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Human Nature Quotes

Browse 4693 quotes about Human Nature.

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Human Nature Quotes

“In the Germany of the l920s, the Weimar Republic, both orga­nismic biology and Gestalt psychology were part of a larger intellectual trend that saw itself as a protest movement against the increasing fragmentation and alienation of human nature. The entire Weimar culture was characterized by an antimechanistic outlook, a "hunger for wholeness". Organismic biology, Gestalt psychology, ecology, and, later on, general systems theory all grew out of this holistic zeitgeist.”

HumansCulturePsychologySawsHuman NatureMovementTheoryGrewIntellectualHungerGermanyProtestBiologyRepublicTrendsEcologyWholenessOutlookAlienationHolisticZeitgeistFragmentationGestaltSystems TheoryProtest Movements
Author:Fritjof Capra
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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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“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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“Most people believe they know how they themselves think, how others think too, and even how institutions evolve. But they are wrong. Their understanding is based on folk psychology, the grasp of human nature by common sense ¾ defined (by Einstein) as everything learned to the age of 18 ¾ shot through with misconceptions, and only slightly advanced over ideas employed by the Greek philosophers”

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Author:E. O. Wilson
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“Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.”

SelfSpiritualUnderstandingLeadershipBusinessPsychologyRelationshipAwarenessHuman NaturePositive ThinkingHumilityCommunicationWise WordsPerceptionDiscoverySelf AwarenessProfoundAnnoyingInteractionPartnershipOur RelationshipImitationBad AssThyselfRelationship AdvicePsychiatristPsychologistBe True To YourselfBeing SingleHuman RelationshipsOf My MindLove RelationshipFunny RelationshipIrritatingSynchronicityInteractingIrritatedMemories Dreams ReflectionsIrritationUnderstanding OthersSocial InteractionSelf UnderstandingRelationships With OthersSelf KnowingSelf-examinationHappy RelationshipInteracting With OthersKnowledge And UnderstandingCollective UnconsciousLove And RelationshipPsychoanalyticUnderstanding And LoveOptimistic LifeAwareness Of LifeLove WisdomFunny Being SingleUnderstanding YourselfLight Of My LifePerception Of OthersAwareness Of OthersWorking A LotSpiritual RelationshipInner DarknessProfound ThoughtsSpiritual PartnershipUnderstanding ThingsUnderstanding KnowledgeBeing AnnoyedTwo PersonalitiesReader's DigestUnderstanding EverythingBecoming Who You AreDeceiving Ourselves
Book:Memories, dreams, reflections
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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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“To regard such a positive mental science [psychology] as rising above the sphere of history, and establishing the permanent and unchanging laws of human nature, is therefore possible only to a person who mistakes the transient conditions of a certain historical age for the permanent conditions of human life.”

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Author:Robin G. Collingwood
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“For my victory over Capablanca I am indebted primarily to my superiority in the field of psychology. Capablanca played, relying almost exclusively on his rich intuitive talent. But for the chess struggle nowadays one needs a subtle knowledge of human nature, an understanding of the opponent's psychology.”

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Author:Alexander Alekhine
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“Human beings, in a sense, may be thought of as multidimensional creatures composed of such poetic considerations as the individual need for self-realization, subdued passions for overwhelming beauty, and a hunger for meaning beyond the flavors that enter and exit the physical body. A person might even be described as a self-contained multiverse.”

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Author:Aberjhani
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“The task of evolutionary psychology is not to weigh in on human nature, a task better left to others. It is to add the satisfying kind of insight that only science can provide: to connect what we know about human nature with the rest of our knowledge of how the world works, and to explain the largest number of facts with the smallest number of assumptions.”

KnowsWorldHumansKindFactsLeftNumbersPsychologyHuman NatureTasksAddInsightAssumptionSatisfyingSmallestEvolutionary Psychology
Book:How the Mind Works
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“Father Brendan Flynn: "A woman was gossiping with her friend about a man whom they hardly knew - I know none of you have ever done this. That night, she had a dream: a great hand appeared over her and pointed down on her. She was immediately seized with an overwhelming sense of guilt. The next day she went to confession. She got the old parish priest, Father O' Rourke, and she told him the whole thing. 'Is gossiping a sin?' she asked the old man. 'Was that God All Mighty's hand pointing down at me? Should I ask for your absolution? Father, have I done something wrong?' 'Yes,' Father O' Rourke answered her. 'Yes, you ignorant, badly-brought-up female. You have blamed false witness on your neighbor. You played fast and loose with his reputation, and you should be heartily ashamed.' So, the woman said she was sorry, and asked for forgiveness. 'Not so fast,' says O' Rourke. 'I want you to go home, take a pillow upon your roof, cut it open with a knife, and return here to me.' So, the woman went home: took a pillow off her bed, a knife from the drawer, went up the fire escape to her roof, and stabbed the pillow. Then she went back to the old parish priest as instructed. 'Did you gut the pillow with a knife?' he says. 'Yes, Father.' 'And what were the results?' 'Feathers,' she said. 'Feathers?' he repeated. 'Feathers; everywhere, Father.' 'Now I want you to go back and gather up every last feather that flew out onto the wind,' 'Well,' she said, 'it can't be done. I don't know where they went. The wind took them all over.' 'And that,' said Father O' Rourke, 'is gossip!”

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Book:Doubt, a Parable
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