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Human Nature Quotes

Browse 4693 quotes about Human Nature.

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Human Nature Quotes

“There rise authors now and then, who seem proof against the mutability of language, because they have rooted themselves in the unchanging principles of human nature. They are like gigantic trees that we sometimes see on the banks of a stream; which, by their vast and deep roots, penetrating through the mere surface, and laying hold on the very foundations of the earth, preserve the soil around them from being swept away by the ever-flowing current, and hold up many a neighboring plant, and perhaps worthless weed, to perpetuity.”

HumansSometimesSeemsEarthLiteratureLanguagePrinciplesTreeHuman NatureRootsFoundationPlantMereCurrentsSurfaceProofPreservesStreamsSoilWeedRootedNow And ThenWorthlessUnchangingSwept AwayDeep RootsMutability
Book:The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. – The Complete Collection: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Rip Van Winkle, The Voyage, Roscoe, A Royal Poet, A Sunday in London and many more (Illustrated)
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“The fact of our deriving constant pleasure from whatever is a type or semblance of divine attributes, and from nothing but that which is so, is the most glorious of all that can be demonstrated of human nature; it not only sets a great gulf of specific separation between us and the lower animals, but it seems a promise of a communion ultimately deep, close, and conscious, with the Being whose darkened manifestations we here feebly and unthinkingly delight in.”

HumansFactsSeemsPleasureAnimalHuman NatureDivineTypePromiseConsciousConstantDelightSeparationManifestationGloriousAttributesCommunionSemblance
Book:Modern Painters: (pt.3) Of ideas of beauty
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“Never since the dawn of human history, as far as I can find out, did people long settled in any region give a friendly welcome to newcomers. One of the disagreeable traits of our human nature seems to be to dislike on sight people who come later than the first settlers.”

PeopleGivingFirstsHumansLongI CanSeemsHuman NatureSightWelcomeDawnRegionsFriendlyDislikeTraitsOutsidersHuman HistoryDisagreeableSettlersNewcomers
Book:Vermont Tradition: The Biography of an Outlook on Life
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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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“To the love of pleasure we may therefore ascribe most of the agreeable, to the love of action we may attribute most of the useful and respectable, qualifications. The character in which both the one and the other should be united and harmonised would seem to constitute the most perfect idea of human nature.”

ShouldHumansMayIdeasCharacterSeemsActionPerfectPleasureUnitedHistoryHuman NatureAttributesRespectableRoman EmpireQualifications
Book:The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
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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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“We consider the Holocaust as being a sort of strange event taking place on another planet; we never understood in a visceral way that this is something that took place in the heart of man. That's something that you can feel, the genocidal tendency is within human nature. It seems that if we forget about this, our future is also compromised.”

IfsMenWayFeelsHumansHeartSeemsForgetEventsHuman NatureStrangePlanetsUnderstoodTendenciesOur FutureHolocaustVisceral
Author:Laszlo Nemes
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“It is part of the irony of life that the strongest feelings of devoted gratitude of which human nature seems to be susceptible, are called forth in human beings towards those who, having the power entirely to crush their earthly existence, voluntarily refrain from using that power.”

HumansFeelingsSeemsHuman BeingsExistenceHuman NatureGratitudeIronyCrushStrongestDevotedRefrainSusceptibleIrony Of Life
Book:The Subjection of Women
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“Theologians in all the great faiths have devised all kinds of myths to show that this type of kenosis, of self-emptying, is found in the life of God itself. They do not do this because it sounds edifying, but because this is the way that human nature seems to work. We are most creative and sense other possibilities that transcend our ordinary experience when we leave ourselves behind.”

WayHumansKindSelfShowsSeemsFoundSoundBehindsCreativeHuman NaturePossibilityTypeOrdinaryMythAll KindsTheologianGreat Faith
Book:The Spiral Staircase
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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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“I believe a man is born first unto himself - for the happy developing of himself, while the world is a nursery, and the pretty things are to be snatched for, and pleasant things tasted; some people seem to exist thus right to the end. But most are born again on entering manhood; then they are born to humanity, to a consciousness of all the laughing, and the never-ceasing murmur of pain and sorrow that comes from the terrible multitudes of brothers.”

PeopleMenWorldFirstsBelieveEndsSeemsPainHumanityI BelieveBornConsciousnessLaughingHuman NatureBrotherTerribleSorrowAdversityDevelopingPleasantAdulthoodMultitudesManhoodEnteringBorn AgainNurseryPain And SorrowPleasant ThingsPretty Things
Book:The Selected Letters of D. H. Lawrence
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“All the sciences have a relation, greater or less, to human nature; and...however wide any of them may seem to run from it, they still return back by one passage or another. Even Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, and Natural Religion, are in some measure dependent on the science of MAN; since they lie under the cognizance of men, and are judged of by their powers and faculties.”

MenHumansMayStillsPhilosophySeemsRunningScienceLyingReligionNaturalGreaterHuman NatureReturnAccountsRelationMathematicsWideDependentFacultyPassagesJudgedNatural PhilosophyReturn Back
Author:David Hume
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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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“The important distinction so well understood in America between a constitution established by the people, and unalterable by the government; and a law established by the government, and alterable by the government, seems to have been little understood and less observed in any other country. Wherever the supreme power of legislation has resided, has been supposed to reside also, a full power to change the form of government.”

PeopleWellsLittlesHas BeensImportantCountrySeemsGovernmentAmericaFormLawHuman NatureUnderstoodConstitutionSupremeDistinctionOther CountriesLegislationForms Of GovernmentPower To ChangeSupreme Power
Book:The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in 1788
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“There rise authors now and then, who seem proof against the mutability of language, because they have rooted themselves in the unchanging principles of human nature.”

WritingHumansSeemsLanguagePrinciplesHuman NatureProofRootedNow And ThenUnchangingMutability
Book:The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. – The Complete Collection: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Rip Van Winkle, The Voyage, Roscoe, A Royal Poet, A Sunday in London and many more (Illustrated)
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“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”

IfsThinkingWorldYearsHumansReasonLightSeemsHumanityOpportunityBeliefVisionOur LivesWrittenHuman NatureFutureMusic IsOptimismSpreadCoreConsumersImpulseMake SensePessimismComposerSustainabilityGrandparentDon't ChangeSustainable DevelopmentAll The BestLight Years
Author:Ed Mayo
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“At the heart of the message of the Savior of the world is a single, glorious, wonderful, still largely untried concept. In its simplest terms the message is that we should seek to overcome the selfishness we all seem to be born with, that we should overcome human nature and think of others before self.”

ThinkingWorldShouldHumansHeartStillsSelfSeemsTermBornWonderfulHuman NatureMessagesConceptsOvercomingSelfishnessGloriousSaviorSimplest
Author:James E. Faust
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“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.”

IfsMenWayLifeYearsHumansSoulMomentsSeemsNightLeftPleasureKnownHuman NatureLaysImpulseAcquaintanceMonotonousGreatest PleasuresMonotonous Life
Author:W. Somerset Maugham
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“And as this is the obvious appearance of things, it must be admitted, till some hypothesis be discovered, which by penetrating deeper into human nature, may prove the former affections to be nothing but modifications of the latter. All attempts of this kind have hitherto proved fruitless, and seem to have proceeded entirely from that love of simplicity which has been the source of much false reasoning in philosophy.”

HumansKindMayHas BeensPhilosophySeemsHuman NatureSourceWords Of WisdomProveSimplicityAffectionObviousAppearanceDeeperFormerReasoningLatterHypothesisModification
Book:Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects
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