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Human Nature Quotes

Browse 4693 quotes about Human Nature.

Human Nature Quotes

“Ideals are like stars; you will not succeed in touching them with your hands. But like the seafaring man on the desert of waters, you choose them as your guides, and following them you will reach your destiny.”

Source: Speeches, Correspondence and Political Papers of Carl Schurz

“Whenever the powers of government are placed in any hands other than those of the community, whether those of one man, of a few, or of several, those principles of human nature which imply that government is at all necessary, imply that those persons will make use of them to defeat the very end for which government exists.”

Men Humans Persons Ends Use Hands Government Community Principles Human Nature Defeat One Man

Book:The Article Government: Reprinted from the Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica

Source: The Article Government: Reprinted from the Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica

“The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased.”

Humans Whole Hands Politics Power Records Rights Written Mankind Human Nature Sacred Divinity Volume Sunbeams

Author:Alexander Hamilton

“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 are human beings, and this is the part of our human nature, that we don't learn the importance of anything until it's snatched from our hands.”

Humans Wisdom Hands Human Beings History Human Nature Importance Human Rights Terrorism Ideology Free Speech

Author:Malala Yousafzai

“War is never lenient but where it is wanton; where men are compelled to fight in self-defence, they must hate and avenge. This may be bad, but it is human nature; it is the clay as it came from the hands of the Potter.”

Men Humans May War Self Hands Hate Fighting Human Nature Compelled Clay Potters Defence Wanton Self Defence Lenient

Author:Thomas B. Macaulay

“The true contrast between science and religion is that science unites the world and makes it possible for people of widely differing backgrounds to work together and to cooperate. Religion, on the other hand, by its very claim to know “The Truth” through “revelation,” is inherently divisive and a creator of separatism and hostility.”

People Knows World Hands Together Religion Human Nature Claims Creator Backgrounds Revelations Working Together Cooperation Contrast Science And Religion Hostility

Author:Hermann Bondi

“Adam Smith is an egalitarian, he believed in equality of outcome, not opportunity. He is an enlightenment figure, pre-capitalist. He says, suppose in England, one landowner got most of the land and other people would have nothing to live on. He says it wouldn't matter much, because the rich land owner, by virtue of his sympathy for other people would distribute resources among them, so that by an invisible hand, we would end up with a pretty egalitarian society. That is his conception of human nature.”

People Humans Ends Matter Hands Opportunity Virtue Rich Land Human Nature Figures Enlightenment Resources England Invisible Outcomes Owners Conception Adam Capitalist Invisible Hand

Author:Noam Chomsky

“Of the two powers, the two categories that take possession of us when we enter the world (from where?), space is by far the less mysterious. It, too, undergoes transformations. Time, on the other hand, is a hostile element, truly treacherous, I would even say against human nature.”

World Humans Two Hands Space Human Nature Elements Possession Mysterious Categories Hostile Treacherous

Author:Stanislaw Lem

“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.”

“There is no need to sally forth, for it remains true that those things which make us human are, curiously enough, always close at hand. Resolve, then, that on this very ground, with small flags waving and tiny blasts on tiny trumpets, we shall meet the enemy, and not only may he be ours, he may be us.”

Needs Humans May Enough Hands Enemy Human Nature Remains Tiny Resolve Flags Blast Trumpets Flag Waving

Book:Pogo revisited: containing the complete volumes of The Pogo poop book, Instant Pogo [and] The Jack Acid Society black book

Source: Pogo revisited: containing the complete volumes of The Pogo poop book, Instant Pogo [and] The Jack Acid Society black book

“A man can refrain from wanting what he has not and cheerfully make the best of a bird in the hand.”

Men Hands Human Nature Bird Refrain

Author:Seneca the Younger

“Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen - but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present.”

Men Giving Use Hands Mother House Politics Causes Fire Wife Human Nature Fallen Urges Rescue Moderation Moderates Disobedience Alarms Babe Uncompromising

Author:William Lloyd Garrison

“There is nothing that can be changed more completely than human nature when the job is taken in hand early enough.”

Life Humans Enough Hands Jobs Success Nature Taken Human Nature Changed Best Nature

Book:George Bernard Shaw: The Collected Plays (Illustrated): 60 plays including Caesar and Cleopatra, Pygmalion, Saint Joan, The Apple Cart, Cymbeline, Androcles And The Lion, The Man Of Destiny, The Inca Of Perusalem and Macbeth Skit

Source: George Bernard Shaw: The Collected Plays (Illustrated): 60 plays including Caesar and Cleopatra, Pygmalion, Saint Joan, The Apple Cart, Cymbeline, Androcles And The Lion, The Man Of Destiny, The Inca Of Perusalem and Macbeth Skit

“My nature is subdued to what it works in, like the dyer's hand.”

