“To complain of the age we live in, to murmur at the present possessors of power, to lament the past, to conceive extravagant hopes of the future, are the common dispositions of the greatest part of mankind.” AgePastCommonMankindComplainingDispositionExtravagantLament Author:Edmund Burke
“Considering mankind's indifference to freedom, their easy gullibility and their facile response to conditioning, one might very plausibly argue that collectivism is the political mode best suited to their disposition and their capacities. Under its regime, the citizen, like the soldier, is relieved of the burden of initiative and is divested of all responsibility, save for doing as he is told.” MightPoliticalEasyResponsibilityMankindCitizensCapacityResponseSoldierBurdenArguingIndifferenceRegimesInitiativeConsideringDispositionConditioningCollectivismRelievedGullibility Author:Albert J. Nock
“It generally takes its rise either from an ill-will to mankind, a private inclination to make ourselves esteemed, an ostentation of wit, and vanity of being thought in the secrets of the world; or from a desire of gratifying any of these dispositions of mind in those persons with whom we converse.” WorldMindPersonsDesireSecretMankindIllWitVanityDispositionScandalInclinationConversesIll WillOstentation Book:The spectator Source: The spectator
“Alluring pleasure is said to have softened the savage dispositions (of early mankind). [Lat., Blanda truces animos fertur mollisse voluptas.]” SaidPleasureMankindSavagesDispositionAlluringTruce Author:Ovid
“In a world which furnishes so many employments which are useful, and so many which are amusing, it is our own fault if we ever know what ennui [boredom] is, or if we are ever driven to the miserable resource of gaming, which corrupts our dispositions, and teaches us a habit of hostility against all mankind.” IfsKnowsWorldTeachMankindHabitResourcesFaultsDrivenEmploymentMiserableBoredomGamblingDispositionHostilityAmusingGamingEnnui Author:Thomas Jefferson