Quotes About Human Nature Good

#1. He had shrewd, on the spot judgement about human nature. Good sense with good manners and the practice of contentment made up in his view a large part of wisdom.

Theresa Whistler

#2. Conservatism vests in and depends on the widespread, informed understanding of human nature, self-governance and the First Principle of Progress: free people interacting in free markets produce the greatest good for the greatest number always, but only, when tethered to virtue and morality.

Mary Matalin

#3. People with great passions, people who accomplish great deeds, people who possess strong feelings, even people with great minds and a strong personality, rarely come out of good little boys and girls.

Lev S. Vygotsky

#4. All good and evil, whether in the body or in human nature, originates in the soul, and overflows from thence, as if from the head into the eyes.

Plato

#5. Each person has the potential to be good and productive, yet I also know that many people never begin to tap their true potential. It is human nature to surrender to the lowest common denominator. We must purposely strive to move ahead and achieve.

John Patrick Hickey

#6. Cheerfulness is full of significance: it suggests good health, a clear conscience, and a soul at peace with all human nature.

Charles Kingsley

#7. If you want to ask how evil begins, just look to basic human nature. What's good gets bent, and bad is the inevitable result.

Anonymous

#8. Nothing spoils human nature more than false zeal. The good nature of a heathen is more God-like than the furious zeal of a Christian.

Benjamin Whichcote

#9. There is so much of good in human nature that men grow to like each other upon better acquaintance, and this points to another way in which we may strive to promote the peace of the world.

Elihu Root

#10. One thing you learn when you've lived as long as I have-people aren't all good, and people aren't all bad. We move in and out of darkness and light all of our lives. Right now, I'm pleased to be in the light.

Neal Shusterman

#11. The nature of man is evil; what is good in him is artificial.

Xunzi

#12. People started down the road with good intentions, but the moment the road became rough or difficult, they'd abandon it.

Sherrilyn Kenyon

#13. That's what writers do - the good ones anyway - we watched and we learned the faux pas of human nature. The delicate ways people came undone, the tiny little frays in the tapestry.

Tarryn Fisher

#14. Why is it so difficult for us to think in relative terms? Well, for the good reason that human nature loves absoluteness, and erroneously considers it as a state of higher knowledge.

Felix Alba-Juez

#15. We're all a grab bag of good and eveil, and by and large can't tell which is which

Madeleine L'Engle

#16. To do evil for good is human corruption; to do good for good is civil retribution; but to do good for evil is Christian perfection. Though this be not the grace of nature, it is the nature of grace.

Thomas Secker

#17. unless an evil thought is born in a twisted mind, human nature is repelled by crime. However, civilization has given us needs, vices and artificial appetites which sometimes cause us to repress our good instincts and lead us to wrongdoing.

Alexandre Dumas

#18. ...I always took the rearmost seat in the classroom - it gave me a good view of things. And I must confess, the location taught me more about human nature and justice than could be learned from the professors' lectures.

Rohinton Mistry

#19. It is part of our human nature to question what we know and what we don't know.

Brian Michael Good

#20. Nothing in human nature is so God-like as the disposition to do good to our fellow-creatures.

Samuel Richardson

#21. Are people innately altruistic?" is the wrong kind of question to ask. People are people, and they respond to incentives. They can nearly always be manipulated--for good or ill--if only you find the right levers.

Steven D. Levitt

#22. Resistance, his all-encompassing term for what Freud called the Death Wish - that destructive force inside human nature that rises whenever we consider a tough, long-term course of action that might do for us or others something that's actually good.

Steven Pressfield

#23. Because "we human beings are imaginative by nature, we cannot choose to live by the routine of the ant-heap. If deprived of the imagery of virtue" - imaginative depictions of the truly good life - "we will seek out the imagery of vice.

Russell Kirk

#24. Human nature is disposed to do good.

Mencius

#25. I've discovered that in life, it doesn't matter how good of a person you are; it's human nature to be judged and to judge others by the blood they carry and the company they keep.

Mz. Robinson

#26. Tell them that we have some good in us, too. And the only thing worth living for is the good. That's why we've got to make sure we pass it on.

