74 Quotes On Human Nature

Human nature is a complex and fascinating tapestry of emotions, instincts, and behaviors. Throughout history, thinkers, writers, and philosophers have sought to capture the essence of what it means to be human through words that resonate across time and cultures. In this collection of 74 quotes, we delve into the myriad aspects of human nature, exploring themes of love, struggle, resilience, and curiosity. Whether you seek wisdom, inspiration, or simply a moment of reflection, these quotes offer profound insights into the intricacies of our shared human experience. Join us on this journey through the hearts and minds of some of the greatest observers of human nature.

1. “He's got a can up there,' Richard said.” - John Steinbeck

2. “You see, gentlemen, reason is an excellent thing, there’s no disputing that, but reason is nothing but reason and satisfies only the rational side of man’s nature, while will is a manifestation of the whole life, that is, of the whole human life including reason and all the impulses. And although our life, in this manifestation of it, is often worthless, yet it is life and not simply extracting square roots.” - Fyodor Dostoevsky

3. “While I was an honorable man in her eyes, she did not love me. But the minute she understood what I was, when she breathed the true and foul odor of my soul, love was born in her – for she does love me! Well, well! There is nothing real, then, except evil.” - Octave Mirbeau

4. “The only reason why we ask other people how their weekend was is so we can tell them about our own weekend.” - Chuck Palahniuk

5. “The idea that I can't share my problems with other people makes me not give a shit about their problems.” - Chuck Palahniuk

6. “I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies but not the madness of people.” - Isaac Newton

7. “--¿Qué es ser hombre, para vos?--Es muchas cosas, pero para mí... bueno, lo más lindo del hombre es eso, ser lindo, fuerte, pero sin hacer alharaca de fuerza, y que va avanzando seguro. Que camine seguro, como mi mozo, que hable sin miedo, que sepa lo que quiere, adonde va, sin miedo de nada.” - Manuel Puig

8. “Our zeal works wonders, whenever it supports our inclination toward hatred, cruelty, ambition.” - Michel de Montaigne

9. “The fountain of content must spring up in the mind, and he who hath so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition, will waste his life in fruitless efforts and multiply the grief he proposes to remove.” - Samuel Johnson

10. “I believe in equality. Equality for everybody. No matter how stupid they are or how superior I am to them.” - Steve Martin

11. “Friends are the family you choose (~ Nin/Ithilnin, Elven rogue).” - Jess C. Scott

12. “Yes, and because we grow old we become more and more the stuff our forbears put into us. I can feel his savagery strengthen in me. We think we are so individual and so misunderstood when we are young; but the nature our strain of blood carries is inside there, waiting, like our skeleton.” - Willa Cather

13. “Unfortunately for the good sense of mankind, the fact of their fallibility is far from carrying the weight in their practical judgement, which is always allowed to it in theory; for while every one well knows himself to be fallible, few think it necessary to take any precautions against their own fallibility. ” - John Stuart Mill

14. “Most people don't believe something can happen until it already has. That's not stupidity or weakness, that's just human nature.” - Max Brooks

15. “Now he found out a new thing--namely, that to promise not to do a thing is the surest way in the world to make a body want to go and do that very thing.” - Mark Twain

16. “The moment you have a self at all, there is a possibility of putting yourself first - wanting to be the centre - wanting to be God, in fact. That was the sin of Satan: and that was the sin he taught the human race. Some people think the fall of man had something to do with sex, but that is a mistake...what Satan put into the heads of our remote ancestors was the idea that they 'could be like Gods' - could set up on their own as if they had created themselves - be their own masters - invent some sort of happiness for themselves outside God, apart from God. And out of that hopeless attempt has come...the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.” - C.S. Lewis

17. “What manner of people they were only books and other people could tell... and the tale was a long and gory one dating from the dim, conjectural dawn of history. But being human they were as apt to change as mother nature to remain constant.” - Robert Edison Fulton Jr.

