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Human Nature Quotes

Browse 4693 quotes about Human Nature.

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Human Nature Quotes

“Truth should be the first lesson of the child and the last aspiration of manhood; for it has been well said that the inquiry of truth, which is the love-making of it, the knowledge of truth, which is the presence of it, and the belief of truth, which is the enjoying of it, is the sovereign good of human nature.”

ShouldFirstsHumansWellsChildrenHas BeensSaidTruthLastsBeliefEnjoyHuman NatureLessonsAspirationSovereignManhoodInquiryLove MakingWell Said
Book:Literary recreations and miscellanies
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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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“Ye whose clay-cold heads and luke-warm hearts can argue down or mask your passions--tell me, what trespass is it that man should have them?... If nature has so wove her web of kindness, that some threads of love and desire are entangled with the piece--must the whole web be rent in drawing them out?”

IfsMenShouldHeartWholeDesirePassionKindnessPiecesHuman NatureColdShould HaveWarmArguingDrawingTemptationMaskThreadClayLukeWarm Heart
Book:The Works of Laurence Sterne: Containing The Life and Opinions of Tristan Shandy ... [etc.] ; with a Life of the Author Written by Himself
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“It is my strong conviction that a realist conception of human nature should be made a servant of an ethic of progressive justice and should not be made into a bastion of conservatism, particularly a conservatism which defends unjust privileges.”

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Book:Man's Nature and His Communities: Essays on the Dynamics and Enigmas of Man's Personal and Social Existence
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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.”

NeedsShouldHumansWinningEnergyUnderstandingTroubleHuman NatureCircumstancesCapacityDeterminationShould HaveProfoundAffectionCurrentsCommunicateCommandersRuthlessKnack
Author:B. H. Liddell Hart
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“Satanism advocates practicing a modified form of the Golden Rule. Our interpretation of this rule is: "Do unto others as they do unto you"; because if you "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," and they, in turn, treat you badly, it goes against human nature to continue to treat them with consideration. You should do unto others as you would have them do unto you, but if your courtesy is not returned, they should be treated with the wrath they deserve.”

IfsShouldHumansFormTurnsHuman NatureDeserveTreatsTreatedGoldenConsiderationInterpretationWrathCourtesyGolden RuleSatanicDo Unto OthersSatanismSatanist
Author:Anton Szandor LaVey
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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.”

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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's no "should" or "should not" when it comes to having feelings. They're part of who we are and their origins are beyond our control. When we can believe that, we may find it easier to make constructive choices about what to do with those feelings.”

ShouldBelieveMayFeelingsChoicesEasyHuman NatureTelevisionEasierWho We AreConstructive
Book:You Are Special: Words of Wisdom for All Ages from a Beloved Neighbor
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“The interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place. It may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of Government. But what is Government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?”

MenShouldHumansMayGovernmentPoliticsInterestRightsHuman NatureHe ManReflectionAbuseConnectedDevicesFederalistFederalist PapersConstitutional Rights
Book:The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788
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“He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating it’s most sacred rights of life & liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. this piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the christian king of Great Britain. determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought & sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce...”

PeopleMenShouldHumansPersonsWarChristianLibertyRightsHuman NatureKingsNegativeSlaverySacredDeterminedPracticalsMiserableBritainCommerceWarfareOffendedTransportationDeclaration Of IndependenceGreat BritainInfidelHemisphereCaptivatingE CommerceSuppressing
Author:Thomas Jefferson
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“In Macbeth a lady is restrained from the murder of a king by his resemblance of her father as he slept. Should not all men be restrained from acts of violence and even of unkindness against their fellow men by observing in them something which resembles the Savior of the World? If nothing else certainly, a human figure?”

IfsMenWorldShouldHumansFatherViolenceHuman NatureFiguresKingsMurderFellowsSaviorObservingFellow ManResemblanceActs Of ViolenceUnkindness
Author:Benjamin Rush
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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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“It is astonishing that so simple a truth should ever have had an adversary; and it is one among a multitude of proofs, how apt a spirit of ill-informed jealousy, or of too great abstraction and refinement is to lead men astray from the plainest paths of reason and conviction.”