Billie Letts

#27. Anyone who attacks individual charity, attacks human nature and casts contempt on personal dignity.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

#28. He who commends the nature of the soul as the supreme good, and condemns the nature of the flesh as evil, at once both carnally desires the soul, and carnally flies the flesh, because he feels thus from human vanity, not from divine truth.

Saint Augustine

#29. She believed, and was entitled to believe, I must say, that all human beings were evil by nature, whether tormentors or victims, or idle standers-by. They could only create meaningless tragedies, she said, since they weren't nearly intelligent enough to accomplish all the good they were meant to do.

Kurt Vonnegut

#30. Humans can be as good as they can be bad. Because goodness and evil both are biological traits of the mind.

Abhijit Naskar

#31. It's human nature that if you get 20 positive comments and one negative one, you're going to focus on the negative. We all do that. It can be something that drags you down. It's easy to get bogged down with it, but I try to concentrate on the good things.

Bindi Irwin

#32. Is human nature basically good or evil? No economist can embark upon his profession without considering this question, and yet they all seem to. And they all seem to think human nature is basically good, or they wouldn't be surprised by the effects of deregulation.

Jane Smiley

#33. I came to the conclusion is that we have a very shallow view of human nature in the policy world. We're really good at talking about material things, really bad at talking about emotions, really good at stuff we can count, really bad at the deeper stuff that actually drives behavior.

David Brooks

#34. ...the ugliest things in human nature are perversions of good and innocent things.

C.S. Lewis

#35. To will is human, to will the bad is of fallen nature, but to will the good is of Grace.

John Calvin

#36. The purpose of the gospel is to make bad men good and good men better, and to change human nature.

David O. McKay

#37. Human nature stays the same, the one thing that stays constant, like death and taxes. And people still want good stories!

Alison Owen

#38. Not a tie hold me to human society at this moment - not a charm or hope calls me where my fellow-creatures are - none that saw me would have a kind thought or a good wish for me. I have no relative but the universal mother, Nature.

Charlotte Bronte

#39. A good book is an education of the heart. It enlarges your sense of human possibility what human nature is of what happens in the world. It's a creator of inwardness.

Susan Sontag

#40. Whether at home or abroad, the task of statesman is to work with human nature warts and all, and to draw on instincts and even prejudices that can be turned to good purpose. It is never to try to recreate Mankind in a new image.

Margaret Thatcher

#41. I have been accused of being a Pollyanna, but I think there are plenty of people dealing with the darker side of human nature, and if I am going to write about people who are kind and generous and loving and thoughtful, so what? In my life I have met astonishingly good people.

Ann Patchett

#42. Do not let the evil become our masters, but make the good reign upon the world.

Abhijit Naskar

#43. It is good to be often reminded of the inconsistency of human nature, and to learn to look without wonder or disgust on the weaknesses which are found in the strongest minds.

Thomas B. Macaulay

#44. I have found little that is 'good' about human beings on the whole. In my experience most of them are trash, no matter whether they publicly subscribe to this or that ethical doctrine or to none at all.

Sigmund Freud

#45. In some respects, if I had to choose just one (virtue on the spiritual path), I'd feel safest with a sense of humor. We pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, have a good laugh about human nature, and get on with our journeys.

Bo Lozoff

#46. Pride is a human nature and it's good for people to be proud of themselves, achievements, etc. but too much of anything is not healthy. Humble is pride exhibited through humility, so be humble and prideful about being humble.

Uzoma Nnadi

#47. Mencius said that human nature is good. I disagree with that.

Xun Zi

#48. Life wasn't too bad. The trouble with Man was, even while he was having a good time, he didn't appreciate it. Why, thought Milligan, this very moment might be the happiest in me life. The very thought of it made him miserable.

Spike Milligan

#49. Here were we wretched creatures of men making for each other's throats, and outraging the good earth which God had made so fair a habitation.

John Buchan

#50. But, ah me! where is the faultless human creature who can persevere in a good resolution, without sometimes failing and falling back?

Wilkie Collins

#51. To make them forget how bad human beings are, they were taught too insistently that bears are good. Instead of being told honestly what humans are and what bears are.

