Human Nature Quotes

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  One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today.

  Dale Carnegie

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  Dale Carnegie (2016). “How to stop worrying & start living”, p.22, Diamond Pocket Books Pvt Ltd

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• Man is a tragic animal. Not because of his smallness, but because he is too well endowed. Man has longings and spiritual demands that reality cannot fulfill. We have expectations of a just and moral world. Man requires meaning in a meaningless world.

  Peter Wessel Zapffe

  Inspirational, Spiritual, Animal

  "To Be a Human Being". Documentary, (1989 - 90).

  80 Copy quote

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• Civilization may progress, human nature will remain the same throughout all ages.

  H. P. Blavatsky

  Civilization, Progress, Age

  41 Copy quote

• Our life is what our thoughts make it.

  Marcus Aurelius

  Inspirational, Life, Change

  "Meditations" by Marcus Aurelius, Book IV, (3), (c. 161 - 180 AD).

  250 Copy quote

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  The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.

  William James

  Inspirational, Motivational, Relationship

  Letter to his class at Radcliffe College, 6 Apr. 1896, in Letters (1920) vol. 2, p. 33

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• We have flown the air like birds and swum the sea like fishes, but have yet to learn the simple act of walking the earth like brothers.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Inspirational, Brother, Yoga

  29 Copy quote

• Human nature is evil, and goodness is caused by intentional activity.

  Xunzi

  Evil, Goodness, Humans

  41 Copy quote

• There is something in the human spirit that will survive and prevail, there is a tiny and brilliant light burning in the heart of man that will not go out no matter how dark the world becomes.

  Leo Tolstoy

  Heart, Dark, Men

  119 Copy quote

• Somebody does somethin' stupid, that's human. They don't stop when they see it's wrong, that's a fool.

  Elvis Presley

  Stupid, Doe, Fool

  27 Copy quote

• In order to exist, man must rebel.

  Albert Camus

  Men, Order, Challenges

  Albert Camus (2012). “The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt”, p.22, Vintage

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• The three hardest tasks in the world are neither physical feats nor intellectual achievements, but moral acts: to return love for hate, to include the excluded, and to say, 'I was wrong'.

  Sydney J. Harris

  Love, Inspirational, Life

  Sydney J. Harris (1985). “Pieces of Eight Pa”, Mariner Books

  105 Copy quote

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• Most people are good only so long as they believe others to be so.

  Christian Friedrich Hebbel

  Believe, Long, People

  12 Copy quote

• Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.

  Mark Twain

  Funny, Fake People, Halloween

  Following the Equator ch. 66, "Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar" (1897)

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• It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.

  Voltaire

  Peace, Crazy, War

  "Rights". Book by Voltaire, 1771.

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• Whenever two people meet, there are really six people present. There is each man as he sees himself, each man as the other person sees him, and each man as he really is.

  William James

  Teamwork, Men, Two

  194 Copy quote

• Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone.

  John Maynard Keynes

  Fun, Business, Men

  Attributed by Michael Albert, "Moving Forward: Programme for a Participatory Economy", (p. 128), 2000.

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• We obey people we don't trust, to buy things we don't need, to impress people we don't like, using money we don't have, for gratifications that don't last, killing animals we don't hate, for pleasures that don't satisfy, dreaming of a life we don't deserve, and praying for an afterlife that doesn't exist, we are a stupid species

  Philip Wollen

  Life, Trust, Dream

  95 Copy quote
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  A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.

  Albert Einstein

  Inspirational, Beauty, Spiritual

  Letter of 1950, as quoted in "The New York Times", March 29, 1972.

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• You cannot find it anywhere, because it is located inside you... happiness is your natural state.

  Russell Simmons

  Inspirational, Happiness, Happy

  Twitter post from Sep 15, 2016

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• If men were angels, no government would be necessary.

  James Madison

  Adversity, Angel, Men

  The Federalist no. 51 (1788)

  56 Copy quote

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• To be nobody-but-yourself - in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.

  e. e. cummings

  Inspirational, Motivational, Graduation

  "A Miscellany (A Poet's Advice to Students)". Book by E. E. Cummings edited by George James Firmage, 1958.

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• We are shaped and fashioned by what we love

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Love, Inspiring, Marriage

  59 Copy quote

• Human nature is potentially aggressive and destructive and potentially orderly and constructive.

  Margaret Mead

  Aggressive, Aggression, Constructive

  Margaret Mead (2000). “And Keep Your Powder Dry: An Anthropologist Looks at America”, p.134, Berghahn Books

  15 Copy quote

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• A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.

  Mark Twain

  Confidence, Good Life, Inspirational Life

  Mark Twain (2015). “Mark Twain's Essays: Top Essays”, p.14, 谷月社

  99 Copy quote

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• In nature a repulsive caterpillar turns into a lovely butterfly. But with human beings it is the other way round: a lovely butterfly turns into a repulsive caterpillar.

  Anton Chekhov

  Nature, Butterfly, Lovely

  26 Copy quote