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Nature Of Man Quotes

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Nature Of Man Quotes

“The moral nature of man is more sacred in my eyes than his intellectual nature. I know they cannot be divorced - that without intelligence we should be brutes - but it is the tendency of our gaping, wondering dispositions to give pre-eminence to those faculties which most astonish us. Strength of character seldom, if ever, astonishes; goodness, lovingness, and quiet self-sacrifice, are worth all the talents in the world.”

IfsKnowsMenWorldGivingShouldSelfCharacterEyeWonderMoralSacrificeTalentQuietGoodnessIntellectualSacredTendenciesFacultyDispositionDivorcedBrutesSelf SacrificeStrength Of CharacterNature Of ManEminence
Author:George Henry Lewes
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“The modern world is reversing the old virtues of authority. They aimed deliberately to make men unworldly. They did not aim to found society on a full use of the earth's resources; they did not aim to use the whole nature of man; they did not intend him to think out the full expression of his desires. Democracy is a turning point upon those ideals in a pursuit, at first unconsciously, of the richest life that men can devise for themselves.”

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Author:Walter Lippmann
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“They that examine into the Nature of Man, abstract from Art and Education, may observe, that what renders him a Sociable Animal, consists not in his desire of Company, Good-nature, Pity, Affability, and other Graces of a fair Outside; but that his vilest and most hateful Qualities are the most necessary Accomplishments to fit him for the largest, and, according to the World, the happiest and most flourishing Societies.”

MenWorldMayArtDesireAnimalQualityCompanyGraceFitFairsPityAccomplishmentAbstractHatefulFlourishingNature Of ManGood NatureSociable
Book:The Fable of the Bees
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“For such is the nature of men, that howsoever they may acknowledge many others to be more witty, or more eloquent, or more learned, yet they will hardly believe there be many so wise as themselves, for they see their own wit at hand, and other men's at a distance. But this proveth rather that men are in that point equal, than unequal. For there is not ordinarily a greater sign of the equal distribution of any thing than that every man is contented with his share.”

MenBelieveMayWisdomHandsGreaterWiseShareEqualDistanceWittyWitEvery ManAcknowledgeDistributionEloquentNature Of Man
Book:The English Works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury
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“Only because of the striving nature of men has mankind achieved what it has so far. Men are made that way; they are designed to reach out for things which they cannot see with their eyes but can only imagine. A man naturally seeks after his dream, his ideal, while women are more concerned with the here and now rather than the future, intangible realm.”

MenWayMadeDreamEyeImagineMankindConcernedIdealsStriveRealmsReach OutHere And NowNature Of ManIntangible
Author:Sun Myung Moon
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“The more serious poetry of the race has a philosophical structure of thought. It contains beliefs and conceptions in regard to the nature of man and the universe, God and the soul, fate and providence, suffering, evil and destiny. Great poetry always has, like the higher religion, a metaphysical content. It deals with the same august issues, experiences and conceptions as metaphysics or first philosophy.”

MenFirstsSoulPhilosophySufferingUniverseEvilBeliefDealsRaceDestinyIssuesFateSeriousHigherPhilosophicalRegardStructureConceptionProvidenceMetaphysicsMetaphysicalAugustNature Of ManGreat PoetGreat Poetry
Book:The Field of Philosophy: An Outline of Lectures on Introduction to Philosophy
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“The chaste severity of the fathers in whatever related to the commerce of the two sexes flowed from the same principle -- their abhorrence of every enjoyment which might gratify the sensual and degrade the spiritual nature of man. It was their favourite opinion, that if Adam had preserved his obedience to the Creator, he would have lived for ever in a state of virgin purity, and that some harmless mode of vegetation might have peopled paradise with a race of innocent and immortal beings.”

