Human Nature Quotes

Morality is the theory that every human act must be either right or wrong, and that 99 % of them are wrong.

We are much harder on people who betray us in small ways than on people who betray others in great ones.

The reason we all like to think so well of others is that we are all afraid for ourselves. The basis of optimism is sheer terror.

In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane.

I have ever hated all nations, professions, and communities, and all my love is toward individuals: for instance, I hate the tribe of lawyers, but I love Counsellor Such-a-one, and Judge Such-a-one: so with physicians - I will not speak of my own trade - soldiers, English, Scotch, French, and the rest. But principally I hate and detest that animal called man, although I heartily love John, Peter, Thomas, and so forth. This is the system upon which I have governed myself many years, but do not tell.

Whoever takes it upon himself to establish a commonwealth and prescribe laws must presuppose all men naturally bad, and that they will yield to their innate evil passions as often as they can do so with safety.

Put yourself in the other man's place and then you will know why he thinks certain things and does certain deeds.

Moral courage is the most valuable and usually the most absent characteristic in men

There is no urge so great as for one man to edit another man's work.

If a man sets out to hate all the miserable creatures he meets, he will not have much energy left for anything else; whereas he can despise them, one and all, with the greatest ease.

I am a democrat only on principle, not by instinct, nobody is that. Doubtless some people say they are, but this world is grievously given to lying.

Beauty and folly are old companions.

One who is by nature daring and is suffering from poverty will not long be law-abiding. Indeed, any men, save those that are truly good, if their sufferings are very great, will be likely to rebel.

The whole work of man really seems to consist in nothing but proving to himself every minute that he is a man and not a piano key.

As a rule, we go about with masks, we go about looking honest, and we are able to conceal ourselves all through the day.

If man made himself the first object of study, he would see how incapable he is of going further. How can a part know the whole?

He was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset

I have found out that there ain't no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them.

That is the way of the scientist. He will spend thirty years in building up a mountain range of facts with the intent to prove a certain theory; then he is so happy with his achievement that as a rule he overlooks the main chief fact of all-that all his accumulation proves an entirely different thing.

Men forget where the way leads and what they meet with every day seems strange to them.We should not act and speak like men asleep.

To understand the true quality of people, you must look into their minds, and examine their pursuits and aversions.

Heavy, heavy-hearted people grow lighter and rise occasionally to their surface through precisely that which makes others heavier,through hatred and love.

More and more, when faced with the world of men, the only reaction is one of individualism. Man alone is an end unto himself. Everything one tries to do for the common good ends in failure.

A man receiving charity always hates his benefactor- it is a fixed characteristic of human nature

Do you ever wonder if--well, if there are people living on the third planet?' 'The third planet is incapable of supporting life,' stated the husband patiently. 'Our scientists have said there's far too much oxygen in their atmosphere.

Fame is proof that the people are gullible.

Every body drags its shadow, and every mind its doubt.

Impulse without reason is enough, and reason without impulse is a poor makeshift.

Funny thing is that the poorer people are, the more generous they seem to be.

The biggest difference between people is between those who are trying to do the right thing - whether or not they succeed - and those for whom the only question is how much they can get away with.

Indeed envy is a defect; worse than any other.

If a man will observe as he walks the streets, I believe he will find the merriest countenances in mourning coaches.

We must never forget that human motives are generally far more complicated than we are apt to suppose, and that we can very rarely accurately describe the motives of another.

You can't really make people be any different than what they are.

It is well for the world that in most of us, by the age of thirty, the character has set like plaster, and will never soften again.

I believe the best definition of man is the ungrateful biped.

The idea that leisure is of value in itself is only conditionally true. The average man simply spends his leisure as a dog spends it. His recreations are all puerile, and the time supposed to benefit him really only stupefies him.

In every one of us there are two ruling and directing principles, whose guidance we follow wherever they may lead; the one being an innate desire of pleasure; the other, an acquired judgment which aspires after excellence.

The smaller it is the heart, more hatred houses.

Every man has a secret ambition: To outsmart horses, fish and women.

If a man knew anything, he would sit in a corner and be modest; but he is such an ignorant peacock, that he goes bustling up and down, and hits on extraordinary discoveries.

people always live for ever when there is an annuity to be paid them

What is the most rigorous law of our being? Growth.

No one is completely unhappy at the failure of his best friend.

It is one of the great troubles of life that we cannot have any unmixed emotions. There is always something in our enemy that we like, and something in our sweetheart that we dislike.

So let's be honest with ourselves and not take ourselves too serious, and never condemn the other fellow for doing what we are doing every day, only in a different way.

It's only because of their stupidity that they're able to be so sure of themselves.

Art thou angry with him whose armpits stink? Art thou angry with him whose mouth smells foul?

Nothing in oratory is more important than to win for the orator the favour of his hearer, and to have the latter so affected as to be swayed by something resembling an impulse of the spirit impetu quodam animi or emotion perturbatione, rather than by judgment or deliberation. For men decide far more problems by hate, or love, or lust, or rage, or sorrow, or joy, or hope, or fear, or illusion, or some other inward emotion aliqua permotione mentis, than by reality or authority, or any legal standard, or judicial precedent or statute.

We, the lineal representatives of the successful enactors of one scene of slaughter after another, must, whatever more pacific virtues we may also possess, still carry about with us, ready at any moment to burst into flame, the smoldering and sinister traits of character by means of which they lived through so many massacres, harming others, but themselves unharmed.

Wars and revolutions and battles are due simply and solely to the body and its desires.

In the very books in which philosophers bid us scorn fame, they inscribe their names.

those who attack always do so with greater fervor than those who defend.

The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together: our virtues would be proud if our faults whipped them not; and our crimes would despair if they were not cherished by our own virtues.

One can make this generalization about men: they are ungrateful, fickle, liars, and deceivers, they shun danger and are greedy for profit; while you treat them well, they are yours. They would shed their blood for you, risk their property, their lives, their children, so long, as I said above, as danger is remote; but when you are in danger they turn against you.

If you want to make a friend, let someone do you a favor.

To live is to hurt others, and through others, to hurt oneself. Cruel earth! How can we manage not to touch anything? To find what ultimate exile?

I have known some men possessed of good qualities which were very serviceable to others, but useless to themselves; like a sun-dial on the front of a house, to inform the neighbours and passengers, but not the owner within.

Man has created death.

All our reasoning boils down to yielding to sentiment.