MenShouldReasonSpiritSimplePathHuman NatureIllConvictionProofMultitudesAbstractionAdversariesAstonishingRefinement
Book:The Federalist on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788, with an Appendix Containing the Letters of Pacificus and Helvidius on the Proclamation of Neutrality of 1793
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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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“Temporary delusions, prejudices, excitements, and objects have irresistible influence in mere questions of policy. And the policy of one age may ill suit the wishes or the policy of another. The constitution is not subject to such fluctuations. It is to have a fixed, uniform, permanent construction. It should be, so far at least as human infirmity will allow, not dependent upon the passions or parties of particular times, but the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.”

ShouldHumansMayAgePassionWishPartyInfluenceSubjectsHuman NaturePolicyObjectsParticularConstitutionPrejudiceMereIllYesterdaySuitsPermanentFixedExcitementDependentDelusionTemporaryConstructionUniformsIrresistibleInfirmityFluctuation
Book:Commentaries on the Constitution of the Un. States: With a Prelim. Review of the Constitut. History of the Colonies and States, Bef. the Adoption of the Constitution
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“Men are not to be told anything they might find too painful; the secret depths of human nature, the sordid physicalities, might overwhelm or damage them. For instance, men often faint at the sight of their own blood, to which they are not accustomed. For this reason you should never stand behind one in the line at the Red Cross donor clinic.”

MenShouldHumansReasonMightPainLinesSecretBehindsBloodHuman NatureRedCrossesSightDepthPainfulInstanceDamageAccustomedPhysicalityDonorsClinicRed Cross
Book:Bluebeard's Egg
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“How many thorns of human nature - hard, sharp, lifeless protuberances that tear and wound us, narrow prejudices, bristling conceits that repel and disgust us - are arrested developments, calcified tendencies, buds of promise that should have lifted a branch up into the sunny day with fruit; and flowers to delight the heart of men, but now all grown hard, petrified, for want of culture and a congenial soil and climate.”

MenWantShouldHumansHeartHardCultureHuman NatureTearsFlowerDevelopmentPromiseShould HavePrejudiceClimateFruitDelightWoundsTendenciesBranchesSoilDisgustingArrestedConceitSunnyThornsBudLifelessSunny Day
Author:John Burroughs
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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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“Creating new people, by having babies, is so much a part of human life that it is rarely thought even to require a justification. Indeed, most people do not even think about whether they should or should not make a baby. They just make one. In other words, procreation is usually the consequence of sex rather than the result of a decision to bring people into existence. Those who do indeed decide to have a child might do so for any number of reasons, but among these reasons cannot be the interests of the potential child. One can never have a child for that child’s sake.”

PeopleThinkingLifeShouldHumansChildrenReasonMightSexInterestDecisionResultsNumbersExistenceHuman NatureBabyBirthCreatingConsequenceParentingSakeHuman LifeJustificationBeing A ParentHaving A BabyProcreation
Book:Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming Into Existence
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“A fundamental element of human nature is the need for creative work, for creative inquiry, for free creation without the arbitrary limiting effects of coercive institutions. A decent society should maximize the possibilities for this fundamental human characteristic to be realized.”

NeedsShouldHumansCreativeEffectsHuman NatureCreationPossibilityElementsInstitutionsFundamentalsCharacteristicsDecentInquiryArbitraryCreative Work
Book:The Chomsky - Foucault Debate: On Human Nature
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“No war ought ever to be undertaken but under circumstances which render all intercourse of courtesy between the combatants impossible. It is a bad thing that men should hate each other; but it is far worse that they should contract the habit of cutting one another's throats without hatred. War is never lenient but where it is wanton; when men are compelled to fight in self-defence, they must hate and avenge: this may be bad; but it is human nature.”

MenShouldHumansMayWarSelfHateFightingPeaceCuttingImpossibleHuman NatureOughtHabitCircumstancesHatredBad ThingsContractsThroatCompelledCourtesyDefenceIntercourseNo WarWantonSelf DefenceLenient
Author:Thomas B. Macaulay
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