Human Nature Quotes - Page 23

• A small knowledge of human nature will convince us, that, with far the greatest part of mankind, interest is the governing principle... Few men are capable of making a continual sacrifice of all views of private interest, or advantage, to the common good. It is vain to exclaim against the depravity of human nature on this account; the fact is so, the experience of every age and nation has proved it and we must in a great measure, change the constitution of man, before we can make it otherwise. No institution, not built on the presumptive truth of these maxims can succeed.

  George Washington

  Sacrifice, Men, Views

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• He [God] just seems so man-made to me. There are so many theories, and not everyone can be right. It's human nature to need a religious crutch, and I don't begrudge anyone that. I just don't need one.

  Janeane Garofalo

  Religious, Men, Needs

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• All signs of superhuman nature appear in man as illness or insanity.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Nature, Men, Insanity

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• Men cannot conceive of a state of things so fair that it cannot be realized.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Men, Imagination, Optimism

  Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.357, Penguin

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• Human nature, as manifested in tribalism and nationalism, provides the momentum of the machinery of human evolution.

  Arthur Keith

  Momentum, Evolution, Tribalism

  Sir Arthur Keith (1947). “Evolution and Ethics”

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• I don't think women can have it all. I just don't think so...My husband and I have been married for 34 years, and we have two daughters. And every day you have to make a decision about whether you are going to be a wife or a mother. In fact, many times during the day you have to make those decisions...We co-opted our families to help us. We plan our lives meticulously so we can be decent parents. But if you ask our daughters, I'm not sure they will say that I've been a good mom.

  Indra Nooyi

  Family, Leadership, Mom

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• Though I admire republican principles in theory, yet I am afraid the practice may be too perfect for human nature. We tried a republic last century, and it failed. Let our enemies try next. I hate political experiments.

  Robert Walpole

  Hate, Practice, Perfect

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• We must not suppose that, because a man is a rational animal, he will, therefore, always act rationally; or, because he has such or such a predominant passion, that he will act invariably and consequentially in pursuit of it. No, we are complicated machines; and though we have one main spring that gives motion to the whole, we have an infinity of little wheels, which, in their turns, retard, precipitate, and sometime stop that motion.

  Doug Stanhope

  Spring, Passion, Men

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• Caring what others think about us is normal. The desire to belong is basic to human nature. But in order to feel like you truly belong, you must accept yourself for who you are. This is critical to Fearless Living.

  Rhonda Britten

  Caring, Thinking, Order

  Rhonda Britten (2002). “Fearless Living”, p.33, Penguin

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• In every age the vilest specimens of human nature are to be found among demagogues.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Age, Found, Humans

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• What proposition is there respecting human nature which is absolutely and universally true? We know of only one,--and that is not only true, but identical,--that men always act from self-interest.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Men, Self, Humanity

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• Highest among those who have exhibited human nature by means of dialogue stands Shakespeare. His variety is like the variety of nature,--endless diversity, scarcely any monstrosity.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Mean, Diversity, Endless

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• War is never lenient but where it is wanton; where men are compelled to fight in self-defence, they must hate and avenge. This may be bad, but it is human nature; it is the clay as it came from the hands of the Potter.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Hate, War, Fighting

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• Though we cannot totally change our nature, we may in great measure correct it by reflection and philosophy; and some philosophy is a very necessary companion in this world, where, even to the most fortunate, the chances are greatly against happiness.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Philosophy, Reflection, Thoughtful

  Lord Chesterfield, David Roberts (2008). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.333, Oxford University Press

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• I have been too long acquainted with human nature to have great regard for human testimony; and a very great degree of probability, supported by various concurrent circumstances, conspiring in one point, will have much greater weight with me, than human testimony upon oath, or even upon honour; both of which I have frequently seen considerably warped by private views.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Truth, Views, Long

  Lord Chesterfield (1998). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.319, Oxford Paperbacks

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• Without any extraordinary effort of genius, I have discovered that nature was the same three thousand years ago as at present; that men were but men then as well as now; that modes and customs vary often, but that human nature is always the same. And I can no more suppose, that men were better, braver, or wiser, fifteen hundred or three thousand years ago, than I can suppose that the animals or vegetables were better than they are now.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Animal, Men, Vegetables

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• The possibility of remedying imprudent actions is commonly an inducement to commit them.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Motivation, Temptation, Action

  Lord Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stanhope Earl of Chesterfield (1855). “The Works of Lord Chesterfield: Including His Letters to His Son, Etc : to which is Prefixed, an Original Life of the Author”, p.628

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• Wrap thyself in the decent veil that the arts or the graces weave for thee, O human nature! It is only the statue of marble whose nakedness the eye can behold without shame and offence!

  Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

  Art, Eye, Grace

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• What am I then, my God? What is my nature? A life varied, multifaceted and truly immense.

  Saint Augustine

  Life, Immense

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• Are you appalled at existing conditions? Don't waste your energy trying to change conditions from without! Change the Human Heart from within.

  William J. H. Boetcker

  Heart, Trying, Energy

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• The people I respect most behave as if they were immortal and as if society was eternal. Both assumptions are false: both of them must be accepted as true if we are to go on eating and working and loving, and are to keep open a few breathing holes for the human spirit.

  E. M. Forster

  Breathing, People, Goes On

  E.M. Forster (1951). “Two Cheers for Democracy”

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• Nature's law says that the strong must prevent the weak from living, but only in a newspaper article or textbook can this be packaged into a comprehensible thought. In the soup of everyday life, in the mixture of minutia from which human relations are woven, it is not a law. It is a logical incongruity when both strong and weak fall victim to their mutual relations, unconsciously subservient to some unknown guiding power that stands outside of life, irrelevant to man.

  Anton Chekhov

  Nature, Strong, Fall

  "A Doctor's Visit". Short story by Anton Chekhov, 1898.

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• It's fun to play around... it's human nature to try to select the right horse... But for the average person, I'm more of an indexer... The predictability is so high... For 10, 15, 20 years you'll be in the 85th percentile of performance. Why would you screw it up?

  Charles R. Schwab

  Horse, Fun, Average

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• Even if this advice to portfolio decision makers to drop dead is good advice, it obviously is not counsel that will be eagerly followed. Few people will commit suicide without a push. And fewer still will pay good money to be told to do what is against human nature and self-interest to do.

  Paul Samuelson

  Suicide, Self, People

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• It's human nature to find patterns where there are none and to find skill where luck is a more likely explanation (particularly if you're the lucky manager).

  William J. Bernstein

  Skills, Luck, Patterns

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