Home / Topics / Human Nature Quotes

Human Nature Quotes

Browse 4693 quotes about Human Nature.

Human Nature Quotes

“All the seven deadly sins are man's true nature. To be greedy. To be hateful. To have lust. Of course, you have to control them, but if you're made to feel guilty for being human, then you're going to be trapped in a never-ending sin-and-repent cycle that you can't escape from.”

“The story of the Fall always fascinates me as a play ground, but I cannot find any profound meaning in it, because of my 'liberal' view of human nature: I cannot believe in a state of original innocence, still less in a profound meaning in it, and I am always minimising the conception and the extent of Sin and the sinfulness of sex.”

Believe Humans Stills States Play Stories Fall Sex Sin Views Human Nature Originals Profound Innocence Conception Sinfulness

Author:E. M. Forster

“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.”

Source: The Essential Martin Luther King, Jr.:

“Trusting people to be creative and constructive when given more freedom does not imply an overly optimistic belief in the perfectibility of human nature. It is, rather, belief that the inevitable errors and sins of the human condition are far better overcome by individuals working together in an environment of trust and freedom and mutual respect than by individuals working under a multitude of rules, regulations, and restraints imposed upon them by another group of imperfect individuals.”

“My uncomfortable duty as a Christian is to confess the truth, so lethal to our self-centered human nature: 'Jesus, who suffered your sin unto his own death, calls you likewise to forgive, so that God's purposes may be accomplished in both you and your offender.”

Humans May Self Christian Purpose Jesus Sin Human Nature Duty Forgiveness Forgiving Uncomfortable Accomplished Self Centered Offenders

Author:Gordon Dalbey

“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.”

Source: Friends in Council: A Series of Readings and Discourse Thereon

“You might declare that global warming and energy insecurity, not to mention urban sprawl and pollution, have intensified the sin of indulging one's motoring desires. And I would not argue with that point. You're right. I am a bad man. But over the long term, if you want to develop a new transportation and energy policy, you'd probably want to err on the side of assuming that people won't change much. And it is human nature to like to be empowered.”

“The more I thought about human nature, the more I saw how our tragic inclination for sin/mistakes causes us to use our minds to rationalize our action.”

Mind Humans Use Action Causes Sin Mistake Saws Human Nature Tragic Inclination Our Actions Rationalize

Author:Martin Luther King, Jr.

“People who truly love us can be divided into two categories: those who understand us, and those who forgive us our worst sins. Rarely do you find someone capable of both.”

People Love Two Understanding Sin Worst Human Nature Wise Words Capable Forgiveness Forgiving True Love Categories Divided Capacity To Love Liking Someone

Author:Jonathan Carroll

“When you start off by telling those who disagree with you that they are not merely in error but in sin, how much of a dialogue do you expect?”

Sin Human Nature Errors Dialogue Disagree

Author:Thomas Sowell

“One human nature is common to all the descendants of Adam, and it is, for all men, guilty and polluted”

Men Humans Sin Common Human Nature Guilty Adam Descendants

Author:Herman Bavinck

“The depravity which sin has produced in human nature extends to the whole of it. There is no part of man's nature which is unaffected by it. Man's nature is all of a piece, and what affects it at all affects it altogether”

Men Humans Whole Sin Pieces Human Nature Depravity

Book:Studies in Theology: Lectures Delivered in Chicago Theological Seminary

Source: Studies in Theology: Lectures Delivered in Chicago Theological Seminary

“That evening I went for a walk. To walk for the sake of walking is something I seldom do. Inside my apartment I'd felt inexplicably anxious. I needed to talk to someone. to be reassured or perhaps I needed to confess my sin: I was once again having impure thoughts about saving the world. Or it was neither of these - I was afraid I was dreaming.”

World Dream Felt Sin Walks Human Nature Needed Walking Sake Saving Evening Anxious Apartment Save The World Impure Thoughts

Book:Ishmael: A Novel

Source: Ishmael: A Novel

“...night possessed us and the shadow of death encompassed us, for we had fallen into sin and lost the power of sight which was ours by God's grace and by which we were able to perceive the light that bestows true life. Night and death had been poured out on our human nature, not because of any change in the true light, but because we had turned aside and no longer had any inclination towards the life-bearing light. In the last times, however, the Giver of eternal light and Source of true life has had mercy upon us.”

“There is a hearty Puritanism in the view of human nature which pervades the instrument of 1787. It is the work of men who believed in original sin, and were resolved to leave open for transgressors no door which they could possibly shut.”

Men Humans Sin Views Doors Atheism Human Nature Originals Instruments Positive Atheism Original Sin Hearty Puritanism

Author:James Bryce

“Doubt as sin. — Christianity has done its utmost to close the circle and declared even doubt to be sin. One is supposed to be cast into belief without reason, by a miracle, and from then on to swim in it as in the brightest and least ambiguous of elements: even a glance towards land, even the thought that one perhaps exists for something else as well as swimming, even the slightest impulse of our amphibious nature — is sin! And notice that all this means that the foundation of belief and all reflection on its origin is likewise excluded as sinful. What is wanted are blindness and intoxication and an eternal song over the waves in which reason has drowned.”

Source: Daybreak: Thoughts on the Prejudices of Morality

“I've found that people reveal nothing of their true selves except within their art and their sin." ~ Dacey Sinnett, 'ROAM”

Art Sin Human Nature Honesty

Book:Roam

Source: Roam