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Human Nature Quotes

Browse 4693 quotes about Human Nature.

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Human Nature Quotes

“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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“We stand in need of such reflections to comfort us for the loss of some illustrious characters, which in our eyes might have seemed the most worthy of the heavenly present. The names of Seneca, of the elder and the younger Pliny, of Tacitus, of Plutarch, of Galen, of the slave Epictetus, and of the emperor Marcus Antoninus, adorn the age in which they flourished, and exalt the dignity of human natures.”

NeedsHumansCharacterMightEyeAgeNamesLossHistoryHuman NatureComfortReflectionDignitySlaveWorthyHeavenlyEldersEmperorRoman EmpireGalen
Book:EDWARD GIBBON Premium Collection: Historiographical Works, Memoirs & Letters: Including
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“Nor need it cause surprise that things disagreeable to the good man should seem pleasant to some men; for mankind is liable to many corruptions and diseases, and the things in question are not really pleasant, but only pleasant to these particular persons, who are in a condition to think them so.”

ThinkingMenNeedsShouldPersonsSeemsCausesConditionsMankindHuman NatureParticularDiseaseSurpriseCorruptionPleasantGood ManLiableDisagreeable
Book:The Nicomachean ethics
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“Speak out, educate, do not be intimidated by the apologists, and do not let extreme racism be mainstreamed. Hopefully there will come a time when we don't need to tell our kids that Halloween is no excuse for hate, and that blackface has no place in a civilized society.”

NeedsKidsHateSpeakCommunityLeadershipJusticeHuman NatureEqualRacismEthicsHuman RightsExcuseExtremesIdeologyHopefullyCivilizedEducateHalloweenEqual RightsCivilityIntimidatedNo ExcusesSpeaks OutCivilized SocietyBlackface
Author:Christine Pelosi
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“No doubt hard work is a great police agent. If everybody were worked from morning till night, and then carefully locked up, the register of crime might be greatly diminished. But what would become of human nature? Where would be the room for growth in such a system of things? It is through sorrow and mirth, plenty and need, a variety of passions, circumstances, and temptations, even through sin and misery, that men's natures are developed.”

IfsMenNeedsHumansHardMightWould BeNightPassionGrowthSinRoomsMorningDoubtHuman NatureCrimeHard WorkCircumstancesSorrowPoliceMiseryTemptationAgentsPlentyVarietyNo DoubtLockedRegisterMirthLocked Up
Book:Friends in Council: A Series of Readings and Discourse Thereon
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“As I see it, there are two great forces of human nature: self-interest, and caring for others. Capitalism harnesses self-interest in a helpful and sustainable way, but only on behalf of those who can pay. Government aid and philanthropy channel our caring for those who can't pay. But to provide rapid improvement for the poor we need a system that draws in innovators and businesses in a far better way than we do today.”

WayNeedsHumansTwoSelfGovernmentTodayForceInterestPoorBusinessPayHuman NatureDrawsCapitalismCaringAidsImprovementHelpfulPhilanthropyBehalfRapidsSelf InterestBetter WaysInnovatorsCaring For OthersHarnessGovernment Aid
Author:Bill Gates
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“Why would so many risk their reputations, families, careers—even presidential legacies—for something that runs against human nature? Were monogamy an ancient, evolved trait characteristic of our species, as the standard narrative insists, these ubiquitous transgressions would be infrequent and such horrible enforcement unnecessary. No creature needs to be threatened with death to act in accord with its own nature.”

NeedsHumansWould BeRunningCareersRiskHuman NatureCreaturesStandardsSpeciesAncientHorribleReputationLegacyNarrativePresidentialCharacteristicsTraitsUnnecessaryThreatenedEnforcementAccordTransgressionMonogamy
Author:Christopher Ryan
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“Just as the commander of an army pitches his camp, studies the strength and defenses of a fortress, and then attacks it on its weakest side, in like manner, the enemy of our human nature studies from all sides our theological, cardinal, and moral virtues. Wherever he finds us weakest and most in need regarding our eternal salvation, he attacks and tries to take us by storm.”

