Human Nature Quotes - Page 4

• The tendency of mans nature to good is like the tendency of water to flow downward.

  Mencius

  Water, Flow, Tendencies

  Mencius, James Legge (1875). “The Life and Works of Mencius: With Essays and Notes”, p.58

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• Creating new people, by having babies, is so much a part of human life that it is rarely thought even to require a justification. Indeed, most people do not even think about whether they should or should not make a baby. They just make one. In other words, procreation is usually the consequence of sex rather than the result of a decision to bring people into existence. Those who do indeed decide to have a child might do so for any number of reasons, but among these reasons cannot be the interests of the potential child. One can never have a child for that child’s sake.

  David Benatar

  Life, Baby, Sex

  David Benatar (2008). “Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming Into Existence”, p.2, Oxford University Press

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• When childhood dies, its corpses are called adults and they enter society, one of the politer names of hell. That is why we dread children, even if we love them, they show us the state of our decay.

  Brian Aldiss

  Love, Fear, Children

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• We are not thinking machines that feel; rather, we are feeling machines that think.

  Antonio Damasio

  Thinking, Feelings, Machines

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• You are about to be told one more time that you are America's most valuable natural resource. Have you seen what they do to valuable natural resources?! Have you seen a strip mine? Have you seen a clear cut in the forest? Have you seen a polluted river? Don't ever let them call you a valuable natural resource! They're going to strip mine your soul. They're going to clear cut your best thoughts for the sake of profit unless you learn to resist, because the profit system follows the path of least resistance and following the path of least resistance is what makes the river crooked!

  Utah Phillips

  Inspirational, Nature, Cutting

  "The Past Didn't Go Anywhere". Album by Utah Phillips and Ani DiFranco, October 15, 1996.

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• Music is a manifestation of the human spirit, similar to language. Its greatest practitioners have conveyed to mankind things not possible to say in any other language. If we do not want these things to remain dead treasures, we must do our utmost to make the greatest possible number of people understand their idiom.

  Zoltan Kodaly

  Inspirational, Music, Numbers

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• As human beings, our job in life is to help people realize how rare and valuable each one of us really is, that each of us has something that no one else has-or ever will have-something inside that is unique to all time.

  Fred Rogers

  Inspirational, Life, Positive

  Fred Rogers (1995). “You Are Special: Words of Wisdom for All Ages from a Beloved Neighbor”, p.19, Penguin

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• When you ask a person to jump, his attention is mostly directed toward the act of jumping and the mask falls so that the real person appears.

  Philippe Halsman

  Photography, Real, Fall

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• Hate traps us by binding us too tightly to our adversary.

  Milan Kundera

  Hate, Traps, Binding

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• Human nature is so well disposed towards those who are in interesting situations, that a young person, who either marries or dies, is sure of being kindly spoken of.

  Jane Austen

  Inspiring, Nature, Interesting Situations

  Jane Austen (1841). “Emma: A Novel”, p.159

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• The principle that human nature, in its psychological aspects, is nothing more than a product of history and given social relations removes all barriers to coercion and manipulation by the powerful.

  Noam Chomsky

  Nature, Powerful, Principles

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• What is called an acute knowledge of human nature is mostly nothing but the observer's own weaknesses reflected back from others.

  Georg C. Lichtenberg

  Nature, Weakness, Humans

  "Aphorisms". Book by Georg Christoph Lichtenberg. Notebook G 7, 1799.

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• The systems that fail are those that rely on the permanency of human nature, and not its growth and development.

  Oscar Wilde

  Growth, Development, Failing

  Oscar Wilde (2007). “The Collected Works of Oscar Wilde”, p.1062, Wordsworth Editions

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• Whatever you may be sure of, be sure of this, that you are dreadfully like other people.

  James Russell Lowell

  Humility, Equality, People

  James Russell Lowell (1871). “My Study Windows”, p.49

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• Man owes his strength in the struggle for existence to the fact that he is a social animal.

  Albert Einstein

  Strength, Struggle, Animal

  Joseph Eger, Albert Einstein (2005). “Einstein's Violin: A Conductor's Notes on Music, Physics, and Social Change”, Tarcher

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• The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.

  Hannah Arendt

  Inspirational, Peace, Emo

  "The Life of the Mind". Book by Hannah Arendt. Chapter: "Thinking", 1978.

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• 

  Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.

  Carl Jung

  Relationship, Leadership, Spiritual

  Carl Gustav Jung (1973). “Memories, dreams, reflections”, Random House Inc

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• There's no "should" or "should not" when it comes to having feelings. They're part of who we are and their origins are beyond our control. When we can believe that, we may find it easier to make constructive choices about what to do with those feelings.

  Fred Rogers

  Believe, Choices, Feelings

  Fred Rogers (1995). “You Are Special: Words of Wisdom for All Ages from a Beloved Neighbor”, p.128, Penguin

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• But people themselves alter so much, that there is something new to be observed in them for ever.

  Jane Austen

  Inspirational, Change, People

  Jane Austen (1853). “Pride and Prejudice”, p.36

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• Perhaps I know best why it is man alone who laughs; he alone suffers so deeply that he had to invent laughter.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Life, Happiness, Smile

  "The Will to Power". Book by Friedrich Nietzsche, 1888.

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• Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are.

  Malcolm Forbes

  Inspirational, Positive, Strength

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• No human being can be more human than another human being. I liberate you from my ignorance.

  Maya Angelou

  Ignorance, African American, Humanity

  FaceBook post by Maya Angelou from Feb 21, 2010

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• The man who must brag for himself knows that no one else will

  Robin Hobb

  Men, Self, Brag

  Robin Hobb (2002). “Royal Assassin: The Farseer Trilogy”, p.427, Spectra

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• And of all illumination which human reason can give, none is comparable to the discovery of what we are, our nature, our obligations, what happiness we are capable of, and what are the means of attaining it.

  Adam Weishaupt

  Inspirational, Happiness, Mean

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• The world in which you were born is just one model of reality. Other cultures are not failed attempts at being you; they are unique manifestations of the human spirit.

  Wade Davis

  Inspirational, Spiritual, Unique

  "The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World". Book by Wade Davis, www.huffingtonpost.com. October 1, 2009.

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