Human Nature Quotes - Page 27

• I'm absolutely positive it's in our human nature to want to know about the past. The two most popular movies of all time, while not historically accurate, are about core historic events: 'Gone With the Wind' and 'Titanic.'

  David McCullough

  Past, Wind, Two

  Source: www.neh.gov

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• I would say that I think the film [I am love] is absolutely about nature, it recommends human nature. You don't need to recommend change, that's inevitable, it's the only reliable thing we have.

  Tilda Swinton

  Love Is, Thinking, Needs

  Source: www.indielondon.co.uk

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• Just as the commander of an army pitches his camp, studies the strength and defenses of a fortress, and then attacks it on its weakest side, in like manner, the enemy of our human nature studies from all sides our theological, cardinal, and moral virtues. Wherever he finds us weakest and most in need regarding our eternal salvation, he attacks and tries to take us by storm.

  Ignatius of Loyola

  Army, Enemy, Trying

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• You are imagining that there is something called human nature which will be outraged by what we do and will turn against us. But we create human nature. Men are infinitely malleable.

  George Orwell

  Men, Turns, Humans

  George Orwell, A.M. Heath (2003). “Animal Farm and 1984”, p.360, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Many of the obstacles for change which have been attributed to human nature are in fact due to the inertia of institutions and to the voluntary desire of powerful classes to maintain the existing status.

  John Dewey

  Powerful, Class, Desire

  John Dewey, Jo Ann Boydston, Sidney Ratner (2008). “The Later Works of John Dewey, 1925 - 1953: 1931-1932, Essays, Reviews, and Miscellany”, p.38, SIU Press

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• What we call human nature, is actually human habit.

  Jewel

  Habit, Humans

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• Religion and science, for example, are often though to be opponents, but as I have shown, the insights of ancient religions and of modern science are both needed to reach a full understanding of human nature and the conditions of human satisfaction. The ancients may have known little about biology, chemistry, physics, but many were good psychologists.

  Jonathan Haidt

  Understanding, Example, May

  Jonathan Haidt (2006). “The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom”, p.241, Basic Books

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• The idea that man is a tabula rasa, or Mao's sheet of blank paper upon which the most beautiful characters can be written, is an old one with disastrous implications. I do not think though that the cults you mention could survive honest thought about human nature.

  Theodore Dalrymple

  Beautiful, Character, Men

  "State of Humbug". Interview with Bernand Chapin, spectator.org. January 25, 2008.

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• The classic theology of my tradition comes from the French Renaissance. [William] Shakespeare was born in 1564, the year [John] Calvin died, and that theology was very influential in England in his lifetime. I think Shakespeare was attentive to questions raised by it, about human nature, history, reality itself. I find the two literatures to be mutually illuminating.

  Marilynne Robinson

  Reality, Thinking, Years

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• Madame Bovary is timeless. It is not just about the female condition in France in the 1840s. It's not a simple cautionary tale. Emma is more than a character; she gives us an insight into human nature. With Emma, we are diving into the complexities of Flaubert's psyche.

  Sophie Barthes

  Character, Simple, Giving

  Source: blogs.indiewire.com

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• Cate Blanchett is mesmerizing. I don't know why. It's beyond my understanding. Why we all want to work with her is she elevates the rest of us. She's just got some ethereal grace and elegance that's beyond me, and an acute understanding of human nature. She's just exquisite. She's otherworldly.

  Brad Pitt

  Grace, Understanding, Want

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• A struggle for liberty is in itself respectable and glorious. . . . When conducted with magnanimity, justice and humanity, it ought to command the admiration of every friend to human nature. But if sullied by crimes and extravagancies, it loses its respectability.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Struggle, Justice, Humanity

  Alexander Hamilton, Donald R. Hickey, Connie D. Clark (2006). “Citizen Hamilton: The Wit and Wisdom of an American Founder”, p.88, Rowman & Littlefield

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• I think most generations tend to learn the lesson of war the hard way. There is a deep attraction to the empowerment. Freud is right: societies either become locked in a collective embrace of Eros, as individuals do, or a collective embrace of Thanatos, the death instinct. They swing between the two. The notion that societies are naturally prone toward self-preservation is wrong. Self-annihilation can be deeply addictive, intoxicating, enticing. So I take a darker view of human nature, that war is probably always going to be with us. I think history bears me out.

