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Human nature130 quotes
God is dead: but as the human race is constituted, there will perhaps be caves for millenniums yet, in which people will show his shadow. — Friedrich Nietzsche · 1882All men by nature desire to know. — Aristotle · 322 BCMan is by nature a political animal. — Aristotle · 350 BCMan with all his noble qualities, with sympathy which feels for the most debased, with benevolence which extends not only to other men but to the humblest living creature, with his god-like intellect which has penetrated into the movements and constitution of the solar system—with all these exalted powers—Man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin. — Charles Darwin · 1871And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness...So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. — Genesis 1:26-27 · 1405 BCAll men have need of the Gods. — Homer · 700 BCAll 130 quotes →Original sin11 quotes
The weakness of little children's limbs is innocent, not their souls. — St. Augustine · 400Man is neither good nor bad; he is born with instincts and abilities. — Honore de Balzac · 1842Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. — Psalm 51:5 · 450 BCFor all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. — Apostle Paul · 56We must soften into a credulity below the milkiness of infancy, to think all men virtuous. We must be tainted with a malignity truly diabolical, to believe all the world to be equally wicked and corrupt. — Edmund Burke · 1770Just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned. — Apostle Paul · 56All 11 quotes →Political theory7 quotes
Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice, without constraint. — Alexander Hamilton · 1787It may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government. But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. — James Madison · 1788Whoever desires to found a state and give it laws, must start with assuming that all men are bad and ever ready to display their vicious nature, whenever they may find occasions for it. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1531If all men were just, there still would be some, though not so much, need of government. — Abraham Lincoln · 1854It is necessary for him who lays out a state and arranges laws for it to presuppose that all men are evil and that they are always going to act according to the wickedness of their spirits whenever they have free scope. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1531Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary. — Reinhold Niebuhr · 1944All 7 quotes →Sin7 quotes
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. — 1st John 1:8 · 95And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. — Genesis 6:5 · 1405 BCFor all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. — Apostle Paul · 56Just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned. — Apostle Paul · 56For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not. — Ecclesiastes 7:20 · 931 BCFor I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. — Apostle Paul · 56All 7 quotes →God and man6 quotes
All men have need of the Gods. — Homer · 700 BCYou can take away a man's gods, but only to give him others in return. — Carl Jung · 1958A belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness. — Joseph Conrad · 1911They that deny a God destroy a man's nobility, for certainly man is of a kin to the beasts by his body; and if he be not of kin to God by his spirit, he is a base and ignoble creature. — Francis Bacon · 1625There is surely a peece of Divinity in us, something that was before the Elements, and owes no homage unto the Sun. — Sir Thomas Browne · 1643Unlike divine nature, human nature lacks sound judgments. — HeraclitusPolitics6 quotes
Man is by nature a political animal. — Aristotle · 350 BCWhy has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice, without constraint. — Alexander Hamilton · 1787It may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government. But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. — James Madison · 1788If all men were just, there still would be some, though not so much, need of government. — Abraham Lincoln · 1854As long as men worship the Caesars and Napoleons, Caesars and Napoleons will duly arise and make them miserable. — Aldous Huxley · 1937Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary. — Reinhold Niebuhr · 1944Man and animals5 quotes
Man is the Only Animal that Blushes. Or needs to. — Mark Twain · 1897They that deny a God destroy a man's nobility, for certainly man is of a kin to the beasts by his body; and if he be not of kin to God by his spirit, he is a base and ignoble creature. — Francis Bacon · 1625What is a man
If his chief good and market of his time
Be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more. — William Shakespeare · 1616The soul of man is divided into three parts, intelligence, reason, and passion. Intelligence and passion are possessed by other animals, but reason by man alone. — PythagorasOf all the animals, man is the only one that is cruel. He is the only one that inflicts pain for the pleasure of doing it. — Mark Twain · 1910Good and evil4 quotes
In this war, things get confused out there. Power, ideals, the old morality, practical military necessity. But out there with these natives, it must be a temptation to be God. 'Cause there's a conflict in every human heart, between the rational and the irrational, between good and evil, and good does not always triumph. Sometimes, the dark side overcomes what Lincoln called the better angels of our nature. Every man has got a breaking point. You and I have one. Walt Kurtz has reached his and very obviously, he has gone insane. — General R. Corman · 1979All human beings, as we meet them, are commingled out of good and evil. — Robert Louis Stevenson · 1886If men were born free, they would, so long as they remained free, form no conception of good and evil. — Baruch Spinoza · 1677For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. — Apostle Paul · 56Government4 quotes
Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice, without constraint. — Alexander Hamilton · 1787It may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government. But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. — James Madison · 1788Whoever desires to found a state and give it laws, must start with assuming that all men are bad and ever ready to display their vicious nature, whenever they may find occasions for it. — Niccolo Machiavelli · 1531If all men were just, there still would be some, though not so much, need of government. — Abraham Lincoln · 1854The human condition4 quotes
What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable; in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god: the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals-And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? — William Shakespeare · 1616Man is the only creature who refuses to be what he is. — Albert Camus · 1951Do you believe that men have always massacred each other as they do to-day, that they have always been liars, cheats, traitors, ingrates, brigands, idiots, thieves, scoundrels, gluttons, drunkards, misers, envious, ambitious, bloody-minded, calumniators, debauchees, fanatics, hypocrites, and fools? — Voltaire · 1759For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. — Apostle Paul · 56Adaptability3 quotes
