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Human Nature Quotes

Browse 4693 quotes about Human Nature.

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Human Nature Quotes

“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.”

ThinkingMenWayMindHumansLittlesReasonFactsUseActionCausesSinSawsHuman NatureOptimismInstrumentsLiberalismTragicJustifySuperficialInclinationOur ActionsWay Of ThinkingDistortionRationalizePurifying
Book:The Essential Martin Luther King, Jr.:
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“LSD is a unique and powerful tool for the exploration of the human mind and human nature. Psychedelic experiences mediate access to deep realms of the psyche that have not yet been discovered and acknowledged by mainstream psychology and psychiatry. They also reveal new possibilities and mechanisms of therapeutic change and personality transformation.”

MindHumansPowerfulPsychologyHuman NaturePossibilityPersonalityUniqueToolsTransformationAccessRealmsExplorationHuman MindMechanismMainstreamPsychiatryPsychedelicTherapeuticLsdPsychedelic ExperienceNew Possibilities
Author:Stanislav Grof
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“A political life, I've often said, is a continuing education in human nature, including one's own. My involvement on the ground floor of two presidential campaigns and my duties as First Lady took me to every state in our union and to seventy-eight nations. In each place, I met someone or saw something that caused me to open my mind and my heart and deepen my understanding of the universal concerns that most of humanity shares.”

MindFirstsHumansHeartSaidTwoStatesPoliticalHumanityNationsUnderstandingSawsShareHuman NatureDutyMy HeartMetsConcernUniversalUnionsIncludingEightCampaignsPresidentialContinuingSeventiesInvolvementFirst LadyPolitical LifePresidential Campaign
Author:Hillary Clinton
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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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“Although the progress of civilisation has undoubtedly contributed to assuage the fiercer passions of human nature, it seems to have been less favourable to the virtue of chastity, whose most dangerous enemy is the softness of the mind. The refinements of life corrupt while they polish the intercourse of the sexes. The gross appetite of love becomes most dangerous when it is elevated, or rather, indeed, disguised by sentimental passion.”

MindHumansHas BeensSeemsPassionSexLove IsEnemyHistoryVirtueProgressDangerousHuman NatureAppetiteSentimentalGrossPolishIntercourseCivilisationChastityRoman EmpireRefinementSoftness
Book:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
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“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.”

MindHumansKindSelfCertainValuesCausesEmotionAttitudeHuman NatureNormalJudgmentConsequenceConcernedHatredConstantRevengeEnvyTendenciesImpulseSpiteDelusionLastingDefiniteComponentsIndulgeMaliceRepressionSystematicIndulge InPoisoningMental AttitudeCorresponding
Book:On Feeling, Knowing, and Valuing: Selected Writings
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“Before I write anything, before I create any assumption in my mind about what it's like to be in that world, I go out there first. I'm very drawn to darkness and light, very drawn to cop drama, because there are very few places besides war and murder and a homicide investigation where you see the extremes of human nature - the darkest crevices and cracks in what people do to one another.”

PeopleWorldWritingMindFirstsHumansWarLightDarknessHuman NatureDramaMurderExtremesAssumptionCracksInvestigationCopLight And DarknessHomicideCrevice
Author:Veena Sud
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“The capacity of the mind is broad and huge, like the vast sky. Do not sit with a mind fixed on emptiness. If you do, you will fall into a neutral kind of emptiness. Emptiness includes the sun, moon, stars, and planets, the great earth, mountains and rivers, all trees and grasses, bad people and good people, bad things and good things, heaven and hell; they are all in the midst of emptiness. The emptiness of human nature is also like this.”

PeopleIfsMindHumansKindEarthFallHeavenStarsSunHellTreeSkyHuman NaturePlanetsHugeMoonMountainCapacityRiversGood ThingsGrassFixedEmptinessMidstBad ThingsBroadsGood PeopleBad PeopleHeaven And HellSun MoonStars And Planets
Book:The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch
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“Biblical social scientists have an advantage because they know truths about human nature. Those who dismiss the Bible and create surveys that don't measure crucial factors are the ones who have closed minds. Sometimes the Bible gives us clear answers and sometimes it doesn't, but it always helps us to ask the right questions.”

KnowsGivingMindHumansSometimesHelpingAsksSocialAnswersClearHuman NatureAdvantageScientistFactorsCrucialBiblicalSurveysRight QuestionsClosed Mind
Author:Marvin Olasky
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“Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.”

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Author:Abraham Lincoln
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“The Idols of Tribe have their foundation in human nature itself, and in the tribe or race of men. For it is a false assertion that the sense of man is the measure of things. On the contrary, all perceptions as well of the sense as of the mind are according to the measure of the individual and not according to the measure of the universe. And the human understanding is like a false mirror, which, receiving rays irregularly, distorts and discolors the nature of things by mingling its own nature with it.”