  Chris Hedges

  War, Thinking, Self

  "Addicted to War: A Conversation with Chris Hedges". Interview with Metta Spencer, peacemagazine.org. April-June 2007.

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• Most people believe they know how they themselves think, how others think too, and even how institutions evolve. But they are wrong. Their understanding is based on folk psychology, the grasp of human nature by common sense ¾ defined (by Einstein) as everything learned to the age of 18 ¾ shot through with misconceptions, and only slightly advanced over ideas employed by the Greek philosophers

  E. O. Wilson

  Believe, Thinking, Ideas

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• My ambition is not only to chronicle but to interpret and reveal the movement of the mind and unfold the sources of India in the profound plane of human nature.

  Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan

  Ambition, Profound, India

  "Learning is Continuous" by Padma Srinivasan, www.thehindu.com. September 04, 2001.

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• Socialism cannot function, because its economic reward structure is contrary to human nature.

  Frans de Waal

  Rewards, Socialism, Economic

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• Anyone living, especially your peers, is a threat. You're judging them, they're judging you. This sort of criticism is as close to human nature as you can get. That can be a good thing sometimes. Jealously, rancor, competition, those can be good things in art. But it mostly puts you in a dangerous and disadvantageous position, and one that just takes away from you so much.

  Raymond Pettibon

  Art, Judging, Competition

  Source: www.believermag.com

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• Of all the doctrines of the Bible none is so offensive to human nature as the doctrine of God's sovereignty.

  J. C. Ryle

  Doctrine, Offensive, Sovereignty

  J.C. Ryle (2015). “Bible Commentary - The Gospel of Luke”, p.74, Editora Dracaena

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• Surely it isn't illegal here to complain about young people these days? How cruel. I had thought it a basic part of human nature, one of the few universally practiced human customs.

  Ann Leckie

  People, Complaining, Illegal

  "Ancillary Justice". Book by Ann Leckie, 2013.

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• The earliest movies that I loved were French movies and Italian movies. I grew up watching those kind of movies and often find the truest looks at human nature - you can find them in another countrys movies.

  Lucy Fisher

  Italian, Looks, Kind

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• It's human nature - we want to believe our children, our families, our President!

  Richard Gere

  Children, Believe, President

  "The Hoax - Richard Gere interview". Interview with Jack Foley, www.indielondon.co.uk.

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• Dawn Of The Dead is about how we're just a country cannibalizing itself, turning into one shopping mall, and everyone at the mall is just brain-dead, wandering around. Capitalism gone awry, and the worst parts of human nature coming out. All these different things that people read into the films that are all there, very strong anti-Bush sentiments that went into making those films. It's great. I like it when people get it the second or third time, when someone else points it out to them. They don't realize it's been there all along. Those are my favorite movies.

  Eli Roth

  Country, Strong, Shopping

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• Beware! I'm acting under the influence of human nature.

  Ashleigh Brilliant

  Acting, Influence, Humans

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• I do not believe there are eight hundred human beings on the globe.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Believe, Eight, Hundred

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.1671, Delphi Classics

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• We are conscious of an animal in us, which awakens in proportion as our higher nature slumbers. It is reptile and sensual, and perhaps cannot be wholly expelled; like the worms which, even in life and health, occupy our bodies. Possibly we may withdraw from it, but never change its nature. I fear that it may enjoy a certain health of its own; that we may be well, yet not pure.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Health, Animal, Sensual

  Henry David Thoreau (2016). “Walden”, p.157, Xist Publishing

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