Quotes on Human Nature

When men, engaged in unjustifiable pursuits, are aware that obstructions may come from a quarter which bare apprehension of opposition from doing what they would with eagerness rush into if no such external impediments were to be feared.

Human beings are not intrinsically selfish, which isolates us from others. We are essentially social animals who depend on others to meet our needs. We achieve happiness, prosperity and progress through social interaction. Therefore, having a kind and helpful attitude contributes to our own and others' happiness.

There rise authors now and then, who seem proof against the mutability of language, because they have rooted themselves in the unchanging principles of human nature.

Movement has the capacity to take us to the home _x000D_ of the soul, the world within for which we have _x000D_ no name. Movement reaches our deepest nature, _x000D_ and dance creatively expresses it. Through dance, _x000D_ we gain new insights into the mystery of our lives. _x000D_ When brought forth from the inside and forged by _x000D_ the desire to create personal change, dance has the _x000D_ profound power to heal the body, psyche and soul.

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

Human nature is pretty well balanced; for every lacking virtue there is a rough substitute that will serve at a pinch--as cunning is the wisdom of the unwise, and ferocity the courage of the coward.

No man is allowed to be a judge in his own cause; because his interest would certainly bias his judgment, and, not improbably, corrupt his integrity. With equal, nay with greater reason, a body of men are unfit to be both judges and parties at the same time.

Spiritual realization is theoretically the easiest thing and in practice the most difficult thing there is. It is the easiest because it is enough to think of God. It is the most difficult because human nature is forgetfulness of God.

The Greeks possessed a knowledge of human nature we seem hardly able to attain to without passing through the strengthening hibernation of a new barbarism.

Grief is the agony of an instant. The indulgence of grief the blunder of a life.

Nature is trying very hard to make us succeed, but nature does not depend on us. We are not the only experiment.

Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.

I realized that if what we call human nature can be changed, then absolutely anything is possible. From that moment my life changed.

You cannot slander human nature; it is worse than words can paint it.

The strongest argument against totalitarianism may be a recognition of a universal human nature; that all humans have innate desires for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The doctrine of the blank slate... is a totalitarian's dream.

If human nature does alter it will be because individuals manage to look at themselves in a new way. Here and there people - a very few people, but a few novelists are among them - are trying to do this. Every institution and vested interest in against such a search: organized religion, the state, the family in its economic aspect, have nothing to gain, and it is only when outward prohibitions weaken that it can proceed: history conditions it to that extent.

The urge to revolt is one of the essential dimensions of human nature.

You are a Divine creation, a Being of Light who showed up here as a human being at the exact moment you were supposed to. You are the Beloved, a miracle, a part of the eternal perfection.

The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.

Under the Providence of God, our means of education are the grand machinery by which the 'raw material' of human nature can be worked up into inventors and discoverers, into skilled artisans and scientific farmers, into scholars and jurists, into the founders of benevolent institutions, and the great expounders of ethical and theological science.

I'm naturally an optimist, but my basis for hope is rooted in my understanding of human nature.