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Human Nature Quotes

Browse 4693 quotes about Human Nature.

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Human Nature Quotes

“All the seven deadly sins are man's true nature. To be greedy. To be hateful. To have lust. Of course, you have to control them, but if you're made to feel guilty for being human, then you're going to be trapped in a never-ending sin-and-repent cycle that you can't escape from.”

IfsMenFeelsHumansMadeHateCoursesNatureSinHuman NatureRegretGuiltSevenGreedSingersLustGuiltyCyclesTrappedBeing HumanGreedyRepentHatefulTrue NatureEscapingNever EndingDeadly SinsSeven Deadly SinsNever Ending Cycle
Author:Marilyn Manson
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“Hypocrisy itself does great honor, or rather justice, to religion, and tacitly acknowledges it to be an ornament to human nature. The hypocrite would not be at so much pains to put on the appearance of virtue, if he did not know it was the most proper and effectual means to gain the love and esteem of mankind.”

IfsKnowsHumansMeanDoePainJusticeVirtueMankindHuman NatureHonorGainsAppearanceEsteemAcknowledgeHypocrisyHypocriteOrnaments
Book:The spectator
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“The theory of Reincarnation, which originated in India, has been welcomed in other countries. Without doubt, it is one of the most sensible and satisfying of all religions that mankind has conceived. This, like the others, comes from the best qualities of human nature, even if in this, as in the others, its adherents sometimes fail to carry out the principles in their lives.”

IfsHumansHas BeensCountrySometimesQualityPrinciplesDoubtFailingMankindHuman NatureTheoryIndiaSatisfyingSensibleOther CountriesReincarnationIncarnation
Author:Luther Burbank
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“You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.”

IfsInspirationalDoeCharacterFaithHumanityHopeLosesVirtueSuccessfulMankindHuman NatureHonestyIntegrityOceanDirtyHave FaithHumankindSuccessful PeopleIncapableSuicidalHumanity And SocietyNon ViolenceSuccessful BusinessPeace And LoveGreat FaithHuman PersonalityOcean SeaOceans And SeasFaith In HumanityHuman CompassionPersonality TypesShared HumanityDirty MindsLosing FaithDrops In The OceanDirty SecretsBlue OceanDirty HandsHumanity And NatureDirty World
Book:The Wit and Wisdom of Gandhi
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“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.”

IfsMenHumansDoeHuman NatureNegativeOneselfContrarySelf WorthContemporaryPermanentAnalysisGreekRebellionRebelSuspicion
Author:Albert Camus
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“Human nature turns out to be more complicated than the idea that people will get along if only the rules are clear enough. Uncertainty, the ultimate evil that modern law seeks to eradicate, generally fosters cooperation, not the opposite.”

PeopleIfsHumansIdeasEnoughLawTurnsEvilClearModernHuman NatureOppositesUltimateComplicatedUncertaintyCooperation
Book:The Death of Common Sense: How Law Is Suffocating America
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“If we have system in which government is in a position to give large favor - it's human nature to try to get this favor - whether those people are large enterprises, or whether they're small businesses like farmers, or whether they're representatives of any other special group. The only way to prevent that is to force them to engage in competition one with the other.”

PeopleIfsWayGivingTryingHumansGovernmentForceGroupsSpecialHuman NaturePositionCompetitionFavorsEnterpriseFarmersRepresentativesSmall Business
Author:Milton Friedman
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“I think it's going to be remembered as the last major war on planet Earth, if we're lucky, if we maintain our foreign policy properly. It will be remembered as the last time major countries had to put people in the field and put them in harm's way. It may be the last of all human nature wars, which is a nice way to remember any kind of a war, as the last one.”

PeopleIfsThinkingWayHumansKindMayWarCountryEarthLastsRememberNiceHuman NaturePolicyFieldsPlanetsLuckyMajorsHarmRememberedForeign PolicyLast TimePlanet Earth
Author:Tom Clancy
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“Back in the 1980s, when the internet was only available to a small number of pioneers, I was often confronted by people who feared that the strange technologies I was working on, like virtual reality, might unleash the demons of human nature. For instance, would people become addicted to virtual reality as if it were a drug? Would they become trapped in it, unable to escape back to the physical world where the rest of us live? Some of the questions were silly, and others were prescient.”