Umberto Eco

#52. Real life is about accepting ups and downs, the good and the bad, the possibility of failure as well as the ambition to succeed. Atheism speaks to the truth about our human nature because it recognizes all this and does not seek to shield us from the truth by myth and superstition

Julian Baggini

#53. Excellence in life seems to me to be the way in which each human being makes the most of the adventure of living and becomes most truly and deeply himself, fulfilling his own nature in the context of a good life with other people.

Eda LeShan

#54. The tendency toward good in human nature has a force which no creed can utterly counteract, and which insures the ultimate triumph of that tendency over all dogmatic perversions.

George Eliot

#55. I hope you haven't given up on the S.Q.'s of the world, Reynie. As you see, there are a great many sheep in wolves' clothing. If not for S.Q.'s good nature, we'd never have escaped.

Trenton Lee Stewart

#56. There are a lot of wrong reasons to do a remake, but there are some good ones. I think it's human nature, in many ways, to retell our favorite stories. We do it in the theater, all the time. I've seen four different Hamlets, and every one has given me something different.

Joel Kinnaman

#57. Human nature will not change. In any future great national trial, compared with the men of this, we shall have as weak and as strong, as silly and as wise, as bad and as good. Let us therefore study the incidents of this, as philosophy to learn wisdom from.

Abraham Lincoln

#58. People need to make sure they have a good humor spark plug inside them that can be ignited at any moment when required.

Wes Adamson

#59. It's amazing how people can be so blind to what's good for them and what isn't, what's truth and what's not, or the difference between secrets and things just not yet known.

Eric Lindstrom

#60. I am pessimistic about the human race because it is too ingenious for its own good. Our approach to nature is to beat it into submission. We would stand a better chance of survival if we accommodated ourselves to this planet and viewed it appreciatively, instead of skeptically and dictatorially.

E.B. White

#61. Exactly what the powers of hell feed on: the best instincts in man.

Philip K. Dick

#62. There do remain dispersed in the soil of human nature divers seeds of goodness, of benignity, of ingenuity, which, being cherished, excited, and quickened by good culture, do, by common experience, thrust out flowers very lovely, and yield fruits very pleasant of virtue and goodness.

Isaac Barrow

#63. It's really a wonder that I haven't dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.

Anne Frank

#64. In any event, we must remember that it's not the blinded wrongdoers who are primarily responsible for the triumph of evil in the world, but the spiritually sighted servants of the good.

Fyodor Stepun

#65. It is not good for a man to be too cognizant of his physical and spiritual mechanisms. Complete knowledge reveals limits to human possibilities, and the less a man is by nature limited in his purposes, the less he can tolerate limits.

Stanislaw Lem

#66. Nature is good at connectivity. The impact of diverse human activities is observed and absorbed throughout nature. Everything is linked. Nature has no problem with coherence. Ecosystems react with their own logic.

Jonas Gahr Store

#67. The mature man lives quietly, does good privately, takes responsibility for his actions, treats others with friendliness and courtesy, finds mischief boring and avoids it. Without the hidden conspiracy of goodwill, society would not endure an hour.

Kenneth Rexroth

#68. For too long, we've assumed that there is a single template for human nature, which is why we diagnose most deviations as disorders. But the reality is that there are many different kinds of minds. And that's a very good thing.

Jonah Lehrer

#69. You're brave. You're good. Why would you hesitate to explore yourself? Your dark nooks and crannies? With someone who is fascinated by the whole of you? You aren't a bad woman, merely a human one, which entails a certain amount of" - he cocked his head - "'awfulness,' as you call it.

Judith Ivory

#70. Believe in human beings - not all are good, but deep down all can be. But that doesn't mean you need to hang around crappy people and try to turn them around.

Jonas Eriksson

#71. 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

#72. To prefer evil to good is not in human nature; and when a man is compelled to choose one of two evils, no one will choose the greater when he might have the less.

Plato

#73. Only one kind of species of animals bites the hand that feeds them - mankind.

Fakeer Ishavardas

#74. To those who think that liberty is a good thing, and that it may someday be possible for people to live in a society fit for free, fully human individuals, a thorough education in the nature of language, its uses and abuses, seems indispensable.

Aldous Huxley

#75. Since humans are social animals, you're basically only as good as your reputation.

A.D. Aliwat

#76. Given is the word. Given publicly, on the first Good Friday, on a hill, in the sight of all, was the visible demonstration of the only permanent way to overcome evil. Human nature demands something more enduring than the unquiet equilibrium of rival powers.

