Human Nature Quotes - Page 28

• For the most part, we are not where we are, but in a false position. Through an infirmity of our natures, we suppose a case, and put ourselves into it, and hence are in two cases at the same time, and it is doubly difficult to get out.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Two, Cases, Difficult

  Henry David Thoreau (2009). “Walden”, p.212, Cosimo, Inc.

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• The moles nested in my cellar, nibbling every third potato, and making a snug bed even there of some hair left after plastering and of brown paper; for even the wildest animals love comfort and warmth as well as man, and they survive the winter only because they are so careful to secure them.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Winter, Animal, Men

  Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Citizen Thoreau: Walden, Civil Disobedience, Life Without Principle, Slavery in Massachusetts, A Plea for Captain John Brown”, p.152, Graphic Arts Books

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• Men are in the main alike, but they were made several in order that they might be various. If a low use is to be served, one man will do nearly quite as well as another; if a high one, individual excellence is to be regarded.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Men, Order, Excellence

  Henry David Thoreau (1993). “Civil Disobedience, and Other Essays”, p.67, Courier Corporation

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• The drive for control, or the perception thereof, is truly the strongest force in human nature.

  Tom Peters

  Perception, Force, Strongest

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• We will have more crises and none of them will look like this because no two crises have anything in common except human nature.

  Alan Greenspan

  Two, Looks, Common

  "The World Today" with Sue Lannin, www.abc.net.au. September 10, 2009.

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• I've lived almost, like, four completely different lives. (Stripping) was just one section - one little small section, if that - but it was a very interesting and turbulent but kind of wild ride and I'm not ashamed of it all. I think it's hilarious and I learned a lot about human nature.

  Channing Tatum

  Thinking, Interesting, Different

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• We are proud of a human nature that could be so passionately extreme, but we shrink from advising others to follow the example.

  William James

  Example, Proud, Extremes

  Dr. William James (2013). “The William James Reader”, p.595, Simon and Schuster

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• Error is to be pitied and pardoned: it is the weakness of human nature. But vice is a foul blemish, not pardonable in any character.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Character, Errors, Weakness

  Thomas Jefferson (1950). “The papers of Thomas Jefferson”

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• If the basic human nature was aggressive, we would have been born with animal claws & huge teeth -- but ours are very short, very pretty, very weak! That means we are not well equipped to be aggressive beings. Even the size of our mouth is very small. So I think the basic nature of human beings should be gentle.

  Dalai Lama

  Mean, Animal, Thinking

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• I've always been kind of drawn to the extremities of human nature. I wrote my first screenplay when I was 16. The initial idea was a friendship between two prostitutes, and I spent time with a vice squad guy in Cincinnati who brought me to a brothel and gave me the rundown on how street prostitution works.

  Veena Sud

  Squad, Ideas, Two

  Source: deadline.com

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• Before I write anything, before I create any assumption in my mind about what it's like to be in that world, I go out there first. I'm very drawn to darkness and light, very drawn to cop drama, because there are very few places besides war and murder and a homicide investigation where you see the extremes of human nature - the darkest crevices and cracks in what people do to one another.

  Veena Sud

  War, Drama, Writing

  Source: deadline.com

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• When you're famous you kind of run into human nature in a raw kind of way. It stirs up envy, fame does.

  Marilyn Monroe

  Running, Envy, Doe

  "Marilyn Monroe: A Life of the Actress". Book by Carl E. Rollyson, 1993.

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• It is my strong conviction that a realist conception of human nature should be made a servant of an ethic of progressive justice and should not be made into a bastion of conservatism, particularly a conservatism which defends unjust privileges.

  Reinhold Niebuhr

  Strong, Justice, Unjust

  Reinhold Niebuhr (2012). “Man's Nature and His Communities: Essays on the Dynamics and Enigmas of Man's Personal and Social Existence”, p.24, Wipf and Stock Publishers

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• Human beings can attain a worthy and harmonious life only if they are able to rid themselves, within the limits of human nature, of the striving for the wish fulfillment of material kinds. The goal is to raise the spiritual values of society.

  Albert Einstein

  Spiritual, Goal, Wish

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• Nonviolence is the only way. Even if you achieve your goal by violent means there are always side effects, and these can be worse than the problem. Violence is against human nature.

  Dalai Lama

  Mean, Goal, Way

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• In work we act under the predominant motive of external, rational necessities; in pleasure, under the predominant motive of other, equally general necessities of human nature. Rest or recreation is the element in which the personality seeks to renew its strength from these stimuli that exhaust the reserve of human resources. It's an element introduced into life by the person himself.

  Nikolay Chernyshevsky

  Personality, Elements, Pleasure

  Nikolay Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky, Michael R. Katz (1989). “What Is to Be Done?”, p.315, Cornell University Press

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• Human nature will never part with power. Look for an example of a voluntary relinquishment of power from one end of the globe to another - you will find none.

  Patrick Henry

  Example, Looks, Ends

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• Human nature is disposed to do good.

  Mencius

  Humans

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• Finding an excuse not to buy a brand can be just as enjoyable as finding an excuse to buy one. That, too, is human nature.

  David F. D'Alessandro

  Excuse, Enjoyable, Brands

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• Human nature is like a drunk peasant. Lift him into the saddle on one side, over he topples on the other side.

  Martin Luther

  Drunk, Sides, Saddles

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• When asked what attribute he most admired in human nature, Mahatma Gandhi replied, simply and immediately, 'Courage'. 'Nonviolence', he said, 'is not to be used ever as the shield of the coward. It is the weapon of the brave.

  Richard Attenborough

  Brave, Coward, Weapons

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• It is a curious quirk of human nature that some people can see opportunities, while others only see problems.

  Napoleon Hill

  Opportunity, People, Problem

  Napoleon Hill (1997). “Napoleon Hill's Positive Action Plan: 365 Meditations For Making Each Day a Success”, p.64, Penguin

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• A commander should have a profound understanding of human nature, the knack of smoothing out troubles, the power of winning affection while communicating energy, and the capacity for ruthless determination where require by circumstances. He needs to generate an electrifying current, and to keep a cool head in applying it.

  B. H. Liddell Hart

  Determination, Winning, Should Have

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• The capacity of the mind is broad and huge, like the vast sky. Do not sit with a mind fixed on emptiness. If you do, you will fall into a neutral kind of emptiness. Emptiness includes the sun, moon, stars, and planets, the great earth, mountains and rivers, all trees and grasses, bad people and good people, bad things and good things, heaven and hell; they are all in the midst of emptiness. The emptiness of human nature is also like this.

  Huineng

  Stars, Fall, Moon

  Huineng (1967). “The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch”

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• One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea. It...makes you think that after all, your favorite notions may be wrong, your firmest beliefs ill-founded....Naturally, therefore, common men hate a new idea, and are disposed more or less to ill-treat the original man who brings it.

  Walter Bagehot

  Pain, Hate, Men

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