PeopleIfsWorldHumansRealityMightNumbersTechnologyHuman NatureStrangeInternetDrugAvailableSillyInstanceDemonTrappedPioneersVirtual RealitySmall Numbers
Author:Jaron Lanier
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“It is our genetic nature as a species to believe as young children that our parents and elders are right. We watch them to see what's what. Later on we can judge for ourselves and rebel if need be, but when we're just months old, or a year or two, and a parent looks at us with impatience, or disgust, or disdain, or just leaves us there to cry and doesn't answer us even though we're longing to be embraced and nurtured, we assume that something must be wrong with us. Unfortunately, at that age it's impossible to think there might be something wrong with them.”

IfsThinkingNeedsYearsBelieveLooksChildrenTwoMightAgeYoungParentAnswersWatchesImpossibleHuman NatureSelf EsteemCryJudgingMonthsEmbraceLongingAssumingParentingSpeciesRebelDisgustingEldersImpatienceRaising ChildrenYoung ChildrenDisdainBad Parenting
Author:Jean Liedloff
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“Little white lies are part of everyday life. If youre in court being charged with a felony, youre probably going to be tempted to lie. Or if your girlfriend asks you if the sweater she is wearing makes her look fat; youre going to lie because you love that person. There are different reasons and justifications to lie; its human nature.”

IfsHumansLooksLittlesPersonsDifferentReasonLyingAsksWhiteHuman NatureCourtEverydayFatsGirlfriendJustificationEveryday LifeTemptedSweatersYour GirlfriendFelonyWhite Lie
Author:Monica Raymund
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“He who expects from a great name in politics, in philosophy, in art, equal greatness in other things, is little versed in human nature. Our strength lies in our weakness. The learned in books are ignorant of the world. He who is ignorant of books is often well acquainted with other things; for life is of the same length in the learned and unlearned; the mind cannot be idle; if it is not taken up with one thing, it attends to another through choice or necessity; and the degree of previous capacity in one class or another is a mere lottery.”

IfsWorldMindHumansWellsLittlesArtBookPhilosophyLife IsLyingChoicesNamesClassTakenOne ThingHuman NatureGreatnessEqualDegreesWeaknessCapacityMereIgnorantLengthIdleLotteryVersatility
Book:Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)
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“Of all the systems - if indeed a bundle of contradictions and absurdities may be called a system - which human nature in its moments of intoxication has produced, that which men have contrived with a view to forming the minds and regulating the conduct of women, is perhaps the most completely absurd.”

IfsMenMindHumansMayMomentsViewsHuman NatureAbsurdContradictionSexismAbsurdityIntoxicationBundles
Book:Appeal to the men of Great Britain in behalf of women
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“It's just human nature - isn't it? - to be more attracted to something that's taboo. If someone tells you not to smoke, you wanna smoke. If they say, 'Don't do drugs,' you wanna do drugs. That's why I've always thought that the best way to stop people taking drugs is to legalise the fucking things. It would take people about five seconds to realise that being an addict is a terribly unattractive and pathetic way to be, whereas at the moment it still has that kind of rebel cool vibe to it, y'know?”

PeopleIfsKnowsWayHumansKindStillsMomentsFiveHuman NatureKingsDrugBest WaySmokeRealisingSecondsRebelAddictPatheticTabooUnattractive
Author:Ozzy Osbourne
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“Although it may be difficult in theory to know what is just and equal, the practical difficulty of inducing those to forbear who can, if they like, encroach, is far greater, for the weaker are always asking for equality and justice, but the stronger care for none of these things.”

IfsKnowsMayCareDifficultJusticeGreaterHuman NatureTheoryEqualDifficultyStrongerAskingPracticalsEquality And Justice
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Aristotle (Illustrated)
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“All men, or most men, wish what is noble but choose what is profitable; and while it is noble to render a service not with an eye to receiving one in return, it is profitable to receive one. One ought therefore, if one can, to return the equivalent of services received, and to do so willingly; for one ought not to make a man one's friend if one is unwilling to return his favors.”

IfsMenEyeWishHuman NatureReturnOughtNobleFavorsReceivingProfitableUnwilling
Author:Aristotle
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“We have no participation in Being, because all human nature is ever midway between being born and dying, giving off only a vague image and shadow of itself, and a weak and uncertain opinion. And if you chance to fix your thoughts on trying to grasp its essence, it would be neither more nor less than if your tried to clutch water.”

