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Human Nature Quotes

Browse 4693 quotes about Human Nature.

Human Nature Quotes

“Willpower is what separates us from the animals. It's the capacity to restrain our impulses, resist temptation - do what's right and good for us in the long run, not what we want to do right now. It's central, in fact, to civilisation.”

“Ressentiment is a self-poisoning of the mind which has quite definite causes and consequences. It is a lasting mental attitude, caused by the systematic repression of certain emotions and affects which, as such are normal components of human nature. Their repression leads to the constant tendency to indulge in certain kinds of value delusions and corresponding value judgments. The emotions and affects primarily concerned are revenge, hatred, malice, envy, the impulse to detract, and spite.”

Source: On Feeling, Knowing, and Valuing: Selected Writings

“Men are rather reasoning than reasonable animals for the most part governed by the impulse of passion.”

Men Passion Animal Human Nature Impulse Reasoning Reasonable

Book:The Works of Alexander Hamilton: Correspondence [contin.] 1795-1804; 1777; 1791. Letters of H.G. 1789. Address to public creditors. 1790. Vindication of funding system. 1791

Source: The Works of Alexander Hamilton: Correspondence [contin.] 1795-1804; 1777; 1791. Letters of H.G. 1789. Address to public creditors. 1790. Vindication of funding system. 1791

“Men are rather reasoning than reasonable animals for the most part governed by the impulse of passion. This is a truth well understood by our adversaries who have practised upon it with no small benefit to their cause. For at the very moment they are eulogizing the reason of men & professing to appeal only to that faculty, they are courting the strongest & most active passion of the human heart - VANITY!”

Source: The Works of Alexander Hamilton: Correspondence [contin.] 1795-1804; 1777; 1791. Letters of H.G. 1789. Address to public creditors. 1790. Vindication of funding system. 1791

“The necessity of a senate is not less indicated by the propensity of all single and numerous assemblies, to yield to the impulse of sudden and violent passions, and to be seduced by factious leaders, into intemperate and pernicious resolutions.”

Passion Leader Human Nature Violent Impulse Resolution Yield Senate Assembly Pernicious Propensity

Book:The federalist papers

Source: The federalist papers

“The experience of treaties being broken with impunity provide an afflicting lesson to mankind how little dependence is to be placed on treaties which have no other sanction than the obligations of good faith; and which oppose general considerations of peace and justice to the impulse of any immediate interest and passion.”

Littles Passion Interest Justice Mankind Human Nature Broken Lessons Obligation Impulse Consideration Dependence Sanctions Treaties Peace And Justice Impunity Good Faith Being Broken

Author:Alexander Hamilton

“Only our deep moral values and our strong social institutions can hold back that jungle and restrain the darker impulses of human nature.”

Humans Values Strong Social Moral Human Nature Institutions Impulse Jungle Moral Values Social Institutions

Book:Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Ronald Reagan, 1981

Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Ronald Reagan, 1981

“Is not every action of Hamlet induced by a fanatical impulse, which tells him that duty consists in revenge alone? And dose it need superhuman efforts to recognize that revenge never can be duty? I say again that Hamlet thinks much, but that he is by no means wise.”

Thinking Needs Mean Action Effort Wise Human Nature Duty Revenge Impulse Dose Superhuman

Book:Wisdom and Destiny: Works of Maeterlinck

Source: Wisdom and Destiny: Works of Maeterlinck

“Freedom in the practical sense is the independence of the power of choice from necessitation by impulses of sensibility”

Choices Human Nature Independence Practicals Impulse Sensibility Power Of Choice

Author:Immanuel Kant

“Simplicity is a pleasant thing in children, or at any age, but it is not necessarily admirable, nor is affectation altogether a thing of evil. To be normal, to be at home in the world, with a prospect of power, usefulness, or success, the person must have that imaginative insight into other minds that underlies tact and savoir-faire, morality and beneficence. This insight involves sophistication, some understanding and sharing of the clandestine impulses of human nature. A simplicity that is merely the lack of this insight indicates a sort of defect.”

Source: Two Major Works: Social Organization. Human Nature and the Social Order

“Our life as consumers seems light years away from that of our grandparents. But you don't change human nature. Optimism, for me, is the belief that we can spread the opportunity for everyone to be fully human. Sustainability, like music, is an impulse to make sense of the world around us. It is core to our humanity. If you only like one composer, or think all the best music has already been written, you have reason for pessimism. If not, it is within us to have good reason for hope”

“God knows greed won't vanish. Neither will hatred or chauvanism. Human nature is a stubborn thing. But it isn't beyond control. Even if our core impulses can;t be banished, they can be tempered and redirected.”

Ifs Knows Humans Human Nature Hatred Greed Core Impulse Stubborn God Knows Beyond Control

Book:Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny

Source: Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny

“But society has now fairly got the better of individuality; and the danger which threatens human nature is not the excess, but the deficiency, of personal Impulses and preferences.”

Humans Human Nature Danger Individuality Impulse Excess Individualism Preference Deficiency

Book:The Classical Utilitarians: Bentham and Mill

Source: The Classical Utilitarians: Bentham and Mill

“Nothing brings out the lower traits of human nature like office-seeking. Men of good character and impulses are betrayed by it into all sorts of meanness.”

Men Humans Character Human Nature Office Seeking Impulse Traits Betrayed Meanness Good Character

Author:Rutherford B. Hayes

“I was a stray acquaintance whom he had never seem before and would never see again, a wandered for a moment through his monotonous life, and some starved impulse left him to lay bare his soul. I have in this way learned more about men in a night than I could if I had known them for 10 years. If you are interested in human nature, it is one of the greatest pleasures of travel.”

Ifs Men Way Life Years Humans Soul Moments Seems Night Left Pleasure Known Human Nature Lays Impulse Acquaintance Monotonous Greatest Pleasures Monotonous Life

Author:W. Somerset Maugham

“Gandhi rejects the Adam Smith notion of human nature as motivated by self-interest and brute needs and returns us to our spiritual dimension with its impulses for nonviolence, justice and equality. He exposes the fallacy of the claim that everyone can be rich and successful provided they work hard. He points to the millions who work themselves to the bone and still remain hungry.”