Quotes About Human nature

For in fact what is man in nature? A Nothing in comparison with the Infinite, an All in comparison with the Nothing, a mean between nothing and everything.

All men naturally hate each other. We have used concupiscence as best we can to make it serve the common good, but this is mere sham and a false image of charity, for essentially it is just hate.

128] Two things teach man about his whole nature: instinct and experience.

Les hommes ont mépris pour la religion. Ils en ont haine et peur qu'elle soit vraie. Pour guérir cela il faut commencer par montrer que la religion n'est point contraire à la raison. Vénérable, en donner respect. La rendre ensuite aimable, faire souhaiter aux bons qu'elle fut vraie et puis montrer qu'elle est vraie. Vénérable parce qu'elle a bien connu l'homme. Aimable parce qu'elle promet le vrai bien.

La vanité est si ancrée dans le cÅ"ur de l'homme qu'un soldat, un goujat, un cuisinier, un crocheteur se vante et veut avoir ses admirateurs ; et les philosophes mêmes en veulent. Et ceux qui écrivent contre veulent avoir la gloire d'avoir bien écrit ; et ceux qui lisent veulent avoir la gloire de l'avoir lu ; et moi qui écris ceci, ai peut-être cette envie ».

It is of dangerous consequence to represent to man how near he is to the level of beasts, without showing him at the same time his greatness. It is likewise dangerous to let him see his greatness without his meanness. It is more dangerous yet to leave him ignorant of either; but very beneficial that he should be made sensible of both.

What astonishes us most is to observe that everyone is not astonished at his own weakness.

But what is nature? For is custom not natural? I am much afraid that nature is itself only a first custom, as custom is a second nature.

Man is neither angel nor devil, and his tragedy is that he who tries too hard to play the first too often ends up as the second.

L'art de persuader consiste autant en celui d'agréer qu'en celui de convaincre, tant les hommes se gouvernent plus par caprice que par raison.

The human heart is greedy; it will use religion, color, or any other excuse to justify its greed. Blame the human heart.

Es demasiado fácil pensar que sólo los monstruos son capaces de cometer actos monstruosos.

Man is a wolf to man.

there were just three categories of human beings—sheep, sheepdogs, and wolves. To those three categories, Harvath had added another—wolf hunters. That was what the world needed more of. The sheep had only two speeds—graze and stampede. They needed sheepdogs to keep them safe in case of an attack by the wolves. Wolf hunters, though, were needed to find and kill the wolves, whenever possible, before they attacked.

People are cruel, and they will do anything.

I would think that to love a person in spite of their faults, rather than because you cannot see those faults, would be the deeper of the two attachments.

Please don't expect me to always be good and kind and loving. There are times when I will be cold and thoughtless and hard to understand. (This quote is probably wrongly attributed to Sylvia Plath)

Love compels cruelty To those who do not understand love.

On the outside, the pony insisted. Not inside. Inside you're People.

Flat or round, there has always been hate in the world.

And does man simply choose evil, or does he create it?...Is evil a force that swims in human blood, struggling to find its way into the heart, or is it an external possibility wanting to be formed?

Real life is about accepting ups and downs, the good and the bad, the possibility of failure as well as the ambition to succeed. Atheism speaks to the truth about our human nature because it recognizes all this and does not seek to shield us from the truth by myth and superstition

Good and evil, which were once as distinguishable as day and night, have become a blurred mist. But that mist is man-made. God is not silent. He has been silenced.

Ma così si comporta il cuore umano, che lascia trascorrere lunghi anni senza sfiorare per un istante l'idea di ribellarsi contro il proprio destino, poi viene il giorno in cui sente d'un tratto di non poterne più e che bisogna cambiare subito tutto e teme di perdere tutto rimandando anche di un sol giorno quell'impresa di cui la vigilia non aveva ancora la minima idea.»