Quotes about human nature

The human mind is a pattern, nothing more. The first dim flicker of awareness in the evolving forebrain of Australopithecus carried that pattern in embryo; and down through all the ages, as the human neural engine increased in power and complexity, gained control of its environment in geometrically expanding increments, the pattern never varied.

Man clings to his self-orientation as the psychological center of the Universe. He can face any challenge within that framework, suffer any loss, endure any hardship—so long as the structure remains intact.

Without it he’s a mind adrift in a trackless infinity—lacking any scale against which to measure his aspirations, his losses, his victories.

Even when the light of his intellect shows him that the structure is itself a product of his brain; that infinity knows no scale, and eternity no duration—still he clings to his self-non-self concept, as a philosopher clings to a life he knows must end, to ideals he knows are ephemeral, to causes he knows will be forgotten.

The human capacity for mischief is boundless.

Humanity is best described as inhumanity.

I sometimes think that there is a link between the decline in humanity and the increase in prosperity and comfort. Property and comfort are what people seek, but the costs to character are often terrifying.

I sat there agape, looking at the flowers, and thought to myself, There are really good things about human beings. I mean, it's humans who discovered the beauty of flowers, and humans who admire them.

"Don't blame me," he said, surprised at her reaction. "Blame human nature. I didn't make the world."

Only humanity could grasp the stars and then let them slip through its fingers for the pettiness in its heart.

Man is not yet a finished creation but rather a challenge of the spirit, a distant possibility dreaded as much as it is desired.

“[O]nly the sea is like a human being . . .always moving, always something deep in itself is stirring it. It never rests; it is always wanting, wanting, wanting. It hurries on; and then it creeps back slowly without having reached, moaning. It is always asking a question and it never gets the answer.”

Kester wrote about people and since human nature doesn't change his observations hadn't dated.

'Barbarity's everywhere, that's the truth of it. Absolutely anyone is capable of absolutely anything.'

'My dear Papa, I had no idea you were such a cynic!'

'That's not cynicism, that's honesty — as you well know, dealing with criminals as you do, seeing the human race continually at its worst.'

It was a fault of the human condition—or perhaps a blessing—that there was no situation which did not eventually become the normal state of affairs.