Hands Nature Human Nature Best Nature

Author:William Shakespeare

“As riches increase and accumulate in few hands, as luxury prevails in society, virtue will be in a greater degree considered as only a graceful appendage of wealth, and the tendency of things will be to depart from the republican standard. This is the real disposition of human nature; it is what neither the honorable member nor myself can correct. It is a common misfortunate that awaits our State constitution, as well as all others.”

Source: The Works of Alexander Hamilton: Miscellanies, 1774-1789: A full vindication; The farmer refuted; Quebec bill; Resolutions in Congress; Letters from Phocion; New-York Legislature, etc

“The aim of life is some way of living, as flexible and gentle as human nature; so that ambition may stoop to kindness, and philosophy to condor and humor. Neither prosperity nor empire nor heaven can be worth winning at the price of a virulent temper, bloody hands, an anguished spirit, and a vain hatred of the rest of the world.”

“We are human behind and this part of our human nature that we don't learn the importance of anything until it's snatched from our hands. In Pakistan, when we were stopped from going to school, and that time I realized that education is very important, and education is the power for women. And that's why the terrorists are afraid of education. They do not want women to get education because then women will become more powerful.”

Want Humans Important Hands School Powerful Behinds Human Nature Importance I Realized Terrorist Pakistan

Author:Malala Yousafzai

“The lower animals, on the other hand, must have their bodily structure modified in order to survive under greatly changed conditions. They must be rendered stronger, or acquire more effective teeth or claws, in order to defend themselves from new enemies; or they must be reduced in size so as to escape detection and danger. When they migrate into a colder climate they must become clothed with thicker fur, or have their constitutions altered. If they fail to be thus modified, they will cease to exist.”

Source: The origin of species by means of natural selection: The descent of man and selection in relation to sex

“. .we would have to say that hereditary succession is harmful. You may say the king, having sovereign power, will not in that case hand over to his children. But it is hard to believe that: it is a difficult achievement, which expects too much virtue of human nature.”

Believe Humans May Children Hard Hands Political Difficult Cases Virtue Too Much Human Nature Kings Achievement Sovereign Succession Hard To Believe Hereditary

Author:Aristotle

“There is a prayer intended to give strength to people faced with circumstances they don’t want to accept. The power of the prayer comes from it's insight into human nature. Because so many of us rage against the hand that life has dealt us. Because so many of us are cowardly. And afraid to stand up for what is right. Because so many of us give into despair when faced with an impossible choice. The good news for those who utter these words is that God will hear you and answer your prayer. The bad news is that sometimes the answer is no.”

People Want Giving Humans Sometimes Hands Choices Prayer Answers Accepting Impossible Human Nature Circumstances Despair News Insight Rage Gods Will Good News Our Prayers Cowardly Bad News

Author:Mary Alice

“A civilization without retail bookstores is unimaginable. Like shrines and other sacred meeting places, bookstores are essential artifacts of human nature. The feel of a book taken from the shelf and held in the hand is a magical experience, linking writer to reader.”

Feels Humans Book Hands Taken Human Nature Reader Civilization Essentials Sacred Meetings Shelves Bookstores Unimaginable Retail Shrines Artifacts

Author:Jason Epstein

“I doubt if anyone of any tenderness or imagination can see the hand of a child and not be a little frightened of it. It is awful to think of the essential human energy moving so tiny a thing; it is like imagining that human nature could live in the wing of a butterfly or the leaf of a tree. When we look upon lives so human and yet so small... We feel the same kind of obligation to these creatures that a deity might feel...”

“H. G. Wells was not the only one to mention Churchill and Hitler in the same breath: "Churchill and Hitler are striving to change the nature of their respective countrymen by forcing and hammering violent methods on them. Man may be suppressed in this manner but he cannot be changed. Ahimsa [non-violence in the Hindu tradition], on the other hand, can change human nature and sooner than men like Churchill and Hitler."”

Men Humans Wells May Hands Violence Human Nature Changed Tradition Breaths Method Strive Violent Non Violence Countrymen Ahimsa

Author:Mahatma Gandhi

“Human nature is rarely so amusing as when trying to get a house off its hands. Women at this task can be untruthful enough, but their untruth lacks the infusion of candor which a skillful male liar can introduce.”

Trying Humans Enough Hands House Nature Human Nature Tasks Males Liars Introducing Amusing Skillful Candor Untruth Infusion

Author:E. V. Lucas