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Human Nature Quotes

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Human Nature Quotes

“The most beautiful as well as the most ugly inclinations of man are not part of a fixed biologically given human nature, but result from the social process which creates man.”

Men Humans Wells Beautiful Given Social Process Results Beauty Human Nature Ugly Fixed Inclination

Book:Escape from Freedom

Source: Escape from Freedom

“I also came to see that liberalism's superficial optimism concerning human nature caused it to overlook the fact that reason is darkened by sin. The more I thought about human nature the more I saw how our tragic inclination for sin causes us to use our minds to rationalize our actions. Liberalism failed to see that reason by itself is little more than an instrument to justify man's defensive ways of thinking. Reason, devoid of the purifying power of faith, can never free itself from distortions and rationalizations.”

Source: The Essential Martin Luther King, Jr.:

“It is visible then that it was not any Heathen Religion or other Idolatrous Superstition, that first put Man upon crossing his Appetites and subduing his dearest Inclinations, but the skilful Management of wary Politicians; and the nearer we search into human Nature, the more we shall be convinced, that the Moral Virtues are the Political Offspring which Flattery begot upon Pride.”

Source: The Fable of the Bees

“What a wonderful thing it is that drop of seed, from which we are produced, bears in itself the impressions, not only of the bodily shape, but of the thoughts and inclinations of our fathers!”

Children Father Wonderful Human Nature Bears Shapes Seeds Impression Wonderful Things Inclination Inheritance Our Father

Book:The Essays

Source: The Essays

“There is a very remarkable inclination in human nature to bestow on external objects the same emotions which it observes in itself, and to find every where those ideas which are most present to it.”

Humans Ideas Emotion Human Nature Objects Remarkable Inclination

Book:A Treatise of Human Nature: Top Philosophy Collections

Source: A Treatise of Human Nature: Top Philosophy Collections

“Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.”

“Human nature is complex. Even if we do have inclinations toward violence, we also have inclination to empathy, to cooperation, to self-control.”

Ifs Humans Self Violence Human Nature Empathy Complexes Cooperation Self Control Inclination

Author:Steven Pinker

“The more I thought about human nature, the more I saw how our tragic inclination for sin/mistakes causes us to use our minds to rationalize our action.”

Mind Humans Use Action Causes Sin Mistake Saws Human Nature Tragic Inclination Our Actions Rationalize

Author:Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Do not be discouraged by the resistance you will encounter from your human nature; you must go against your human inclinations. Often, in the beginning, you will think that you are wasting time, but you must go on, be determined and persevere in it until death, despite all the difficulties.”

Thinking Humans Human Nature Goes On Difficulty Determined Resistance Despite Encounters Wasting Time Inclination Discouraged Persevere

Author:Brother Lawrence

“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

“Human nature is such that people are born with a love of profit If they follow these inclinations, they will struggle and snatch from each other, and inclinations to defer or yield will die.”

People Ifs Love Humans Dies Born Struggle Human Nature Profit Yield Inclination

Author:Xunzi

“...night possessed us and the shadow of death encompassed us, for we had fallen into sin and lost the power of sight which was ours by God's grace and by which we were able to perceive the light that bestows true life. Night and death had been poured out on our human nature, not because of any change in the true light, but because we had turned aside and no longer had any inclination towards the life-bearing light. In the last times, however, the Giver of eternal light and Source of true life has had mercy upon us.”