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Ordinary Quotes

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Ordinary Quotes

“With these vast advantages, ordinary and extraordinary, one would have supposed the North would have been content, and would have at least respected the security and tranquility of such obedient and profitable brethren; but such is not human nature.”

Humans Has Beens Nature Security Human Nature Quiet Ordinary Advantage Extraordinary Tranquility Profitable Obedient Brethren Ordinary And Extraordinary Ordinary Extraordinary

Author:Robert Toombs

“I am not [...] asserting that humans are either genial or aggressive by inborn biological necessity. Obviously, both kindness and violence lie within the bounds of our nature because we perpetrate both, in spades. I only advance a structural claim that social stability rules nearly all the time and must be based on an overwhelmingly predominant (but tragically ignored) frequency of genial acts, and that geniality is therefore our usual and preferred response nearly all the time. [...] [T]he center of human nature is rooted in ten thousand ordinary acts of kindness that define our days.”

Humans Lying Social Kindness Violence Human Nature Thousand Ten Ordinary Claims Response Bounds Stability Aggressive Usual Rooted Ignored Frequency Acts Of Kindness Spades Geniality

Author:Stephen Jay Gould

“All the controversialists who have become conscious of the real issue are already saying of our ideal exactly what used to be said of the Socialists' ideal. They are saying that private property is too ideal not to be impossible. They are saying that private enterprise is too good to be true. They are saying that the idea of ordinary men owning ordinary possessions is against the laws of political economy and requires an alteration in human nature.”

“Theologians in all the great faiths have devised all kinds of myths to show that this type of kenosis, of self-emptying, is found in the life of God itself. They do not do this because it sounds edifying, but because this is the way that human nature seems to work. We are most creative and sense other possibilities that transcend our ordinary experience when we leave ourselves behind.”

Way Humans Kind Self Shows Seems Found Sound Behinds Creative Human Nature Possibility Type Ordinary Myth All Kinds Theologian Great Faith

Book:The Spiral Staircase

Source: The Spiral Staircase

“War grows out of ordinary human nature.”

Humans War Grows Human Nature Ordinary

Book:Why Men Fight: A Method of Abolishing the International Duel

Source: Why Men Fight: A Method of Abolishing the International Duel

“There is something about wills which brings out the worst side of human nature. People who under ordinary circumstances are perfectly upright and amiable, go as curly as corkscrews and foam at the mouth, whenever they hear the words 'I devise and bequeath.”

People Humans Sides Worst Human Nature Circumstances Ordinary Mouths Amiable Foam

Book:Strong Poison

Source: Strong Poison

“The ordinary man is an anarchist. He wants to do as he likes. He may want his neighbour to be governed, but he himself doesn't want to be governed. He is mortally afraid of government officials and policemen.”

Men Want May Government Human Nature Ordinary Likes Officials Neighbour Anarchism Policemen Anarchist Ordinary Man Government Officials

Author:George Bernard Shaw

“Unfortunately, the world has taken some of the greatest minds God has given us and locked them up in cages. Most very brilliant or creative people seem strange to ordinary people. Geniuses are almost always outcasts. The intelligent are bullied on the playground. They see the world differently and are shunned for it. They nearly all turn out to be lonely at the least, locked up at the worst. It's human nature to encourage the status quo and shun those who see life differently.”

“The center of human nature is rooted in ten thousand ordinary acts of kindness that define our days.”

Humans Kind Kindness Human Nature Thousand Ten Ordinary Rooted Acts Of Kindness Small Acts Of Kindness

Book:Eight little piggies: reflections in natural history

Source: Eight little piggies: reflections in natural history

“... In contrast to the "banality of evil," which posits that ordinary people can be responsible for the most despicable acts of cruelty and degradation of their fellows, I posit the "banality of heroism," which unfurls the banner of the heroic Everyman and Everywoman who heed the call to service to humanity when their time comes to act. When that bell rings, they will know that it rings for them. It sounds a call to uphold what is best in human nature that rises above the powerful pressures of Situation and System as the profound assertion of human dignity opposing evil.”