Nature never appeals to intelligence until habit and instinct are useless. There is no intelligence where there is no need of change.
H. G. WellsRead
But there are times when the little cloud spreads, until it obscures the sky. And those times I look around at my fellow men and I am reminded of some likeness of the beast-people, and I feel as though the animal is surging up in them. And I know they are neither wholly animal nor holy man, but an unstable combination of both.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the duality of human nature, suggesting that people have both beast-like instincts and noble traits.
H. G. Wells highlights the complexity of human nature, portraying individuals as not purely civilized or barbaric, but as a blend of both characteristics. The imagery of a 'little cloud' symbolizes the darker aspects that can emerge and obscure one's better nature, prompting a reflection on the primal instincts that lie beneath the surface of humanity.
Themes
Human NatureDualityInstinctsBeastManPhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the complexities of human behavior, this quote illustrates the balance between our primal instincts and higher aspirations.
More from H. G. Wells
All quotes →He spares no resource in telling of his dead inventions... Bare verbs he rarely tolerates. He splits infinitives and fills them up with adverbial stuffing. He presses the passing colloquialism into his service. His vast paragraphis sweat and struggle; the
H. G. WellsRead
It [a new world order] needs only that the governments of Britain, the United States, France, Germany, and Russia should get together in order to set up an effective control of currency, credit, production, and distribution – that is to say, an effective ‘dictatorship of prosperity,’ for the whole world. The other sixty odd States would have to join in or accommodate themselves to the over-ruling decisions of these major Powers.
H. G. WellsRead
Things that would have made fame of a less clever man seemed tricks in his hands. It is a mistake to do things too easily.
H. G. WellsRead
But I was too restless to watch long; I'm too Occidental for a long vigil. I could work at a problem for years, but to wait inactive for twenty-four hours - that's another matter.
H. G. WellsRead
The greatest task of democracy, its ritual and feast - is choice.
H. G. WellsRead
Similar quotes
People, Reacher was certain about. Dogs were different. People had freedom of choice. If a man or a woman ran snarling toward him, they did so because they chose to. They were asking for whatever they got. His response was their problem. But dogs were different. No free will. Easily misled. It raised an ethical problem. Shooting a dog because it had been induced to do something unwise was not the sort of thing Reacher wanted to do.
Lee ChildRead
We're born naked, and the rest is drag.
RupaulRead
What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning.
Werner HeisenbergRead
The United Nations was not set up to be a reformatory. It was assumed that you would be good before you got in and not that being in would make you good
John Foster DullesRead
History is but the unrolled scroll of prophecy.
James A. GarfieldRead
Time has its revenges, but revenge seems so often sour. Wouldn’t we all do better not trying to understand, accepting the fact that no human being will ever understand another, not a wife with a husband, nor a parent a child? Perhaps that’s why men have invented God – a being capable of understanding.
Graham GreeneRead