Human Nature Quotes - Page 21

• The mayor of Sochi is now saying that there are no gay people in Sochi. So the only thing that is flaming over there now is the Olympic torch.

  David Letterman

  Leadership, Gay, Class

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• Here's a woman, a real pioneer for other women looking for careers in stand-up comedy. And talk about guts - she would come out here and sit in this chair and say some things that were unbelievable - where you would have to swallow pretty hard... but it was hilarious... the force of her comedy was overpowering.

  David Letterman

  Leadership, Fashion, Real

  "Joan Rivers Dead: Hollywood Mourns Comedian" by Hilary Lewis, www.hollywoodreporter.com. September 4, 2014.

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• ... the space left to freedom is very small.ends are inherent in human nature and the same for all.

  Hannah Arendt

  Freedom, Space, Ends

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• Ye whose clay-cold heads and luke-warm hearts can argue down or mask your passions--tell me, what trespass is it that man should have them?... If nature has so wove her web of kindness, that some threads of love and desire are entangled with the piece--must the whole web be rent in drawing them out?

  Laurence Sterne

  Kindness, Passion, Heart

  Laurence Sterne (1849). “The Works of Laurence Sterne: Containing The Life and Opinions of Tristan Shandy ... [etc.] ; with a Life of the Author Written by Himself”, p.339

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• I think if you write humor, then people don't - you know - they don't give you that much credit. They tend to think you just dictate your stories into a tape recorder. And I'm not necessarily insulted by that, because I think that just means that it looks easy.

  David Sedaris

  Writing, Mean, Thinking

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• Sometimes you read something and it's just -- it doesn't invite a reader....Sometimes you read something and it's not saying, 'oh come in, come in have a seat. I'm going to tell you what happened.' Perhaps my writing comes off as conversational...and that takes effort.

  David Sedaris

  Writing, Effort, Community

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• ... it is a commonplace that men like war. For peace, in our society, with the feeling we have then that it is feeble-minded to strive except for one's own private profit, is a lonely thing and a hazardous business. Over and over men have proved that they prefer the hazards of war with all its suffering. It has its compensations.

  Ruth Benedict

  Lonely, Peace, War

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• Adolescence is the time to enlarge the natural sentiments of pity, friendship, and generosity, the time to develop an understanding of human nature and the varieties of human character, the time to gain insight into the strengths and weaknesses of all men and to study the history of mankind.

  Louise J. Kaplan

  Strength, Time, Character

  Louise J. Kaplan (1995). “Adolescence: The Farewell to Childhood”, Touchstone Books

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• We Americans are not an inherently more violent people than folks in other countries. We're not inherently more prone to mental health problems. The main difference that sets our nation apart is what makes us so susceptible to so many mass shootings is that we don't do enough, we don't take the basic commonsense actions to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and dangerous people. What's different in America is it's easy to get your hands on a gun.

  Barack Obama

  Country, Gun, Mass Shootings

  "CNN Newsroom" with Rosa Flores, www.cnn.com. September 22, 2013.

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• ... the man in the violent situation reveals those qualities least dispensable in his personality, those qualities which are all he will have to take into eternity with him.

  Flannery O'Connor

  Men, Afterlife, Personality

  Flannery O'Connor (1993). “"A Good Man is Hard to Find"”, p.59, Rutgers University Press

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• We sometimes feel the shadows have got hold of us, the shadows of evil. But still, it's up to us to fight.

  Dan Totheroh

  Fighting, Evil, Shadow

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• Work is the only meanin' I've ever known. Like the man in the song says, I just gotta keep on keepin' on.

  Joe Frazier

  Song, Work, Men

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• One never gets to know a person's character better than by watching his behavior during decisive moments.... It is always only danger which forces the most deeply hidden strengths and abilities of a human being to come forth.

  Stefan Zweig

  Strength, Character, Moments

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• Human life is so strangely constituted that even perfected intellectual understanding combined with the richest experience is incapable of conquering innate weaknesses. Even if it thoroughly analyzes itself, psychology (and this is one of the dubious aspects of psychoanalysis) can, to be sure, recognize its flawed native characteristics, but it cannot eliminate them. Understanding (them) is not the same as overcoming (them) and, again and again, we see the wisest of human beings helpless in the fact of their small follies which everyone else observes with a smile.

  Stefan Zweig

  Psychology, Understanding, Intellectual

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• I'm not afraid to write about madness. I always figure that whatever most embarrasses you is something that everyone can relate to, really...because we're just not that different. So if you think, 'Oh my god, this is so embarrassing. I can't possibly talk about that,' and you write about it, the audience is gonna be like, 'that happened to me!

  David Sedaris

  Writing, Reality, Thinking

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• Human nature is a scoundrel's favorite explanation.

  Mason Cooley

  Humanity, Scoundrels, Explanation

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• Finding God in all things is not an 'empirical eureka.' When we desire to encounter God, we would like to verify him immediately by an empirical method. But you cannot meet God this way...A contemplative attitude is necessary: it is the feeling that you are moving along the good path of understanding and affection toward things and situations. Profound peace, spiritual consolation, love of God, and love of all things in God-this is the sign that you are on this right path.

  Pope Francis

  Spiritual, Wisdom, Attitude

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• Those works alone can have enduring success which successfully appeal to what is permanent in human nature -- which, while suiting the taste of the day, contain truths and beauty deeper than the opinions and tastes of the day.

  George Henry Lewes

  Taste, Opinion, Truth And Beauty

  George Henry Lewes (1891). “The Principles of Success in Literature”

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• [Hillary Clinton] and I are fine. Are we going to be besties for the rest of our lives? No.

  Claire McCaskill

  Reality, Comedy, Civility

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• Speak out, educate, do not be intimidated by the apologists, and do not let extreme racism be mainstreamed. Hopefully there will come a time when we don't need to tell our kids that Halloween is no excuse for hate, and that blackface has no place in a civilized society.

  Christine Pelosi

  Leadership, Halloween, Hate

  "Halloween Is No Excuse for Hate: Blackface Has No Place" by Christine Pelosi, www.huffingtonpost.com. October 27, 2013.

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• I don't think Edward Snowden deserves a death penalty or life in prison. I think that's inappropriate. I think that's why he fled, [because] that is what he faced.

  Rand Paul

  Leadership, Party, Technology

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• I work very physically as an actor. The biggest thing for me has been the challenge of how to be this person [Olivia Pope] with the personal transformation that's going on for me physically... That hasn't been easy. It's been an awesome challenge for me...because so much of how I access character is through my body.

  Kerry Washington

  Family, Work, Health

  "'Scandal's' Kerry Washington: Explosion Will Have 'Huge Impact' on the Election". Interview with Lesley Goldberg, www.hollywoodreporter.com. April 16, 2014.

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• We are human beings, and this is the part of our human nature, that we don't learn the importance of anything until it's snatched from our hands.

  Malala Yousafzai

  Wisdom, Hands, History

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• I believe the gun has no power because a gun can only kill, but a pen can give life.

  Malala Yousafzai

  Leadership, Wisdom, Believe

  "16-Year-Old Activist Malala Yousafzai Steals The Show At NYC Awards Show" by Jocelyn Noveck, www.businessinsider.com. November 12, 2013.

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• Adults who enter into public life implicitly consent to having less privacy, but their families - especially their children - should not be treated callously or thoughtlessly.

  Melissa Harris-Perry

  Family, Leadership, Wisdom

  "MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry Offers Televised Apology for Romney Segment" by Erik Hayden, www.hollywoodreporter.com. January 04, 2014.

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