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Human Nature Quotes

Browse 4693 quotes about Human Nature.

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Human Nature Quotes

“Evolution has no moral direction. An evolutionary understanding of human nature can explain the differing intuitions we have when we are faced with an individual rather than with a mass of people, or with people close to us rather than with those far away, but it does not justify those feelings.”

PeopleHumansDoeFeelingsIndividualUnderstandingMoralHuman NatureEvolutionMassIntuitionJustifyFar Away
Book:The Life You Can Save: How to play your part in ending world poverty
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“Finding God in all things is not an 'empirical eureka.' When we desire to encounter God, we would like to verify him immediately by an empirical method. But you cannot meet God this way...A contemplative attitude is necessary: it is the feeling that you are moving along the good path of understanding and affection toward things and situations. Profound peace, spiritual consolation, love of God, and love of all things in God-this is the sign that you are on this right path.”

WayFeelingsWisdomSpiritualMovingDesireReligionUnderstandingAttitudeSituationPathHuman NatureFindingsAll ThingsAnd LoveMethodProfoundAffectionGod LoveEncountersConsolationRight PathContemplativeVerifyGod And LoveFinding God
Author:Pope Francis
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“I have a feeling-as compelling as a religious conviction-that if industry will constantly pass on to the worker and the customer all the savings of labor-saving machinery and invention, rather than siphon them off into the pools of watered securities, it will by that process keep distribution and production in balance and go as far toward Utopia as our poor human natures will go or be driven.”

IfsHumansFeelingsProcessReligiousPoorSecurityHuman NatureIndustryBalanceLaborWorkersProductionsConvictionCustomersDrivenInventionSavingPoolCompellingDistributionMachinerySavingsUtopia
Author:Samuel B. Pettengill
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“I wished to acquire the simplicity, native feelings, and virtues of savage life; to divest myself of the factitious habits, prejudices and imperfections of civilization; ... and to find, amidst the solitude and grandeur of the western wilds, more correct views of human nature and of the true interests of man. The season of snows was preferred, that I might experience the pleasure of suffering, and the novelty of danger.”

MenHumansFeelingsMightSufferingInterestPleasureViewsVirtueHuman NatureDangerHabitCivilizationSolitudeSeasonsPrejudiceWesternSimplicitySnowAcquireNativeImperfectionSavagesNoveltyGrandeur
Book:Evans's Pedestrious Tour
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“Human nature itself is evermore an advocate for liberty. There is also in human nature a resentment of injury, and indignation against wrong. A love of truth and a veneration of virtue. These amiable passions, are the "latent spark" . . . If the people are capable of understanding, seeing and feeling the differences between true and false, right and wrong, virtue and vice, to what better principle can the friends of mankind apply than to the sense of this difference?”

PeopleIfsHumansFeelingsPassionUnderstandingDifferencesLibertyPrinciplesVirtueSeeingMankindHuman NatureCapableVicesInjurySparksResentmentFreedom And LibertyFreedom LibertyIndignationLatentAmiableVenerationEvermoreAmerican LibertyTrue And False
Book:Novanglus and Massachusettensis; or, political essays, published in ... 1774 and 1775, on the principal points of controversy, between Great Britain and her colonies; the former by John Adams ... the latter by Jonathan Sewall [or rather, Daniel Leonard] ... To which are added a number of letters lately written by President Adams to the Hon. William Tudor, etc
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“It is to the credit of human nature, that, except where its selfishness is brought into play, it loves more readily than it hates. Hatred, by a gradual and quiet process, will even be transformed to love, unless the change be impeded by a continually new irritation of the original feeling of hostility.”

HumansPlayFeelingsHateProcessHuman NatureQuietHatredAngerOriginalsCreditSelfishnessInspirational LoveTransformedHostilityScarletIrritationHatred And Anger
Book:Nathaniel Hawthorne: Collected Novels: Scarlet Letter / House of Seven Gables / Blithedale Romance / Fanshawe / Marble Faun: Library of America #10
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“It is part of the irony of life that the strongest feelings of devoted gratitude of which human nature seems to be susceptible, are called forth in human beings towards those who, having the power entirely to crush their earthly existence, voluntarily refrain from using that power.”

HumansFeelingsSeemsHuman BeingsExistenceHuman NatureGratitudeIronyCrushStrongestDevotedRefrainSusceptibleIrony Of Life
Book:The Subjection of Women
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“Pride... is a very common failing, I believe. By all that I have ever read, I am convinced that it is very common indeed; that human nature is particularly prone to it, and that there are very few of us who do not cherish a feeling of self-complacency on the score of some quality or the other, real or imaginary. Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.”