IfsMenTwoStatesMightSpiritualFatherSexRaceOpinionPrinciplesHistoryCreatorInnocentSensualObedienceRelatedEnjoymentParadisePurityImmortalAdamFavouriteCommerceVirginsRoman EmpireDegradeNature Of ManChasteSeverityE CommerceAbhorrenceSpiritual NatureVegetation
Book:History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire V1: the History Focus
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“The American experiment is not a theocracy and does not establish an official religion, but the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States are rooted in a Christian perspective of the nature of government and the nature of man. The challenge of the next millennium will be to preserve the American experiment by restoring its Christian perspective.”

MenDoeStatesGovernmentChristianNextChallengesUnitedUnited StatesPerspectiveConstitutionIndependenceScaryExperimentsPreservesOfficialsRootedDeclarationDeclaration Of IndependenceMillenniumRestoringNature Of ManConstitution Of The United StatesTheocracy
Author:William H. Pryor, Jr.
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“The nature of men and of organized society dictates the maintenance in every field of action of the highest and purest standards of justice and of right dealing.... By justice the lawyer generally means the prompt, fair, and open application of impartial rules; but we call ours a Christian civilization, and a Christian conception of justice must be much higher. It must include sympathy and helpfulness and a willingness to forego self-interest in order to promote the welfare, happiness, and contentment of others and of the community as a whole.”

MenMeanSelfWholeActionChristianOrderInterestCommunityJusticeFieldsHigherCivilizationHighestStandardsFairsLawyerWelfareOrganizedContentmentWillingnessConceptionApplicationSelf InterestMaintenancePromptsNature Of ManHelpfulness
Author:Woodrow Wilson
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“It is not a struggle merely of economic theories, or forms of government or of military power. At issue is the true nature of man. Either man is the creature whom the psalmist described as a little lower than the angels ... or man is a soulless, animated machine to be enslaved, used and consumed by the state for its own glorification. It is, therefore, a struggle which goes to the roots of the human spirit, and its shadow falls across the long sweep of man's destiny.”

MenHumansLittlesLongStatesGovernmentFormUsedSpiritFallDestinyStruggleIssuesEconomicMilitaryTheoryCreaturesAngelShadowRootsMachinesHuman SpiritConsumedAnimatedTrue NatureForms Of GovernmentNature Of ManMilitary PowerSoullessGlorificationEconomic Theory
Author:Dwight D. Eisenhower
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“Every time we have come to the end of a conflict, somehow we have persuaded ourselves that the nature of mankind and the nature of the world have changed on an enduring basis and so we have dismantle our military and intelligence capabilities. My hope is that as we wind down in Iraq and whatever the level of our commitment in Afghanistan, that we not forget the basic nature of humankind has not changed.”

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Author:Robert M. Gates
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“It is the simple truth that man does differ from the brutes in kind and not in degree; and the proof of it is here; that it sounds like a truism to say that the most primitive man drew a picture of a monkey and that it sounds like a joke to say that the most intelligent monkey drew a picture of a man. Something of division and disproportion has appeared; and it is unique. Art is the signature of man.”

MenKindDoeArtSoundSimpleDegreesUniqueJokesArt IsIntelligentProofDivisionPrimitiveMonkeysBrutesSignaturesNature Of ManSimple TruthsTruismPrimitive Man
Author:Gilbert K. Chesterton
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“We shall therefore take an appropriately correct view of the origin of our life, if we consider our own embryos to have sprung immediately from those embryos whence our parents were developed, and these from the embryos of their parents, and so on for ever. We should in this way look on the nature of mankind, and perhaps on that of the whole animated creation, as one Continuous System, ever pushing out new branches in all directions, that variously interlace, and that bud into separate lives at every point of interlacement.”

IfsWayShouldLooksWholeParentViewsOur LivesMankindCreationBranchesPushingAnimatedBudNature Of ManSprungHeredityEmbryosSeparate Lives
Author:Francis Galton
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“A learned parson, rusting in his cell at Oxford or Cambridge, will reason admirably well upon the nature of man; will profoundly analyze the head, the heart, the reason, the will, the passions, the senses, the sentiments, and all those subdivisions of we know not what ; and yet, unfortunately, he knows nothing of man... He views man as he does colours in Sir Isaac Newton's prism, where only the capital ones are seen; but an experienced dyer knows all their various shades and gradations, together with the result of their several mixtures.”

