#Human Nature Quotes

“I that please some, try all, both joy and terrorOf good and bad, that makes and unfolds error.”

“Do all men kill the things they do not love?”

“If the masses can love without knowing why, they also hate without much foundation.”

“There was never yet philosopher that could endure the toothache patiently”

“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.”

“A wretched soul, bruised with adversity, We bid be quiet when we hear it cry; But were we burdened with light weight of pain, As much or more we should ourselves complain.”

“To be now a sensible man, by and by a fool, and presently a beast!”

“Well, I will find you twenty lascivious turtles ere one chaste man.”

“Thus play I in one person many people, And none contented: sometimes am I king; Then treasons make me wish myself a beggar, And so I am: then crushing penury Persuades me I was better when a king; Then am I king'd again: and by and by Think that I am unking'd by Bolingbroke, And straight am nothing: but whate'er I be, Nor I nor any man that but man is With nothing shall be pleased, till he be eased With being nothing.”

“Why, who cries out on pride that can therein tax any private party? Doth it not flow as hugely as the sea till the weary very means do ebb?”

“O momentary grace of mortal men,Which we more hunt for than the grace of God!”

“This man, lady, hath robb'd many beasts of their particular additions: he is as valiant as a lion, churlish as the bear, slow as the elephant-a man into whom nature hath so crowded humours that his valour is crush'd into folly, his folly sauced with discretion.”

“O world, how apt the poor are to be proud!”

“We suffer a lot the few things we lack and we enjoy too little the many things we have.”

“Here comes Monseiur Le Beau. Rosalind: With his mouth full of news. Celia: Which he will put on us, as pigeons feed their young. Rosalind: Then shall we be news-crammed. Celia: All the better; we shall be the more marketable.”

“The latter end of a fray, and the beginning of a feast, Fits a dull fighter, and a keen guest.”

“To be in anger is impiety, but who is man that is not angry?”

“Men's evil manners live in brass; their virtues we write in water.”

“A wretched soul, bruised with adversity, We bid be quiet when we hear it cry. But were we burd'ned with like weight of pain, As much or more we should ourselves complain: So thou, that hast no unkind mate to grieve thee, With urging helpless patience wouldst relieve me; But if thou live to see like right bereft, This fool-begged patience in thee will be left.”

“We do what we must, and call it by the best names we can, and would fain have the praise of having intended the result which ensues.”

“The hard soil and four months of snow make the inhabitants of the northern temperate zone wiser and abler than his fellow who enjoys the fixed smile of the tropics.”

“The results of life are uncalculated and uncalculable. The years teach much which the days never know. The persons who compose our company, converse, and come and go, and design and execute many things, and somewhat comes of it all, but an unlooked for result. The individual is always mistaken. He designed many things, and drew in other persons as coadjutors, quarrelled with some or all, blundered much, and something is done; all are a little advanced, but the individual is always mistaken. It turns out somewhat new, and very unlike what he promised himself.”

“We do what we must, and call it by the best names.”

“Some eyes threaten like a loaded and levelled pistol, and others are as insulting as hissing or kicking; some have no more expression than blueberries, while others are as deep as a well which you can fall into.”

“The masses have no habit of self-reliance or original action.”

“There are three wants which never can be satisfied: that of the rich, who wants something more; that of the sick, who wants something different; and that of the traveler, who says anywhere but here.”

“Manners have been somewhat cynically defined to be a contrivance of wise men to keep fools at a distance. Fashion is shrewd to detect those who do not belong to her train, and seldom wastes her attentions. Society is very swift in its instincts, and if you do not belong to it, resists and sneers at you, or quietly drops you.”

“Not for nothing one face, one character, one fact makes much impression on him, and another none.”

“If we tire of the saints, Shakspeare is our city of refuge.”

“You are not wood, you are not stones, but men;And being men, hearing the will of Caesar,It will inflame you, it will make you mad.”

“Tis not a year or two shows us a man:They are all but stomachs, and we all but food;They eat us hungerly, and when they are fullThey belch us.”

“Who can be wise, amazed, temperate and furious, Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man.”

“Sanity is very rare; every man almost and every woman has a dash of madness.”

“All stealing is comparative. If you come to absolutes, pray who does not steal.”

“We do what we can, and then make a theory to prove our performance the best.”

“We must trust infinitely to the beneficent necessity which shines through all laws. Human nature expresses itself in them as characteristically as in statues, or songs, or railroads, and an abstract of the codes of nations would be an abstract of the common conscience.”

“Men are so charmed with valor that they have pleased themselves with being called lions, leopards, eagles and dragons, from the animals contemporary with us in the geologic formations.”

“The state of society is one in which the members have suffered amputation from the trunk, and strut about so many walking monsters,—a good finger, a neck, a stomach, an elbow, but never a man.”

“Lord, what fools these mortals be!”

“Men that make Envy and crooked malice nourishment, Dare bite the best.”

“I am such a tender ass, if my hair do but tickle me, I must scratch.”

“Envy is the tax which all distinction must pay.”

“The worthless and offensive members of society, whose existence is a social pest, invariably think themselves the most ill-used people alive, and never get over their astonishment at the ingratitude and selfishness of their contemporaries.”

“The only sin that we never forgive in each other is a difference in opinion.”

“We seek our friend not sacredly, but with an adulterate passion which would appropriate him to ourselves.”

“Men such as they are, very naturally seek money or power; and power because it is as good as money.”

“Some will always be above others. Destroy the inequality today, and it will appear again tomorrow.”

“We are all wise for other people, none for himself.”

“Every vice is only an exaggeration of a necessary and virtuous function.”

“Men are like Geneva watches with crystal faces, which expose the whole movement.”