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human nature quotes

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“We control life, Winston, at all its levels. You are imagining that there is something called human nature which will be outraged by what we do and will turn against us. But we create human nature. Men are infinitely malleable.” George Orwell, 1984
“Perhaps it is only human nature to inflict suffering on anything that will endure suffering, whether by reason of its genuine humility, or indifference, or sheer helplessness.” Honoré de Balzac, Father Goriot
“But men are men; the best sometimes forget:” William Shakespeare, Othello
“But love is a strange master, and human nature is still stranger, so she asked her question.” Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan of the Apes
“That however the brains and abilities of men may differ, their stomachs are essentially the same.” F. Scott Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise
“It is to the credit of human nature, that, except where its selfishness is brought into play, it loves more readily than it hates.” Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter
“After all that has been said of the levity and inconstancy of human nature, it appears evidently from experience, that man is, of all sorts of luggage, the most difficult to be transported.” Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations
“We make allowance for a certain degree of selfishness in men; because we know it to be inseparable from human nature, and inherent in our frame and constitution.” David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature
“The general observations treasured up by a course of experience, give us the clue of human nature, and teach us to unravel all its intricacies. Pretexts and appearances no longer deceive us.” David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
“After the primary necessities of food and raiment, freedom is the first and strongest want of human nature.” John Stuart Mill, The Subjection of Women
“The highest flights of charity, devotion, trust, patience, bravery to which the wings of human nature have spread themselves have been flown for religious ideals.” William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience
“We are only human, and the gods have fashioned us for love. That is our great glory, and our great tragedy.” George R. R. Martin, A Game of Thrones
“Sometimes I lose faith in human nature for a time; I am assailed by doubt.” William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying
“I promise nothing complete; because any human thing supposed to be complete, must for that very reason infallibly be faulty.” Herman Melville, Moby-Dick
“It is only a novel . . . or, in short, only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and...” Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

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charity mind life want selfishness love men imperfection indifference freedom intelligence reading suffering religion experience tragedy man hate appearance doubt

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David Hume (2)
George R. R. Martin (1)
William Shakespeare (1)
George Orwell (1)
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1)
Jane Austen (1)
John Stuart Mill (1)
Herman Melville (1)
Adam Smith (1)
William Faulkner (1)
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1)
William James (1)
Edgar Rice Burroughs (1)
Honoré de Balzac (1)

Related sources

A Game of Thrones (1)
The Varieties of Religious Experience (1)
As I Lay Dying (1)
1984 (1)
Moby-Dick (1)
The Subjection of Women (1)
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1)
This Side of Paradise (1)
Othello (1)
The Wealth of Nations (1)
The Scarlet Letter (1)
Northanger Abbey (1)
Father Goriot (1)
A Treatise of Human Nature (1)
Tarzan of the Apes (1)