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Author:Lord Chesterfield
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“Just as a stream flows smoothly on as long as it encounters no obstruction, so the nature of man and animal is such that we never really notice or become conscious of what is agreeable to our will; if we are to notice something, our will has to have been thwarted, has to have experienced a shock of some kind.”

IfsMenKindLongHas BeensAnimalSadnessSadConsciousFlowStreamsEncountersShockNature Of ManObstruction
Book:On the Suffering of the World
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“They, therefore, who are hasty in their devotions and think a little will do, are strangers both to the nature of devotion and the nature of man; they do not know that they are to learn to pray, and that prayer is to be learnt as they learn other things, by frequency, constancy, and perseverance.”

ThinkingKnowsMenLittlesChristianReligionPrayerPrayingPerseveranceStrangerDevotionFrequencyConstancyNature Of ManHasty
Book:A practical treatise upon Christian perfection
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“The inclination to goodness is imprinted deeply in the nature of man; insomuch, that if it issue not towards men, it will take unto other living creatures; as it is seen in the Turks, cruel people, who, nevertheless, are kind to beasts, and give alms to dogs and birds.”

PeopleIfsMenGivingKindIssuesDogCreaturesGoodnessBirdBeastNeverthelessInclinationLiving CreaturesNature Of ManAlms
Book:The Conduct of the Understanding: With Sketches of the Lives of Locke and Bacon
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“So that in the nature of man, we find three principal causes of quarrel. First, competition; secondly, diffidence; thirdly, glory. The first maketh men invade for gain; the second, for safety; and the third, for reputation. The first use violence, to make themselves masters of other men's persons, wives, children, and cattle; the second, to defend them; the third, for trifles, as a word, a smile, a different opinion, and any other sign of undervalue, either direct in their persons or by reflection in their kindred, their friends, their nation, their profession, or their name.”

MenFirstsChildrenPersonsDifferentUseThreeNamesNationsCausesOpinionWifeViolenceMastersGloryReflectionGainsDirectThirdsSafetyCompetitionProfessionReputationPrincipalQuarrelsTriflesCattleNature Of ManKindredDifferent OpinionsDiffidence
Book:Leviathan, Parts I and II
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“Man isn't a noble savage, he's an ignoble savage. He is irrational, brutal, weak, silly, unable to be objective about anything where his own interests are involved-that about sums it up. I'm interested in the brutal and violent nature of man because it's a true picture of him. And any attempt to create social institutions on a false view of the nature of man is probably doomed to failure.”

MenSocialInterestViewsInvolvedWeakInstitutionsNobleSillyViolentObjectivesBrutalSavagesIrrationalDoomedNature Of ManIgnobleSocial Institutions
Author:Stanley Kubrick
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“There is knowledge of God and the spiritual nature of man, as well as other types of reality..., that are not reducible to the world dealt with by the so-called "natural" sciences. The idea that knowledge - and, of course, reality - is limited to that world is the single most destructive idea on the stage of life today.”

MenWorldWellsIdeasRealityTodaySpiritualCoursesNaturalStageTypeDestructiveNature Of ManNatural ScienceKnowledge Of GodStages Of LifeSpiritual Nature
Author:Dallas Willard
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“What is the influence of Sun Tzu in the world today? Perhaps there are others who are better qualified than I to speculate about that question. Sun Tzu's ideas, as expressed in his famous treatise, have undoubtedly influenced the nature of many revolutionary movements that are arrayed against more powerful forces, and in some cases - as in Vietnam - have played a useful role in bringing about success. But such ideas are always in conflict with other deepseated emotional factors, which propel dissident movements into the rampant use of terrorism and other forms of anarchistic struggle.”

WorldIdeasUseTodayFormForcePowerfulRolesCasesStruggleSunInfluenceMovementEmotionalConflictTerrorismFactorsRevolutionaryVietnamQualifiedWorld TodayNature Of ManDissidentsAbout Success
Author:William J. Duiker
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