18. “One is fruitful only at the cost of being rich in contradictions.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

19. “It is assured that men of all ages imagine a woman naked when they first meet.” - Tiffany Madison

20. “If you are losing faith in human nature, go out and watch a marathon.” - Kathrine Switzer

21. “Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance.” - Kurt Vonnegut

22. “The instinct to survive is human nature itself, and every aspect of our personalities derives from it. Anything that conflicts with the survival instinct acts sooner or later to eliminate the individual and thereby fails to show up in future generations. . . . A scientifically verifiable theory of morals must be rooted in the individual's instinct to survive--and nowhere else!--and must correctly describe the hierarchy of survival, note the motivations at each level, and resolve all conflicts.We have such a theory now; we can solve any moral problem, on any level. Self-interest, love of family, duty to country, responsibility toward the human race . . . .The basis of all morality is duty, a concept with the same relation to group that self-interest has to individual.” - Robert A. Heinlein

23. “I could not help it: the restlessness was in my nature; it agitated me to pain sometimes.” - Charlotte Brontë

24. “On the whole, all people are good, or at least they're normal. The frightening thing is that they can suddenly turn bad when it comes to the crunch.” - Natsume Soseki

25. “We were born of risen apes, not fallen angels, and the apes were armed killers besides. And so what shall we wonder at? Our murders and massacres and missiles, and our irreconcilable regiments?” - Robert Ardrey

26. “Of course boredom may lead you to anything. It is boredom sets one sticking golden pins into people, but all that would not matter. What is bad (this is my comment again) is that I dare say people will be thankful for the gold pins then.” - Fyodor Dostoevsky

27. “Function? Why function? Who needs more functioning human beings? It's really quite astounding, if you ask me, the sheer quantity of normal in the world today. I think that's the real horror of modern life.” - James Greer

28. “To be human is to be 'a' human, a specific person with a life history and idiosyncrasy and point of view; artificial intelligence suggest that the line between intelligent machines and people blurs most when a puree is made of that identity.” - Brian Christian

29. “For such is the nature of man, that howsoever they may acknowledge many others to be more witty, or more eloquent, or more learned; Yet they will hardly believe there be many so wise as themselves: For they see their own wit at hand, and other mens at a distance.” - Thomas Hobbes

30. “We assume that all statements must be mild inversions of the truth, because it's too weird to imagine people who aren't casually lying, pretty much all the time.” - Chuck Klosterman

31. “A morning coffee is my favorite way of starting the day, settling the nerves so that they don't later fray.” - Marcia Carrington

32. “Because," she said, "that is what men would call it. They invented Satan, didn't they? Satanic is merely the name they give to the behavior of those who would disrupt the orderly way in which men want to live.” - Anne Rice

33. “The spirit of a man is constructed out of his choices.” - Irvin D. Yalom

34. “One of the many things I learned at the end of that Classics corridor down which I ventured at the age of 18, in search of something I could not then define, was this, written by the Greek author Plutarch: What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality. That is an astonishing statement and yet proven a thousand times every day of our lives. It expresses, in part, our inescapable connection with the outside world, the fact that we touch other people’s lives simply by existing.” - J.K. Rowling

35. “Yet gold all is not, that doth gold seem,Nor all good knights, that shake well spear and shield:The worth of all men by their end esteem,And then praise, or due reproach them yield.” - Edmund Spenser

36. “The highest as the lowest form of criticism is a mode of autobiography. Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault.” - Oscar Wilde

37. “It is a part of our nature to survive. Faith is an instinctive response to aspects of existence that we cannot explain by any other means, be it the moral void we perceive in the universe, the certainty of death, the mystery of the origin of things, the meaning of our lives, or the absence of meaning. These are basic and extremely simple aspects of existence, but our limitations prevent us from responding in an unequivocal way and for that reason we generate an emotional response, as a defense mechanism. It's pure biology.” - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

38. “Man was born for society. However little He may be attached to the World, He never can wholly forget it, or bear to be wholly forgotten by it. Disgusted at the guilt or absurdity of Mankind, the Misanthrope flies from it: He resolves to become an Hermit, and buries himself in the Cavern of some gloomy Rock. While Hate inflames his bosom, possibly He may feel contented with his situation: But when his passions begin to cool; when Time has mellowed his sorrows, and healed those wounds which He bore with him to his solitude, think you that Content becomes his Companion? Ah! no, Rosario. No longer sustained by the violence of his passions, He feels all the monotony of his way of living, and his heart becomes the prey of Ennui and weariness. He looks round, and finds himself alone in the Universe: The love of society revives in his bosom, and He pants to return to that world which He has abandoned. Nature loses all her charms in his eyes: No one is near him to point out her beauties, or share in his admiration of her excellence and variety. Propped upon the fragment of some Rock, He gazes upon the tumbling waterfall with a vacant eye, He views without emotion the glory of the setting Sun. Slowly He returns to his Cell at Evening, for no one there is anxious for his arrival; He has no comfort in his solitary unsavoury meal: He throws himself upon his couch of Moss despondent and dissatisfied, and wakes only to pass a day as joyless, as monotonous as the former.” - Matthew Gregory Lewis