IfsThinkingGivingTryingHumansWould BeWaterBornChanceOpinionDyingHuman NatureShadowWeakEssenceThoughtfulUncertainVagueParticipationClutchMidway
Book:The Essays
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“Ruling is hard. This was maybe my answer to Tolkien, whom, as much as I admire him, I do quibble with. Lord of the Rings had a very medieval philosophy: that if the king was a good man, the land would prosper. We look at real history and it's not that simple... Real-life kings had real-life problems to deal with... My people who are trying to rule don't have an easy time of it. Just having good intentions doesn't make you a wise king.”

PeopleIfsMenTryingLooksRealHardPhilosophyProblemRealityEasyLeadershipSimpleAnswersDealsLordWiseLandHuman NatureKingsIntentionRingsReal LifeAdmireIdeologyGood ManRulingMedievalGood Intentions
Author:George R. R. Martin
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“Musick is certainly a very agreeable Entertainment, but if it would take the entire Possession of our Ears, if it would make us incapable of hearing Sense, if it would exclude Arts that have a much greater Tendency to the Refinement of human Nature; I must confess I would allow it no better Quarter than Plato has done, who banishes it out of his Common-wealth.”

IfsHumansArtDoneWealthCommonMusicGreaterHuman NatureMusicianEarsEntertainmentPossessionHearingTendenciesQuartersIncapablePlatoRefinement
Book:The Works of Joseph Addison: Including the Whole Contents of Bp. Hurd's Edition, with Letters and Other Pieces Not Found in Ay Previous Collection; and Macaulay's Essay on His Life and Works
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“Ye whose clay-cold heads and luke-warm hearts can argue down or mask your passions--tell me, what trespass is it that man should have them?... If nature has so wove her web of kindness, that some threads of love and desire are entangled with the piece--must the whole web be rent in drawing them out?”

IfsMenShouldHeartWholeDesirePassionKindnessPiecesHuman NatureColdShould HaveWarmArguingDrawingTemptationMaskThreadClayLukeWarm Heart
Book:The Works of Laurence Sterne: Containing The Life and Opinions of Tristan Shandy ... [etc.] ; with a Life of the Author Written by Himself
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“I'm not afraid to write about madness. I always figure that whatever most embarrasses you is something that everyone can relate to, really...because we're just not that different. So if you think, 'Oh my god, this is so embarrassing. I can't possibly talk about that,' and you write about it, the audience is gonna be like, 'that happened to me!”

IfsThinkingWritingI CanDifferentRealityCommunityAudienceComedyGenerationsHappenedHuman NatureFiguresMadnessUnityRelateNot AfraidEmbarrassing
Author:David Sedaris
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“But the question is, do we care enough? Do we care enough to keep standing up for the country that we know is possible, even if it's hard, and even if it's politically uncomfortable? Do we care enough to sustain the passion and the pressure to make our communities safer and our country safer? Do we care enough to do everything we can to spare other families the pain that is felt here today?”

IfsKnowsCountryHardEnoughRealityCareTodayPainPassionPoliticsFeltCommunityLeadershipJusticeDemocracyViolenceHuman NaturePolicyEthicsStandingPressureHuman RightsOur CountryIdeologyUncomfortableSparesCivilityDisobedienceOur CommunityCivil Disobedience
Author:Barack Obama
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“Human life is so strangely constituted that even perfected intellectual understanding combined with the richest experience is incapable of conquering innate weaknesses. Even if it thoroughly analyzes itself, psychology (and this is one of the dubious aspects of psychoanalysis) can, to be sure, recognize its flawed native characteristics, but it cannot eliminate them. Understanding (them) is not the same as overcoming (them) and, again and again, we see the wisest of human beings helpless in the fact of their small follies which everyone else observes with a smile.”

IfsHumansFactsLife IsUnderstandingHuman BeingsPsychologyHuman NatureIntellectualWeaknessAspectOvercomingConquerHuman LifeCharacteristicsFollyNativeAgain And AgainHelplessIncapableFlawedInnatePsychoanalysisWisestDubious
Author:Stefan Zweig
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