Human Nature Quotes - Page 39

• I have never been able to conceive how any rational being could propose happiness to himself from the exercise of power over others.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Humility, Exercise, Power

  Thomas Jefferson (1977). “The Portable Thomas Jefferson”, p.416, Penguin

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• Life is one long struggle between conclusions based on abstract ways of conceiving cases, and opposite conclusions prompted by our instinctive perception of them.

  William James

  Respect, Struggle, Adversity

  William James (2012). “The Principles of Psychology”, p.674, Courier Corporation

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• One of the basic causes for all the trouble in the world today is that people talk too much and think too little. They act impulsively without thinking. I always try to think before I talk.

  Margaret Chase Smith

  Respect, Communication, Caring

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• A human being is a single being. Unique and unrepeatable.

  Eileen Caddy

  Single, Unique, Humans

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• A nation, as a society, forms a moral person, and every member of it is personally responsible for his society.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Integrity, Responsibility, Hypocrisy

  Thomas Jefferson (2004). “Light and Liberty: Reflections on the Pursuit of Happiness”, p.66, Modern Library

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• The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value. I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.

  Thomas Paine

  Strength, Being Strong, Encouragement

  "The American Crisis: The Crisis No. I". Book by Thomas Paine, en.wikisource.org. December 23, 1776.

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• Fortunately for themselves and the world, nearly all men are cowards and dare not act on what they believe. Nearly all our disasters come of a few fools having the "courage of their convictions."

  Coventry Patmore

  Strength, Believe, Men

  Coventry Patmore (2016). “The Rod, the Root and the Flower”, p.19, Lulu.com

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• False hope is worse than despair.

  Jonathan Kozol

  Change, Despair, False Hope

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• Freedom and constraint are two aspects of the same necessity, the necessity of being the man you are and not another. You are free to be that man, but not another.

  Antoine de Saint-Exupery

  Change, Men, Two

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• Happiness is not the end of life: character is.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Change, Art, Philosophy

  Henry Ward Beecher (1887). “Beecher : Christian Philosopher, Pulpit Orator, Patriot and Philantropist: A Volume of Representative Selections from the Sermons, Lectures, Prayers, and Letters of Henry Ward Beecher”

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• Great occasions do not make heroes or cowards; they simply unveil them to the eyes. Silently and imperceptibly, as we wake or sleep, we grow strong or we grow weak, and at last some crisis shows us what we have become.

  Brooke Westcott

  Inspirational, Leadership, Courage

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• Proust has pointed out that the predisposition to love creates its own objects; is this not also true of fear?

  Elizabeth Bowen

  Inspirational, Courage, Empowerment

  Elizabeth Bowen (1950). “Collected Impressions”

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• Only man clogs his happiness with care, destroying what is with thoughts of what may be.

  John Dryden

  Happiness, Men, Anxious Thoughts

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• We may pretend we are basically moral people who make mistakes, but the whole of history proves otherwise.

  Terry Hands

  Business, Mistake, People

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• People say they love truth, but in reality they want to believe that which they love is true.

  Robert Ringer

  Spiritual, Truth, Believe

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• To accept the fact that, after fertilization has taken place, a new human has come into being is no longer a matter of taste or opinion. The human nature of the human being from conception to old age is not a metaphysical conception. It is plain experimental evidence.

  Jerome Lejeune

  Taken, Abortion, Age

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• Those people who are uncomfortable in themselves are disagreeable to others.

  William Hazlitt

  Inspirational, Integrity, Ambition

  William Hazlitt (1839). “Sketches and Essays”, p.153

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• Two purposes in human nature rule. Self- love to urge, and reason to restrain.

  Alexander Pope

  Love, Acceptance, Self

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• I believe a man is born first unto himself - for the happy developing of himself, while the world is a nursery, and the pretty things are to be snatched for, and pleasant things tasted; some people seem to exist thus right to the end. But most are born again on entering manhood; then they are born to humanity, to a consciousness of all the laughing, and the never-ceasing murmur of pain and sorrow that comes from the terrible multitudes of brothers.

  D. H. Lawrence

  Brother, Pain, Believe

  D. H. Lawrence, James T. Boulton (2000). “The Selected Letters of D. H. Lawrence”, p.7, Cambridge University Press

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• People, like water, will run downhill, seeking their lowest level unless something interdicts them.

  Cal Thomas

  Running, Adversity, People

  Cal Thomas (1990). “Death of Ethics in America”, W Publishing Group

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• Necessity is an interpretation, not a fact.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Adversity, Facts, Interpretation

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• Our greatest enemies, the ones we must fight most often, are within.

  Thomas Paine

  Self Esteem, Fighting, People

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• If you will think about what you ought to do for other people, your character will take care of itself. Character is a by-product, and any man who devotes himself to its cultivation in his own case will become a selfish prig.

  Woodrow Wilson

  Inspirational, Selfish, Character

  Woodrow Wilson, Albert Bushnell Hart (2002). “Selected Addresses and Public Papers of Woodrow Wilson”, p.50, The Minerva Group, Inc.

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• A person's character is what it is. It's a little like a marriage - only without the option of divorce. You can work on it and try to make it better, but basically you have to take the bitter with the sweet.

  Hendrik Hertzberg

  Sweet, Divorce, Character

  Hendrik Hertzberg (2005). “Politics: Observations and Arguments, 1966-2004”, p.49, Penguin

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• The true test of civilization is not the census, nor the size of cities, nor the crops - no, but the kind of man the country turns out.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Country, Character, Men

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1971). “The Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Society and solitude”, p.16, Harvard University Press

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