Human Nature Quotes - Page 28

• However exquisitely human nature may have been described by writers, the true practical system can be learned only in the world.

  Henry Fielding

  World, May, Practicals

  Henry Fielding (1836). “The history of Tom Jones: a foundling”, p.407

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• In an interview, former vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan said he does not have a racist bone in his body. However, he admitted he has three sexist bones and his spine is homophobic.

  Conan O'Brien

  Presidential, Racist, Body

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• Man is known to be a selfish, as well as a social being.

  James Madison

  Selfish, Men, Being Human

  James Madison, Ralph Ketcham “Selected Writings of James Madison”, Hackett Publishing

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• I have come to realize that in every person there is something fine and pure and noble, along with a desire for self-fulfillment.

  Jimmy Carter

  Self, Desire, Noble

  Jimmy Carter (1976). “"I'll Never Lie to You": Jimmy Carter in His Own Words”

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• Man is clearly made to think. It is his whole dignity and his whole merit; and his whole duty is to think as he ought. And the order of thought is to begin with ourselves, and with our Author and our end.

  Blaise Pascal

  Thoughtful, Men, Thinking

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• Those who profess contempt for men, and put them on a level with beasts, yet wish to be admired and believed by men, and contradict themselves by their own feelings--their nature, which is stronger than all, convincing them of the greatness of man more forcibly than reason convinces them of his baseness.

  Blaise Pascal

  Greatness, Men, Feelings

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• The greatness of man is so evident that it is even proved by his wretchedness. For what in animals is nature, we call in man wretchedness--by which we recognize that, his nature being now like that of animals, he has fallen from a better nature which once was his.

  Blaise Pascal

  Animal, Greatness, Men

  Blaise Pascal (2016). “Pensées”, p.150, Open Road Media

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• Life is a tragedy filled with suffering and despair and yet some people do manage to avoid jury duty.

  Woody Allen

  People, Suffering, Tragedy

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• What is to be done with people who can't read a Sunday paper without messing it all up?... Show me a Sunday paper which has been left in a condition fit only for kite flying, and I will show you an antisocial and dangerous character who has left it that way.

  Robert Benchley

  Character, Sunday, People

  Robert Benchley (1932). “No Poems”

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• Robin [Williams] was a world treasure. As we mourn his tragic death, we must remember him for the great waves of laughter that he was able to illicit from us, how his humor and insights - though they came from a place of pain and uncertainty - connected us and reminded us of how flawed and fragile...how human we are. How we are capable of moments of inspired transcendence and others of unspeakable despair.

  Glenn Close

  Leadership, Wisdom, Pain

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• ... beauty, like ecstasy, has always been hostile to the commonplace. And the commonplace, under its popular label of the normal,has been the supreme authority for Homo sapiens since the days when he was probably arboreal.

  Ellen Glasgow

  Beauty, Normal, Labels

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• People are less self-conscious in the intimacy of family life and during the anxiety of a great sorrow. The dazzling varnish of anextreme politeness is then less in evidence, and the true qualities of the heart regain their proper proportions.

  Stendhal

  Family, Heart, Self

  Stendhal (1986). “Armance”, Dufour Editions

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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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• In one and the same human being there are cognitions that, however utterly dissimilar they are, yet have one and the same object,so that one can only conclude that there are different subjects in one and the same human being.

  Franz Kafka

  Experience, Different, Cognition

  Franz Kafka (1954). “Wedding preparations in the country: and other posthumous prose writings. With notes by Max Brod”

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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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• 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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• 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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• ... 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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• ... 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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• What a world is this! What is there in it desirable? The good we hope for so strangely mixed, that one knows not what to wish for!And one half of mankind tormenting the other, and being tormented themselves in tormenting!

  Samuel Richardson

  Life, Wish, Half

  Samuel Richardson (2014). “Clarissa Harlowe, or The History of a Young Lady - Complete”, p.288, Simon and Schuster

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• Cardinal Dolan, of course, has a very, very hard job: trying to hold up Catholic family values in sexually liberal New York City. I'm not saying New York is the Gay Mecca. But it's at least Gay-rusalem.

  Stephen Colbert

  Family, Leadership, Jobs

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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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• Obviously [my daughters] - and Michelle - have made a lot of sacrifices on behalf of my cockamamie ideas, the running for office and things.

  Barack Obama

  Family, Running, Daughter

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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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• It is a law of life that human beings, even the geniuses among them, do not pride themselves on their actual achievements but thatthey want to impress others, want to be admired and respected because of things of much lower import and value.

  Stefan Zweig

  Pride, Law, Achievement

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