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Author:Ignatius of Loyola
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“A commander should have a profound understanding of human nature, the knack of smoothing out troubles, the power of winning affection while communicating energy, and the capacity for ruthless determination where require by circumstances. He needs to generate an electrifying current, and to keep a cool head in applying it.”

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Author:B. H. Liddell Hart
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“To ask for overt renunciation of a cherished doctrine is to expect too much of human nature. Men do not repudiate the doctrines and dogmas to which they have sworn their loyalty. Instead they rationalize, revise, and re-interpret them to meet new needs and new circumstances, all the while protesting that their heresy is the purest orthodoxy.”

MenNeedsHumansAsksToo MuchHuman NatureCircumstancesLoyaltyDoctrineDogmaHeresyOrthodoxyRenunciationRationalize
Author:J. William Fulbright
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“I don't speak anything very well. The longer that you travel, you find out that you really don't even need to speak the language to get around and get things done, to live in those places. If you're somewhat resourceful and perceptive, you're pretty much going to know what's going on because human nature is human nature: they understand it, you understand it, and it works.”

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Author:Alan Bishop
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“Kant regards the universalizability test for maxims as focused on a very special sort of situation: one where the agent is tempted to make an exception to a recognized duty out of self-preference. The universalizability test is supposed help the agent to see, in a particular case of moral judgment, that self-preference is not a satisfactory reason for exempting yourself from a duty you recognize. Kant thinks, as a matter of human nature, that this situation arises often enough and that we need a canon of judgment to guard against it.”

ThinkingNeedsHumansSelfMatterReasonEnoughHelpingSituationMoralCasesSpecialHuman NatureParticularDutyJudgmentTestsRegardFocusedAriseAgentsExceptionPreferenceTemptedMaximsCanonMoral Judgment
Author:Allen W. Wood
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“A lot of people just go to movies that feed into their preexisting and not so noble needs and desires: They just go to action pictures, and things like that. But if you go to foreign films, if you go to documentaries, if you go to independent films, if you go to good films, you will become a better person because you will understand human nature better. Movies record human nature in a better way than any other art form, that's for sure.”

PeopleIfsWayNeedsHumansPersonsArtActionFilmFormDesireRecordsHuman NatureIndependentNobleDocumentariesBetter WaysBetter PersonIndependent FilmGood Films
Author:Roger Ebert
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“School was more than academics; an education prepared you for the humdrum of real life: working with others, tempering one's personality to assimilate with the group but without losing your individual identity, understading the factors of logic, reasoning, and debate. For a person - vampire or human - to succeed in the world, unlocking the mysteries of the universe was insufficient. One would also need to grasp the mysteries of human nature.”

WorldNeedsHumansPersonsRealSchoolUniverseIndividualGroupsMysteryHuman NatureIdentityPersonalitySucceedLosingLogicPreparedDebateReal LifeFactorsVampireReasoningInsufficientHumdrumUnlockingWorking With Others
Book:The Van Alen Legacy: Number 4 in series
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“Some people think that evolutionary psychology claims to have discovered that human nature is selfish and wicked. But they are flattering the researchers and anyone who would claim to have discovered the opposite. No one needs a scientist to measure whether humans are prone to knavery. The question has been answered in the history books, the newspapers, the ethnographic record, and the letters to Ann Landers. But people treat it like an open question, as if someday science might discover that it's all a bad dream and we will wake up to find that it is human nature to love one another.”

PeopleIfsThinkingNeedsHumansHas BeensBookDreamMightPsychologyRecordsHuman NatureLettersOppositesScientistTreatsClaimsWake UpSelfishNewspapersWickedSomedayEvolutionary PsychologyResearchersFlatteringLove One AnotherHistory BooksBad DreamKnavery
Author:Steven Pinker
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“What I am really saying is that you don’t need to do anything, because if you see yourself in the correct way, you are all as much extraordinary phenomenon of nature as trees, clouds, the patterns in running water, the flickering of fire, the arrangement of the stars, and the form of a galaxy. You are all just like that, and there is nothing wrong with you at all.”

