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Human Nature Quotes

Browse 4693 quotes about Human Nature.

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Human Nature Quotes

“Ressentiment is a self-poisoning of the mind which has quite definite causes and consequences. It is a lasting mental attitude, caused by the systematic repression of certain emotions and affects which, as such are normal components of human nature. Their repression leads to the constant tendency to indulge in certain kinds of value delusions and corresponding value judgments. The emotions and affects primarily concerned are revenge, hatred, malice, envy, the impulse to detract, and spite.”

MindHumansKindSelfCertainValuesCausesEmotionAttitudeHuman NatureNormalJudgmentConsequenceConcernedHatredConstantRevengeEnvyTendenciesImpulseSpiteDelusionLastingDefiniteComponentsIndulgeMaliceRepressionSystematicIndulge InPoisoningMental AttitudeCorresponding
Book:On Feeling, Knowing, and Valuing: Selected Writings
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“Musick is certainly a very agreeable Entertainment, but if it would take the entire Possession of our Ears, if it would make us incapable of hearing Sense, if it would exclude Arts that have a much greater Tendency to the Refinement of human Nature; I must confess I would allow it no better Quarter than Plato has done, who banishes it out of his Common-wealth.”

IfsHumansArtDoneWealthCommonMusicGreaterHuman NatureMusicianEarsEntertainmentPossessionHearingTendenciesQuartersIncapablePlatoRefinement
Book:The Works of Joseph Addison: Including the Whole Contents of Bp. Hurd's Edition, with Letters and Other Pieces Not Found in Ay Previous Collection; and Macaulay's Essay on His Life and Works
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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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“One of the less attractive aspects of human nature is our tendency to hate the people we haven't treated very well; it's much easier than accepting guilt. If we can convince ourselves that the people we betrayed or enslaved were subhuman monsters in the first place, then our guilt isn't nearly so black as we secretly know that it is. Humans are very, very good at shifting blame and avoiding guilt.”

PeopleIfsKnowsFirstsHumansWellsHateBlackAcceptingHuman NatureHavensAcceptanceEasierAspectBlameGuiltVery GoodBetrayalMonstersTreatedTendenciesGuiltyAttractiveConvinceAvoidingBetrayedConvincingShiftingEnslavement
Author:David Eddings
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“Human nature is not a machine to be built after a model, and set to do exactly the work prescribed for it, but a tree, which requires to grow and develop itself on all sides, according to the tendency of the inward forces which make it a living thing.”

HumansForceGrowsSidesJusticeTreeHuman NatureDiversityModelsBuiltMachinesSocial JusticeTendenciesInwardLiving ThingsGymnastics
Book:The Classical Utilitarians: Bentham and Mill
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“As riches increase and accumulate in few hands, as luxury prevails in society, virtue will be in a greater degree considered as only a graceful appendage of wealth, and the tendency of things will be to depart from the republican standard. This is the real disposition of human nature; it is what neither the honorable member nor myself can correct. It is a common misfortunate that awaits our State constitution, as well as all others.”

HumansWellsRealStatesHandsWealthCommonVirtueGreaterHuman NatureRepublicanMembersDegreesStandardsConstitutionIncreaseRichesTendenciesLuxuryHonorableDisposition
Book:The Works of Alexander Hamilton: Miscellanies, 1774-1789: A full vindication; The farmer refuted; Quebec bill; Resolutions in Congress; Letters from Phocion; New-York Legislature, etc
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“It is a misfortune, inseparable from human affairs, that public measures are rarely investigated with that spirit of moderation which is essential to a just estimate of their real tendency to advance or obstruct the public good; and that this spirit is more apt to be diminished than prompted, by those occasions which require an unusual exercise of it.”

HumansRealSpiritHuman NatureExerciseEssentialsAffairTendenciesOccasionsMisfortunesUnusualModerationInseparablePublic Good
Book:The Federalist: With Letters of Brutus
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“The constitution of human nature" teaches us not to expect "that the persons, entrusted with the administration of the affairs of the particular members of a confederacy, will at all times be ready, with perfect good humor, and an unbiased regard to the public weal, to execute the resolutions of decrees of the general authority." "This tendency is not difficult to be accounted for," Publius argues, "It has its origin in the love of power.”

HumansPersonsDifficultPerfectTeachHuman NatureParticularReadyMembersAuthorityConstitutionRegardAffairArguingTendenciesAll TimeAdministrationResolutionDecreeGood HumorUnbiased
Author:Alexander Hamilton
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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.”

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Author:John Burroughs
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“Such is the grasping tendency of the human heart, that it must have a something to lay hold of - and which, if wrested away without the substitution of another something in its place, would leave a void and a vacancy as painful to the mind, as hunger is to the natural system.... The heart must have something to cling to.”

IfsMindHumansHeartNaturalHuman NatureLaysHungerPainfulTendenciesMinistersProfessorsVoidHuman HeartClingingGraspingSubstitutionVacancy
Book:Sermons: Select Works
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“It is true that water will flow indifferently to east and west, but will it flow equally well up and down? Human nature is disposed toward goodness, just as water tends to flow downwards. There is no water but flows downwards, and no man but shows his tendency to be good. Now, by striking water hard, you may splash it higher than your forehead, and by damming it, you may make it go uphill. But, is that the nature of water? It is external force that causes it to do so. Likewise, if a man is made to do what is not good, his nature is being similarly forced.”

IfsMenHumansWellsMayMadeHardShowsForceCausesWaterHuman NatureHigherGoodnessFlowWestEastBe GoodTendenciesUp And DownForeheadsEast And WestExternal Forces
Author:Mencius
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