ThinkingBelieveHumansMayPersonsDifferentRealSelfFeelingsUsedI BelieveCommonQualityOpinionFailingHuman NaturePrideProudConvincedVanityRelateVainScoreDifferent ThingsCherishImaginaryBe ProudComplacencyVanity And Pride
Author:Jane Austen
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“There's no "should" or "should not" when it comes to having feelings. They're part of who we are and their origins are beyond our control. When we can believe that, we may find it easier to make constructive choices about what to do with those feelings.”

ShouldBelieveMayFeelingsChoicesEasyHuman NatureTelevisionEasierWho We AreConstructive
Book:You Are Special: Words of Wisdom for All Ages from a Beloved Neighbor
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“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.”

IfsThinkingWayFeelsHumansDoeFeelingsHandsActionBeautifulFallTermViolenceHuman NatureDestructionDown AndPlantLikesBuddhistGrassDestructiveSunshineAutumnConstructionVery HappyLeafsFalling DownDeep DownNon Violence
Author:Dalai Lama
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“Strange indeed is human nature. Here were these men, to whom murder was familiar, who again and again had struck down the father of the family, some man against whom they had no personal feeling, without one thought of compunction or of compassion for his weeping wife or helpless children, and yet the tender or pathetic in music could move them to tears.”

MenHumansChildrenFeelingsMovingFatherCompassionWifeHuman NatureTearsStrangeMurderFamiliarAgain And AgainHelplessPatheticWeepingPersonal FeelingsCompunction
Book:Sherlock Holmes - The Novels: A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of the Four, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Valley of Fear
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“I believe in art that is connected to real human feeling, that extends itself beyond the limits of the art world to embrace all people who are striving for alternatives in an increasingly dehumanized world. I am trying to make art that relates to the deepest and most mythic concerns of human kind and I believe that, at this moment of history, feminism is humanism.”

PeopleWorldTryingBelieveHumansKindArtRealMomentsFeelingsHumanityI BelieveHistoryFeminismHuman NatureLimitsConcernEmbraceStriveHumanismFeministI Believe InConnectedMythAlternativesRelateHumanistExtendingArt WorldReal HumanDeepness
Author:Judy Chicago
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“A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe; a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts, and his feelings as something separate from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of consciousness.”

HumansKindWholeFeelingsUniverseNatureHuman BeingsSpaceAnimalConsciousnessCompassionHuman NatureSelf AwarenessWhole WorldOur TimeDelusionVegetarianVeganAnimal RightsEcologyTime And SpaceVegetarianismRelativitySelf ConsciousnessSelf CompassionThoughts And FeelingsInterconnectedHuman ConsciousnessHuman AnimalAnimal WorldHuman ThoughtSave Mother EarthHumans And AnimalsHuman ConnectionHuman ActionsConscious AwarenessSpace TimeAnimal CompassionSpiritual NatureCommon HumanitySave The EnvironmentOne With NatureAnimals In NatureLimited TimeWeb Of LifeHuman CompassionEnvironmental PollutionLiving RightDivine BeautyParts Of A WholeKind ThoughtsExperiencing ThingsMind ThoughtsInterconnected WorldCaring And CompassionSimple ThoughtsEarth Community
Book:The Ultimate Quotable Einstein
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“The best aphorisms are.... portable wisdom, the quintessential extracts of thought and feeling. They furnish the largest amount of intellectual stimulus and nutriment in the smallest compass. About every weak point in human nature, or vicious spot in human life, there is deposited a crystallization of warning and protective proverbs.”

HumansFeelingsHuman NatureAmountIntellectualWeakSpotsHuman LifeWarningAphorismSmallestQuotationsViciousCompassProtectiveStimulusThoughts And FeelingsQuintessentialWeak Points
Author:William Rounseville Alger
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“We are, by our human natures, foolish. We engage in all manner of nonsense and create all sorts of problems for ourselves—some of them quite serious. There may be times in our lives when we find our world crumbling around us and see that we are losing that which we value most. In these circumstances, when the voices of our forthright friends are urgent, it would be more prudent to consider their warnings than complain about the tone of their voices or assert that they are not diplomatic. Real friends serve us best when they call out dangers that we cannot perceive. Plainspoken friends, particularly those who may have experienced the things we now suffer, may see and understand more than we can see and understand ourselves. It would be wise to listen to their counsel, even—perhaps especially—when our first instinct is to insist that our circumstances are different, that they do not understand us, or that they have hurt our feelings. Forthright friends are rare. If you have such friends, listen humbly and keep them close: you have discovered treasure.”

FeelingsHuman NatureHumilityFriendsNonsenseProblemsFoolishnessPlainness
Author:Jean-Michel Hansen
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