MenMindHumansWellsUniverseIndividualUnderstandingRaceHuman NaturePerceptionMirrorsFoundationContraryRaysIdolsReceivingTribesAssertionMingling
Book:New Atlantis and The Great Instauration
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“Unfortunately, the world has taken some of the greatest minds God has given us and locked them up in cages. Most very brilliant or creative people seem strange to ordinary people. Geniuses are almost always outcasts. The intelligent are bullied on the playground. They see the world differently and are shunned for it. They nearly all turn out to be lonely at the least, locked up at the worst. It's human nature to encourage the status quo and shun those who see life differently.”

PeopleWorldMindHumansSeemsTurnsGivenCreativeTakenWorstHuman NatureStrangeGeniusOrdinaryLonelyIntelligentBrilliantLockedCagesStatus QuoOrdinary PeopleCreative PeopleBulliedOutcastPlaygroundsLocked Up
Author:Ted Dekker
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“The most dramatic instances of directed behavior change and "mind control" are not the consequence of exotic forms of influence, such as hypnosis, psychotropic drugs, or "brainwashing," but rather the systematic manipulation of the most mundane aspects of human nature over time in confining settings.”

MindHumansFormInfluenceHuman NatureDrugBehaviorConsequenceAspectSettingSettingsInstanceDramaticManipulationMundaneExoticSystematicMind ControlBrainwashingHypnosisBehavior Change
Book:The Lucifer Effect: How Good People Turn Evil
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“The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value. I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.”

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Author:Thomas Paine
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“I shall not fear to say that the doctrine of self-interest rightly understood seems to me of all the philosophic theories the most appropriate to the needs of men in our time, and that I see in it the most powerful guarantee against themselves that remains to them. The minds of the moralists of our day ought to turn, therefore, principally toward it. Even should they judge it imperfect, they would still have to adopt it as necessary.”

MenNeedsShouldMindStillsSelfSeemsTurnsInterestPowerfulHuman NatureJudgingTheoryOughtUnderstoodRemainsDoctrineOur TimeGuaranteesAppropriateMost PowerfulImperfectSelf InterestPhilosophicMoralist
Author:Alexis de Tocqueville
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“This position will not be disputed so long as it is admitted that the desire of reward is one of the strongest incentives of human conduct, or that the best security for the fidelity of mankind is to make their interest coincide with their duty. Even the love of fame, the ruling passion of the noblest minds... would on the contrary deter him from the undertaking, when he foresaw that he must quit the scene before he could accomplish the work.”

MindHumansLongDesirePassionInterestMankindSecurityHuman NaturePositionDutySceneFameRewardsAccomplishContraryQuittingStrongestRulingIncentivesFidelityUndertakingsRuling Passion
Author:Alexander Hamilton
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“It is a singular capriciousness of the human mind, that after all the admonitions we have had from experience on this head, there should still be found men, who object to the new constitution for deviating from a principle which has been found the bane of the old.”

MenShouldMindHumansHas BeensStillsFoundPrinciplesHuman NatureObjectsConstitutionHuman MindBaneAdmonition
Book:The Fœderalist: A Collection of Essays, Written in Favor of the New Constitution, as Agreed Upon by the Fœderal Convention, September 17, 1787. Reprinted from the Original Text. With an Historical Introduction and Notes
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“Man is very much a creature of habit. A thing that rarely strikes his senses will generally have but little influence upon his mind. A government continually at a distance and out of sight, can hardly be expected to interest the sensations of the people. The inference is, that the authority of the Union, and the affections of the citizens towards it, will be strengthened rather than weakened by its extension to what are called matters of internal concern.”

PeopleMenMindLittlesMatterGovernmentInterestInfluenceHuman NatureHabitCitizensCreaturesAuthorityConcernSightDistanceUnionsAffectionExpectedStrikesSensesInternalsSensationsExtensionsInferenceCreatures Of Habit
Book:America's Founding Documents: The Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the United States Constitution, the Federalist Papers, and the Bill of Rights
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“I do not think a philosopher who would apply himself so earnestly to the explaining the ultimate principles of the soul, would show himself a great master in the very science of human nature, which he pretends to explain, or very knowing in what is naturally satisfactory to the mind of man.”

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Book:A Treatise of Human Nature: Top Philosophy Collections
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“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.”

WorldMindHumansChildrenPersonsHomeAgeEvilUnderstandingNatureHuman NatureMoralityNormalSimplicityInsightImpulsePleasantDefectsImaginativeAdmirableUsefulnessSophisticationTactBeneficenceClandestinePleasant ThingsSavoir Faire
Book:Two Major Works: Social Organization. Human Nature and the Social Order
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“I guess I came to terms with my demons. Or else I'd be in big trouble, wouldn't I? Horrifying as it was to crack up in the public eye, it made me look at myself and fix it. People were exploitative; that's human nature. I'll tell you, being pretty crazy while being chased by the National Enquirer is not good. The British tabloids were the worst. But you take the cards you're dealt, and I got better. I'm now ferociously healthy in body and mind. You couldn't pay me to go near a psychiatrist again. Stopping seeing them was my first step to getting well.”

