Quotes: Human Nature

The idea in bold-face print is a summary of the quote. The number after the topic is the page on which the quote was found.

Human Nature
Human nature 43 You cannot escape your personality on a trip. "The trip doesn’t exist that can set you beyond the reach of cravings, fits of temper, or fears." Seneca. 1st century. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Human nature 25 Human nature needs to labor and cannot sit still. "We mistake human nature if we wish for a termination of labor, or a scene of repose." Adam Ferguson. 1767. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Human nature 26 "Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted." Aldous Huxley. 1950. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Human nature 27 People excuse their shortcomings by blaming life. "Each of us in his own person feels that a high-hearted indifference to life would expiate all his short-comings." William James. 1902. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Human nature 27 "How many natures lie in human nature!" Pascal. 1670. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Human nature 55 Human nature is defined by imperfections. "I cling to my imperfection, as the very essence of my being." Anatole France. 1894. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Human nature 55 We never do anything just once. "In anything it is a mistake to think one can perform an action or behave in a certain way once and no more; what one does, one will do again...." Cesare Pavese. 1935-50. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Human nature 57 People do not realize the lives that they actually live. "One’s real life is so often the life that one does not lead." Oscar Wilde. 1882. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Human nature 72 "…the deepest principle of human nature is the craving to be appreciated." Wm. James. 1896. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Human nature 172 People are necessarily miserable and think their misery is an accident. "Men are miserable by necessity, and determined to believe themselves miserable by accident." Leopardi. 1834-7. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Human nature 176 People will only improve when they are shown what they actually are. "Man will only become better when you make him see what he is like." Chekhov. 1892-1904. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Human nature 179 People are never surprised when they hear something bad about humanity. "Upon the whole I dislike mankind: whatever people on the other side of the question may advance, they cannot deny that they are always surprised at hearing of a good action and never a bad one." Keats. 1820. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Human nature 179 "Man is the only animal who causes pain to others with no other object than wanting to do so." Schopenhauer. 1851. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Human nature 184 People do things because they are forbidden. "Adam was but human—this explains it all; he did not want the apple for the apple’s sake; he wanted it only because it was forbidden; the mistake was in not forbidding the serpent; then he would have eaten the serpent." Twain. 1894. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Human nature 200 "As I know more of mankind I expect less of them…." Sam. Johnson. 1783. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Human nature 229 Thought makes me an individual in the vastness of the universe. "Through space the universe grasps me and swallows me up like a speck; through thought I grasp it." Pascal. 1670. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Human nature 238 Man sees himself through individual perception; if he didn't, he would see the world as infinite. "If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things through narrow chinks of his cavern." Blake 1790-3. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Human nature 241 Man, left to himself, lapses into the stupidity of childhood. "When the human mind is left to itself, it invariably lapses into the stupidity of childhood; men will always prefer toys…." Delacroix. 1847. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Human nature 327 People have to work to keep their inner madness shut down. "A man who is of ‘sound mind’ is one who keeps his inner madman under lock and key." Valery. 1942. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Human nature 339 "…how childish grown men really are." Leopardi. 1834-7. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Human nature 36 "It’s silly to go on pretending that under the skin we are all brothers; the truth is more likely that under the skin we are all cannibals, assassins, traitors, liars, hypocrites…." Henry Miller. Portable Curmudgeon.

Human nature 123 People have a tendency toward evil. "On the whole human beings want to be good, but not too good and not quite all the time." George Orwell. Portable Curmudgeon.

Human nature 140 People are far more despicable than they appear. "The nature of men and women—their essential nature—is so vile and despicable that if you were to portray a person as he really is, no one would believe you." W. Somerset Maugham. Portable Curmudgeon.

Human nature 141 "It is human nature to think wisely and act foolishly." Anatole France. Portable Curmudgeon.

Human nature 189 "I believe the best definition of man is the ungrateful biped." Dostoevsky. Portable Curmudgeon.

Human nature 189 "Man…miserable little pile of secrets." Andre Malraux. Portable Curmudgeon.

Human nature 189 People are only dignified when they despise themselves. "Perhaps the only true dignity of man is his capacity to despise himself." Santayana. Portable Curmudgeon.