Quotes About Human nature

The pernicious effects of the self-interest theory have been most disturbing,' concludes Frank. 'By encouraging us to expect the worst in others, it brings out the worst in us: dreading the role of the chump, we are often loath to heed our nobler instincts.

Schumann admitted, but only to himself that if hyenas were beautiful and could sing and dance, he would forgive them for being hyenas. But would they ever forgive him for being human?

Of course, it was a rather hard lot, to be cherished. The beloved can so easily disappoint when they inevitably prove to be human.

Comme tout les rêves, celui de l'égalitarisme présuppose un monde fragmentaire, fait exclusivement de braves gens qui ne songent qu'à pétrir leur pain en traquilité sans être molestés ni par les loups ni par les dieux ; or les loups sont dans les "braves gens" eux-mêmes, et quant aux dieux fauteur de "fanatisme", il suffit de les mettre en veilleuse pour que les diables viennent les remplacer.

Human beings, when confronted with the strange and inexplicable, have an immediate instinct to get back to the accustomed and the normal. We do not hug our miracles close; we put them hastily away, preferring the commonplace to live with it. It is as if some compulsive hand wipes clean the wall on which the handwriting appeared.

Man does not have the power to begin by himself any change in spiritual things ... There is no limit or boundary within human nature beyond which we can find some last human reserve untouched by sin.

The human race, to which so many of my readers belong, has been playing at children's games from the beginning, and will probably do it till the end, which is a nuisance for the few people who grow up.

I remember too well how I thought at times when it comes down to rock bottom, I didn't care tuppence about anything, or anybody, except myself; and that everybody else was the same. If this is true, it is something a man should not know. It may be it was the one lesson we learnt from the Occupation, but it was the wrong lesson.

No muestres compasión por nadie, aunque la sientas. Haz favores sin afectaros. Si vieran emoción e interés en tu rostro cuando les das limosna se abalanzarían sobre ti y desnudo te dejarían. Como a los canes, a los hombres no debe dárseles el alimento sino arrojársele.

People, you'll find, aren't usually all good or bad. Sometimes they're just a little bit good and a whole lot bad. And sometimes they're mostly good with a dash of bad. And most of us, well, we fall in the middle somewhere.

Aquéste es de los hombres el oficio: tentar el mal, y si es malo el suceso, pedir con humildad perdón del vicio.

I need you, Doctor, but Rose - she's just another human. Wasteful, aggressive, untidy..." The Doctor bit his lip. "Harm one hair of her head and I'll destroy you.

Something in our nature cries out to be loved by another. Isolation is devastating to the human psyche. That is why solitary confinement is considered the cruelest of punishments.

We proclaim human intelligence to be morally valuable per se because we are human. If we were birds, we would proclaim the ability to fly as morally valuable per se. If we were fish, we would proclaim the ability to live underwater as morally valuable per se. But apart from our obviously self-interested proclamations, there is nothing morally valuable per se about human intelligence.

there are some broad strokes that can be fairly applied to most of us: We seek connection with others; We are saddened by loss, and try to avoid it; We dislike rejection; We like recognition and attention; We will do more to avoid pain than we will do to seek pleasure; We dislike ridicule and embarrassment; We care what others think of us; We seek a degree of control over our lives;

Perguntaram a um viajante que visitara muitos países que atributo comum encontrara em todos os povos. Ele respondeu: "A tendência à preguiça.

the other gods had discovered the universal economic law from time immemorial: whatever you tax you get less of, and whatever you subsidize you get more of. By heavily overtaxing wealth, she could decrease the amount of private wealth and therefore lessen its power. By subsidizing poverty with government welfare she would increase poverty and thus dependency upon the state. Human nature was such an easy thing to exploit when you understood how it operated.

In an early draft of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson called slavery "a cruel war against human nature itself."1 James Madison argued that "it would be wrong to admit in the Constitution the idea that there could be property in men."2 Benjamin Franklin, a former slaveholder, described slavery as "an atrocious debasement of human nature."3 But in the early days of the republic, slavery remained legal, the law of the land.

Man is a bad animal....

When he did that, I didn't hate him anymore, I really didn't, and maybe this is why people do so many hateful things to the people that who love them: because it's so easy to stop hating someone if you've already started loving them.

But Peter had seen too much, knew too well that men-kind didn't need an excuse to be cruel and murder one another.

Man has only himself to fear now . . . he has become his own worst devil.

Peter had seen too much, knew too well that men-kind didn't need an excuse to be cruel and murder one another. If it wasn't drugs, then there was always something else.

But smiles and tears are so alike with me, they are neither of them confined to any particular feelings: I often cry when I am happy, and smile when I am sad.