Muriel Lester

#77. The traditional Christian attitude toward human personality was that human nature was essentially good and that it was formed and modified by social pressures and training.

Carroll Quigley

#78. If Peter has learned one thing about human nature during all his years in hockey, it's that almost everyone regards themselves as a good team player, but that very few indeed understand what that really means.

Fredrik Backman

#79. ...rewilding is all about being nice, kind, compassionate, empathic, and harnessing our inborn goodness and optimism. We must all work together at this. It's about time we focus on the good side of human and animal nature. ... nature offers many lessons for kinder society. Blood shouldn't sell.

Marc Bekoff

#80. It occurred to him that his scarcely perceptible attempts to struggle against what was considered good by the most highly placed people, those scarcely noticeable impulses which he had immediately suppressed, might have been the real thing, and all the rest false.

Leo Tolstoy

#81. Good-nature and good-sense must ever join;
To err is human, to forgive, divine.

Alexander Pope

#82. On the whole human beings want to be good, but not too good, and not quite all the time.

George Orwell

#83. A creature not too bright or good For human nature's daily food; For transient sorrows, simple wiles, Praise, blame, love, kisses, tears, and smiles.

William Wordsworth

#84. One day people will come back. they won't be able to help themselves. People need music and dance and beautiful things. They forget sometimes, but not forever. You'll see. One day, this will be a magical place again. With music and dance and good times and people celebrating.

Nadia Aguiar

#85. There surely is in human nature an inherent propensity to extract all the good out of all the evil.

Benjamin Haydon

#86. The evil that is in this world always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence, if they lack understanding. On the whole, men are more good than bad; that however isn't the real point. But they are more or less ignorant, and it is this that we call vice or virtue;

Albert Camus

#87. Striving to be good is the ultimate struggle of every man. Being bad is easy, but being good requires sincere commitment, discipline and strength. We have to work hard every day just to remain good.

Suzy Kassem

#88. The inquiry of truth, which is the love-making, or the wooing of it, the knowledge of truth, which is the presence of it, and the belief of truth, which is the enjoying of it, is the sovereign good of human nature.

Francis Bacon

#89. Human nature is good, just as water seeks low ground. There is no man who is not good, just as there is no water that does not flow downward.

Mencius

#90. Governments never do any great good things from mere principle, from mere love of justice ... You expect too much of human nature when you expect that.

Susan B. Anthony

#91. If you let people follow their feelings, they will be able to do good. This is what is meant by saying that human nature is good.

Mencius

#92. Maybe I feel like I need to witness a good dose of human nature at its worst before I enter the real world. It'll be less of a shock.

Colleen Hoover

#93. Man is a rebel, and a rebel is naturally in confusion. He is in conflict with every other rebel. For a rebel by his very nature is selfish. He is seeking his own good and not the good of others.

Billy Graham

#94. In a war the most dangerous thing is to understand the enemy. To understand is to forgive. And we
have no right to do that - we never have had, not since the creation of the world.

Sergei Lukyanenko

#95. It is good and very grand to conquer external nature, but grander still to conquer our internal nature ... This conquering of the inner man, understanding the secrets of the subtle workings that are within the human mind, and knowing its wonderful secrets, belong entirely to religion.

Swami Vivekananda

#96. You're either good, or you're clever.

Mackenzi Lee

#97. But the people only talked about how ugly her face looked. No one even bothered to mention what a sweet, kindhearted girl she was. Now, don't be amazed! That is just the nature of humans, to notice the one flaw among a person's ten good qualities.

Janaki Sooriyarachchi

#98. Even if this advice to portfolio decision makers to drop dead is good advice, it obviously is not counsel that will be eagerly followed. Few people will commit suicide without a push. And fewer still will pay good money to be told to do what is against human nature and self-interest to do.

Paul Samuelson

#99. Nothing brings out the lower traits of human nature like office-seeking. Men of good character and impulses are betrayed by it into all sorts of meanness.

Rutherford B. Hayes

#100. Everything we know about human nature and about government tells us that individuals using their own money will achieve far more good for themselves and far more for others than politicians spending money they didn't have to work to earn.

Harry Browne