Human Nature Quotes - Page 35

• Human nature is deeper and broader than the artificial contrivance of any existing culture.

  E. O. Wilson

  Culture, Deeper, Humans

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• Ordinarily he was insane, but he had lucid moments when he was merely stupid

  Heinrich Heine

  Stupid, Bipolar, Insane

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• It is part of the irony of life that the strongest feelings of devoted gratitude of which human nature seems to be susceptible, are called forth in human beings towards those who, having the power entirely to crush their earthly existence, voluntarily refrain from using that power.

  John Stuart Mill

  Crush, Gratitude, Feelings

  John Stuart Mill (1970). “The Subjection of Women”, p.34, MIT Press

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• The more I thought about human nature, the more I saw how our tragic inclination for sin/mistakes causes us to use our minds to rationalize our action.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Mistake, Mind, Use

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• I can easily believe it. Women of that class have great opportunities, and if they are intelligent may be well worth listening to. Such varieites of human nature as they are in the habit of witnessing! And it is not merely in its follies, that they are read; for they see it occasionally under every circumstance that can be most interesting or affecting. What instances must pass before them of ardent, disinterested, self-denying attachment, of heroism, fortitude, patience, resignation-- of all the sacrifices that ennoble us most. A sick chamber may often furnish the worth of volumes.

  Jane Austen

  Believe, Sacrifice, Intelligent

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• Human nature is so constituted that the propensity for evil is always intensified by external circumstances, and the morality of the individual depends much more on the conditions of his existence and the environment in which he lives than on his own will.

  Mikhail Bakunin

  Evil, Morality, Environment

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• Here and there, human nature may be great in times of trial, but generally speaking it is its weakness and not its strength that appears in a sick chamber; it is selfishness and impatience rather than generosity and fortitude, that one hears of. There is so little real friendship in the world! – and unfortunately' (speaking low and tremulously) 'there are so many who forget to think seriously till it is almost too late.

  Jane Austen

  Real, Thinking, Generosity

  Jane Austen (2013). “Persuasion In Modern English”, p.302, BookCaps Study Guides

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• Once you fall, Septimus repeated to himself, human nature is on you. Holmes and Bradshaw are on you. They scour the desert. They fly screaming into the wilderness. The rack and the thumbscrew are applied. Human nature is remorseless.

  Virginia Woolf

  Fall, Desert, Wilderness

  Virginia Woolf (2007). “Selected Works of Virginia Woolf”, p.190, Wordsworth Editions

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• The backside of a mountain is a fight against human nature. You have to care as much about yourself on the way down as you did on the way up.

  Mitch Albom

  Fighting, Mountain, Care

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• Nature pulls one way and human nature another.

  E. M. Forster

  Way, Howards End, Humans

  E. M. Forster (2013). “Delphi Collected Works of E. M. Forster (Illustrated)”, p.577, Delphi Classics

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• People of limited intelligence are fond of talking about "these days," imagining that they have discovered and appraised the peculiarities of "these days" and that human nature changes with the times.

  Leo Tolstoy

  Talking, People, These Days

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• No doubt Jack the Ripper excused himself on the grounds that it was human nature.

  A. A. Milne

  Law, Evil, Doubt

  A. A. Milne (2012). “Not That it Matters”, p.101, The Floating Press

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• Our envy of others devours us most of all.

  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  Inspirational, Gossip, Envy

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• This human nature is shabby stuff, as you may know from introspection.

  Peter De Vries

  May, Stuff, Irony

  "Mrs. Wallop".

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• Can human nature ever be wholly and radically transformed? Can the man whom God made good be made wicked by man? Can the soul be reshaped in its entirety by destiny and made evil because destiny is evil? Can the heart become misshapen and afflicted with ugly, incurable deformities under disproportionate misfortune, like a spinal column bent beneath a too low roof?

  Victor Hugo

  Heart, Destiny, Men

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• The Idols of Tribe have their foundation in human nature itself, and in the tribe or race of men. For it is a false assertion that the sense of man is the measure of things. On the contrary, all perceptions as well of the sense as of the mind are according to the measure of the individual and not according to the measure of the universe. And the human understanding is like a false mirror, which, receiving rays irregularly, distorts and discolors the nature of things by mingling its own nature with it.

  Francis Bacon

  Men, Mirrors, Race

  Francis Bacon (2016). “New Atlantis and The Great Instauration”, p.36, John Wiley & Sons

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• Of the two powers, the two categories that take possession of us when we enter the world (from where?), space is by far the less mysterious. It, too, undergoes transformations. Time, on the other hand, is a hostile element, truly treacherous, I would even say against human nature.

  Stanislaw Lem

  Hands, Two, Space

  "Highcastle: A Remembrance".

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• You can't change laws without first changing human nature.' -Nurse Greta You can't change human nature without first changing the law.' -Nurse Yvonne

  Neal Shusterman

  Law, Nurse, Firsts

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• All human nature vigorously resists grace because grace changes us and the change is painful.

  Flannery O'Connor

  Catholic, Grace, Painful

  Flannery O'Connor (1988). “The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O'Connor”, p.307, Macmillan

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• A scholar tries to learn something everyday; a student of Buddhism tries to unlearn something daily.

  Alan Watts

  Education, Learning, Buddhism

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• It’s funny. I met a man once who did a lot of mountain climbing. I asked him which was harder, ascending or descending? He said without a doubt descending, because ascending you were so focused on reaching the top, you avoided mistakes. The backside of a mountain is a fight against human nature,” he said. “You have to care as much about yourself on the way down as you did on the way up.

  Mitch Albom

  Mistake, Fighting, Men

  Mitch Albom (2007). “For One More Day”, p.96, Hachette UK

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• 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.

  Karen Armstrong

  Self, Creative, Way

  Karen Armstrong (2010). “The Spiral Staircase”, p.313, Vintage Canada

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• Life is holy and it is for all of us. God's design, I cannot understand myself and I never will, but I do know that what we are experiencing now will pass and in the end we will all be brothers, not just blood brothers, as we are, but brothers in spirit. Neither you nor I can change the world or human nature and we can only aim at changing attitudes - and perhaps teach those who have so much to give a portion of their blessings to those who have less.

  F. Sionil José

  Brother, Attitude, Blessing

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• Understanding human nature must be the basis of any real improvement in human life. Science has done wonders in mastering the laws of the physical world, but our own nature is much less understood, as yet, than the nature of stars and electrons. When science learns to understand human nature, it will be able to bring a happiness into our lives which machines and the physical sciences have failed to create.

  Bertrand Russell

  Stars, Real, Law

  Bertrand Russell (2004). “Sceptical Essays”, p.70, Psychology Press

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• Human nature being what it is, people will insist upon getting some pleasure out of life.

  Bertrand Russell

  People, Pleasure, Humans

  Bertrand Russell (2004). “Sceptical Essays”, p.106, Psychology Press

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