IfsWayNeedsRunningFormStarsWaterInspiringFireTreeHuman NatureExtraordinaryCloudsPatternsPhenomenonArrangementsGalaxyRunning Water
Book:Still the Mind: An Introduction to Meditation
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“We are so full of apprehensions, fears, that we don't know exactly to what it points... a great change of our psychoglocal attitude is imminent, that is certain...because we need more understanding of human nature because ...the only real danger that exists is man himself... and we know nothing of man - his psyche should be studied because we are the origin of all coming evil.”

KnowsMenNeedsShouldHumansRealCertainEvilUnderstandingAttitudeHuman NatureDangerApprehensionGreat Change
Author:Carl Jung
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“What art should be about,' they will say, 'is revealing exquisite and resonant truths about the human condition.' Well, to be honest - no, it shouldn’t. I mean, it can occasionally, if it wants to; but really, how many penetrating insights to human nature do you need in one lifetime? Two? Three? Once you’ve realised that no one else has a clue what they’re doing, either, and that love can be totally pointless, any further insights into human nature just start getting depressing really.”

IfsWantNeedsShouldHumansWellsMeanArtTwoThreeConditionsHonestHuman NatureLifetimeInsightBeing HonestHuman ConditionDepressingClueRevealingExquisiteRealisedPointless
Author:Caitlin Moran
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“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.”

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Book:Pogo revisited: containing the complete volumes of The Pogo poop book, Instant Pogo [and] The Jack Acid Society black book
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“Human beings are not intrinsically selfish, which isolates us from others. We are essentially social animals who depend on others to meet our needs. We achieve happiness, prosperity and progress through social interaction. Therefore, having a kind and helpful attitude contributes to our own and others' happiness.”

PeopleNeedsHumansKindHelpingHappinessSocialHuman BeingsAnimalAttitudeKindnessProgressAchieveHuman NatureDependsProsperitySelfishHelping OthersBuddhistHelpfulInteractionSocial InteractionOthers HappinessNot Selfish
Author:Dalai Lama
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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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“With regard to the learned professions, little need be observed; they truly form no distinct interest in society . . . [discussing the landed, merchant, and learned classes in legislative assembly]. Will not the man of the learned profession, who will feel a neutrality to the rivalships between the different branches of industry, be likely to prove an impartial arbiter between them, ready to promote either, so far as it shall appear to him conducive to the general interests of society?”

MenNeedsFeelsLittlesDifferentFormInterestClassHuman NatureHe ManReadyIndustryProveRegardProfessionBranchesAssemblyDiscussingMerchantsNeutralityArbiter
Author:Alexander Hamilton
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“No matter what part of the world we come from, we are all basically the same human beings. We all seek happiness and try to avoid suffering. We have the same basic human needs and concerns. All of us human beings want freedom and the right to determine our own destiny as individuals and as peoples. That is human nature.”

WorldWantNeedsTryingHumansMatterSufferingIndividualHuman BeingsDestinyHuman NatureConcernNo Matter WhatHuman RightsDetermineHuman NeedsBasic Human Needs
Author:Dalai Lama
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“You're watching us and you don't realize how much makeup and how much lighting is involved when we look good. We have a lot of help where we are. I don't think that it's healthy for young girls to be looking at these beauty magazines and watching TV and these shows and thinking [that's the standard]… there's more European attitude - you look at French film, Spanish film, they're a little more open to quirks and human nature. That we're not all symmetrical, not all the same shape… we need more of that.”

ThinkingNeedsHumansLooksLittlesHelpingShowsFilmYoungGirlRealizingAttitudeHuman NatureTvsInvolvedHealthyShapesStandardsMagazinesMakeupLightingQuirksWatching TvSymmetricalBeauty Magazines
Author:Natalie Dormer
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