39. “Senses of humor define people, as factions, deeper rooted than religious or political opinions. When carrying out everyday tasks, opinions are rather easy to set aside, but those whom a person shares a sense of humor with are his closest friends. They are always there to make the biggest influence.” - Criss Jami

40. “But in my growth and development, I knew I wanted more. And more. Oh, God. So much more. It's what being human is all about.” - James Lusarde

41. “I'm afraid that in nine cases out of ten Nature pulls one way and human nature another.” - E.M. Forster

42. “Don't reach for the halo too soon. You have plenty of time to enjoy yourself, even a little maliciously sometimes, before you settle down to being a saint.” - Ellis Peters

43. “And perhaps it was also the case that, for all a lifetime's internal struggling, you were finally no more than what others saw you as. That was your nature, whether you liked it or not.” - Julian Barnes

44. “But then, anyone was capable of any manner of atrocities if they wanted something bad enough. People could justify anything to themselves if they wanted it bad enough. No one was immune to that.” - Stacia Kane

45. “Humans had built a world inside the world, which reflected it in pretty much the same way as a drop of water reflected the landscape. And yet ... and yet ...Inside this little world they had taken pains to put all the things you might think they would want to escape from — hatred, fear, tyranny, and so forth. Death was intrigued. They thought they wanted to be taken out of themselves, and every art humans dreamt up took them further in. He was fascinated.” - Terry Pratchett

46. “We are beasts, you know, beasts risen from the savannas and jungles and forests. We have come down from the trees and up out of the water, but you can never, ever fully remove the feral nature from our psyches.” - Yasmine Galenorn

47. “For all their simplicity, humans could be remarkably perceptive, though they didn't know it most of the time, and their ability to thrust straight through deception and see to the heart of truth was often lost with childhood. By adulthood humans had trained themselves to be coy and manipulative in response to the coy and manipulative society in which they lived, which led them to believe that everyone was trying to be as coy and manipulative as themselves and were uncertain about what was true and what was not. Beyond their few flashes of clarity, everything became a muddle of colliding doubts.” - Sean DeLauder

48. “You see, I have been at revaluing myself in the last few days. I may have some value to historians because I have destroyed a few things. The builder of your Cathedral is forgotten even now, but I, who burned it, may be remembered for a hundred years or so. And that may mean something or other about mankind.” - John Steinbeck

49. “Most people are far too much occupied with themselves to be malicious.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

50. “Mankind are tolerant of the praises of others as long as each hearer thinks that he can do as well or nearly as well himself, but, when the speaker rises above him, jealousy is aroused and he begins to be incredulous.” - Thucydides

51. “[N]one of us drinks the chalice of our existence to the last drop. None of us is fully obedient. Each of us falls short of the human nature entrusted to us.” - Johann Baptist Metz

52. “Like enthusiasts in general, he made no inquiries into details of procedure.” - Thomas Hardy

53. “What separates or unites people is not their language, their laws, their customs, their principles, but the way they hold their knife and fork.” - Irene Nemirovsky

54. “To see an almost certain horrible death--you know how crowds all sit at the edge of their seats, /praying/ subconsciously for a spectacular accident--and then to be whisked away from it so suddenly--brought to the edge of tragedy, and then to have their better natures win out, showing them how much nicer they always /knew/ they were--that was the supreme thrill.” - Harlan Ellison

55. “There is such a thing as righteous judgment, but it seems that lately the word 'judgment' has become a curse word, period. The issue isn't whether or not we're insightful enough to avoid being judgmental, but whether or not we're secure enough to accept being judged. It is inevitable for every conscious human being to judge. It may spring from insight and experience and sincerity, and in such cases, it is quite beneficial on the receiving end.” - Criss Jami

