

Source: The Essential Gandhi: An Anthology of His Writings on His Life, Work, and Ideas

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Human Nature Quotes