Ammu said that human beings were creatures of habit, and it was amazing the kind of things they could get used to. — Arundhati Roy · 1997There are no conditions of life to which a man cannot get accustomed, especially if he sees them accepted by everyone about him. — Leo Tolstoy · 1877The power to become habituated to his surroundings is a marked characteristic of mankind. — John Maynard Keynes · 1919Delusion3 quotes
The heart of man is made to reconcile contradictions. — David Hume · 1741Human kind
Cannot bear very much reality. — T.S. Eliot · 1936Rob him of his illusions, and man would perish of very weariness and despair. — Anatole France · 1922Desire3 quotes
I put for a general inclination of all mankind, a perpetual and restless desire of power after power, that ceaseth only in death. — Thomas Hobbes · 1651A human being has a natural desire to have more of a good thing than he needs. — Mark Twain · 1897To deny our own impulses is to deny the very thing that makes us human. — Mouse · 1999God3 quotes
God is dead: but as the human race is constituted, there will perhaps be caves for millenniums yet, in which people will show his shadow. — Friedrich Nietzsche · 1882All men have need of the Gods. — Homer · 700 BCYou can take away a man's gods, but only to give him others in return. — Carl Jung · 1958Learning from the past3 quotes
That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach. — Aldous Huxley · 1956History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives. — Abba Eban · 1970It is necessary to keep the former experiences of our country both at home and abroad continually before us, if we are to have any science of government. If we wish to erect new structures, we must have a definite knowledge of the old foundations. We must realize that human nature is about the most constant thing in the universe and that the essentials of human relationship do not change. We must frequently take our bearings from these fixed stars of our political firmament if we expect to hold a true course. If we examine carefully what we have done, we can determine the more accurately what we can do. — Calvin Coolidge · 1925Progress3 quotes
Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms, greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge, has marked the upward surge of mankind. — Gordon Gekko · 1987Every civilized human being, whatever his conscious development, is still an archaic man at the deeper levels of his psyche. — Carl Jung · 1933For all our failings, despite our limitations and fallibilities, we humans are capable of greatness. What new wonders, undreamt of in our time, will we have wrought in another generation? — Carl Sagan · 1994Appetite2 quotes
A human being has a natural desire to have more of a good thing than he needs. — Mark Twain · 1897Subdue your appetites my dears, and you've conquered human nature. — Charles Dickens · 1838Civilization2 quotes
Every civilized human being, whatever his conscious development, is still an archaic man at the deeper levels of his psyche. — Carl Jung · 1933I wish to speak a word for Nature, for absolute Freedom and Wildness, as contrasted with a freedom and culture merely civil,—to regard man as an inhabitant, or a part and parcel of Nature, rather than a member of society. — Henry David Thoreau · 1851Credulity2 quotes
For what a man had rather were true he more readily believes. — Francis Bacon · 1620Men are nearly always willing to believe what they wish. — Julius Caesar · 49 BCCuriosity2 quotes
All men by nature desire to know. — Aristotle · 322 BCIt is useful to distinguish among four factors which give importance, urgency, and inevitability to the advancement of space technology. The first of these factors is the compelling urge of man to explore and to discover, the thrust of curiosity that leads men to try to go where no one has gone before. — James R. Killian · 1958Dark side of human nature2 quotes
No man has a wholly undiseased mind; that in one way or another all men are mad. — Mark Twain · 1910Of all the animals, man is the only one that is cruel. He is the only one that inflicts pain for the pleasure of doing it. — Mark Twain · 1910Decline of religion2 quotes
God is dead: but as the human race is constituted, there will perhaps be caves for millenniums yet, in which people will show his shadow. — Friedrich Nietzsche · 1882You can take away a man's gods, but only to give him others in return. — Carl Jung · 1958Democracy2 quotes
The democratic aspiration is no mere recent phase in human history. It is human history. It permeated the ancient life of early peoples. It blazed anew in the Middle Ages. It was written in Magna Charta. — Franklin D. Roosevelt · 1941Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary. — Reinhold Niebuhr · 1944Evolution2 quotes
Man with all his noble qualities, with sympathy which feels for the most debased, with benevolence which extends not only to other men but to the humblest living creature, with his god-like intellect which has penetrated into the movements and constitution of the solar system—with all these exalted powers—Man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin. — Charles Darwin · 1871Natural selection will not remove ignorance from future generations. — Richard Dawkins · 2006Freedom2 quotes
The choice for mankind lies between freedom and happiness, and that, for the great bulk of mankind, happiness is better. — George Orwell · 1949If men were born free, they would, so long as they remained free, form no conception of good and evil. — Baruch Spinoza · 1677Greed2 quotes
Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms, greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge, has marked the upward surge of mankind. — Gordon Gekko · 1987To what do you not drive human hearts, cursed craving for gold! — Virgil · 19 BCHistory2 quotes
That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach. — Aldous Huxley · 1956History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives. — Abba Eban · 1970Human origins2 quotes
Man with all his noble qualities, with sympathy which feels for the most debased, with benevolence which extends not only to other men but to the humblest living creature, with his god-like intellect which has penetrated into the movements and constitution of the solar system—with all these exalted powers—Man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin. — Charles Darwin · 1871And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness...So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. — Genesis 1:26-27 · 1405 BCHuman potential2 quotes
How little do we know that which we are!
How less what we may be! — Lord Byron · 1824For all our failings, despite our limitations and fallibilities, we humans are capable of greatness. What new wonders, undreamt of in our time, will we have wrought in another generation? — Carl Sagan · 1994Justice2 quotes
Slavery is founded in the selfishness of man's nature—opposition to it, is [in?] his love of justice. — Abraham Lincoln · 1854Neither anarchy nor tyranny—this I counsel my citizens to support and respect, and not to drive fear wholly out of the city. For who among mortals, if he fears nothing, is righteous? — Aeschylus · 458 BC