56. “For that matter, all this, is there a God? Corlis -- I don't care!""Huh," I considered. "I guess I don't either"."Most people don't! All they care about," he added grimly, "is being right".” - Lionel Shriver

57. “Seni sama pentingnya dengan matematika. Seni memanusiakan manusia. Seni menciptakan rasa empati” - Wahyu Aditya

58. “No man stops caring as long as he breathes. As long as he has a mind and memory, he will care. This is what separates us from the animals. We have feelings.” - F. Sionil José

59. “What humans want most of all, is to be right. Even if we're being right about our own doom. If we believe there are monsters around the next corner ready to tear us apart, we would literally prefer to be right about the monsters, than to be shown to be wrong in the eyes of others and made to look foolish.” - David Wong

60. “We have a disharmony in our natures. We cannot live together without injuring each other.” - William Golding

61. “Ego is the world's worst narcotic” - Mekael Shane

62. “To believe that man’s aggressiveness or territoriality is in the nature of the beast is to mistake some men for all men, contemporary society for all possible societies, and, by a remarkable transformation, to justify what is as what needs must be; social repression becomes a response to, rather than a cause of, human violence. Pessimism about man serves to maintain the status quo. It is a luxury for the affluent, a sop to the guilt of the politically inactive, a comfort to those who continue to enjoy the amenities of privilege.” - Leon Eisenberg

63. “Errare è umano, perdonare divino.” - Alexander Pope

64. “Cards and boards, [Johnny] thought. And the dead. That's not dark forces. Making a fuss about cards and heavy metal and going on about Dungeons and Dragons stuff because it's got demon gods in it is like guarding to door when it is really coming up through the floorboards. Real dark forces... aren't dark. They're sort of gray, like Mr. Grimm. They take all the color out of life; they take a town like Blackbury and turn it into frightened streets and plastic signs and Bright New Futures and towers where no one wants to live and no one really does live. The dead seem more alive than us. And everyone becomes gray and turns into numbers and then, somewhere, someone starts to do arithmetic...” - Terry Pratchett

65. “People started down the road with good intentions, but the moment the road became rough or difficult, they'd abandon it.” - Sherrilyn Kenyon

66. “Human hypocrisy: When one judges humanity as a whole, people have the habit of disagreeing, saying that everyone is different - unique. Yet people turn around and say that at the end of the day, everyone is the same. Ladies and gentlemen, the joyful paradoxical nature of humanity. If you really want to dismiss the paradox, show me that your an imaginary number, rather than a real number.” - Lionel Suggs

67. “I think humans have always been desperate. I think it has always been about doing something awful if it might help, when the only other option is death. Maybe that's what being a parent is supposed to feel like.” - Lauren DeStefano

68. “Are you finally admitting that you can sell a man hope? Have I at last succeeded in teaching you that?”He laughed and flicked his whip again, harder. He was in a better mood than I had seen for months.“No, Camelot, not hope. Hope is for the weak; have I not succeeded in teaching you that? To hope is to put your faith in others and in things outside yourself; that way lies betrayal and disappointment. They didn't want hope, Camelot; they wanted certainty. What a man needs is the certainty that he is right, no self-doubt, no fleeting thought that he might be wrong or misled. Absolute certainty that he is right—that's what gives a man the confidence and power to do whatever he wants and to take whatever he wants from this world and the next.” - Karen Maitland

69. “Nature has gone to great lengths to hide our subconscious from ourselves. Why?” - Robert Wright

70. “what we are we potray that in our deeds.....” - Sai Kumar Nayak

71. “Men are not angels,” Akhmar affirmed. “And so men have the chance to be noble, in a way that angels cannot.” - J. Leigh Bralick

72. “One human could simply withhold its feelings and intentions from another human by failing to audibilize or it could audibilize things that were not real. The other human would be aware only of what it heard and would change its behavior in response to a nonexistent stimulus. They called it 'lying.” - Robert Buettner

73. “Our thoughts are private to protect others not ourselves. People don't have the ability to handle what you really think about them” - Morena Baloyi

74. “It is easier for a man to burn down his own house than to get rid of his prejudices.” - Roger Bacon