PeopleMindFirstsHumansWellsLooksMadeBodyBigsEyeTermPayStepsSeeingTroubleCrazyWorstHuman NatureHealthyBritishCardsDemonCracksFirst StepsStoppingMind And BodyPsychiatristTabloidsPublic EyeGet WellBeing PrettyCards You're Dealt
Author:Margot Kidder
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“Feminism as a movement for political and social equity is important, but feminism as an academic clique committed to eccentric doctrines about human nature is not. Eliminating discrimination against women is important, but believing that women and men are born with indistinguishable minds is not. Freedom of choice is important, but ensuring that women make up exactly 50 percent of all professions is not. And eliminating sexual assaults is important, but advancing the theory that rapists are doing their part in a vast male conspiracy is not.”

MenMindBelieveHumansImportantPoliticalChoicesSocialBornFeminismHuman NatureMovementTheoryPercentMen And WomenMalesCommittedProfessionDiscriminationDoctrineConspiracyAcademicAssaultEquityEccentricAdvancingFreedom Of ChoiceSexual AssaultEliminatingClique
Author:Steven Pinker
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“At the core, there is one simple, overarching reason why so many people remain unsatisfied in their work and why most organisations fail to draw out the greatest talent, ingenuity, and creativity of their people and never become truly great, enduring organisations. It stems from an incomplete paradigm of who we are - our fundamental view of human nature. The fundamental reality is, human beings are not things needing to be motivated and controlled; they are four-dimensional - body, mind, heart, and spirit.”

PeopleMindHumansHeartReasonBodyRealitySpiritHuman BeingsSimpleViewsCreativityFourFailingTalentHuman NatureDrawsFundamentalsEndureCoreReason WhyWho We AreControlledMotivatedStemParadigmIncompleteOrganisationIngenuityUnsatisfiedMind Heart
Author:Stephen Covey
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“Laughter, while it lasts, slackens and unbraces the mind, weakens the faculties and causes a kind of remissness and dissolution in all the powers of the soul; and thus it may be looked on as weakness in the composition of human nature. But if we consider the frequent relieves we receive from it and how often it breaks the gloom which is apt to depress the mind and damp our spirits, with transient, unexpected gleams of joy, one would take care not to grow too wise for so great a pleasure of life.”

IfsLifeMindHumansKindMaySoulCareLastsJoySpiritGrowsCausesPleasureBreakWiseHuman NatureLaughterWeaknessTake CareUnexpectedFacultyDepressingCompositionGloomTransientGleamDissolutionDampPleasures Of Life
Author:Malcolm De Chazal
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“Such is the grasping tendency of the human heart, that it must have a something to lay hold of - and which, if wrested away without the substitution of another something in its place, would leave a void and a vacancy as painful to the mind, as hunger is to the natural system.... The heart must have something to cling to.”

IfsMindHumansHeartNaturalHuman NatureLaysHungerPainfulTendenciesMinistersProfessorsVoidHuman HeartClingingGraspingSubstitutionVacancy
Book:Sermons: Select Works
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“At this day . . . the earth sustains on her bosom many monster minds, minds which are not afraid to employ the seed of Deity deposited in human nature as a means of suppressing the name of God. Can anything be more detestable than this madness in man, who, finding God a hundred times both in his body and his soul, makes his excellence in this respect a pretext for denying that there is a God? He will not say that chance has made him different from the brutes; . . . but, substituting Nature as the architect of the universe, he suppresses the name of God.”

MenMindHumansMeanMadeDifferentSoulBodyEarthUniverseNamesChanceHuman NatureFindingsHundredMadnessExcellenceSeedsMonstersThis DayArchitectNot AfraidDeitiesBrutesBosomsPretextSuppressingFinding God
Book:The Institutes Of The Christian Religion, Books First and Second
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“When it comes to explaining human thought and behavior, the possibility that heredity plays any role at all still has the power to shock. To acknowledge human nature, many think, is to endorse racism, sexism, war, greed, genocide, nihilism, reactionary politics, and neglect of children and the disadvantaged. Any claim that the mind has an innate organization strikes people not as a hypothesis that might be incorrect but as a thought it is immoral to think.”

PeopleThinkingMindHumansChildrenStillsWarPlayMightRolesHuman NaturePossibilityBehaviorRacismOrganizationClaimsGreedStrikesAcknowledgeShockNeglectSexismGenocideHypothesisImmoralInnateExplainingNihilismReactionariesHuman ThoughtHeredityDisadvantaged
Book:The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature
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