Human Nature Quotes

"Man is by nature a political animal."

"In politics, as on the sickbed, people toss from one side to the other, thinking they will be more comfortable."

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"If men were angels, no government would be necessary."

James Madison

"He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god."

"The most radical revolutionary will become a conservative the day after the revolution."

Hannah Arendt

"The life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short."

Thomas Hobbes

"Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of man will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint."

“The only time people dislike gossip is when you gossip about them.”

“Everything is funny, as long as it's happening to somebody else.”

“There's nothing funnier than the human animal.”

“There is something good in men that really yearns for discipline.”

“The abilities of man must fall short on one side or the other, like too scanty a blanket when you are abed. If you pull it upon your shoulders, your feet are left bare; if you thrust it down to your feet, your shoulders are uncovered.”

“Human nature is not of itself vicious.”

“In every one of us there are two ruling and directing principles: the one being an innate desire of pleasure; the other, an acquired judgment which aspires after excellence.”

“There are three classes of men: lovers of wisdom, lovers of honour, and lovers of gain.”

“Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.”

“Our virtues and our failings are inseparable, like force and matter. When they separate, man is no more.”

“The human being is a self-propelled automaton entirely under the control of external influences. He is like a float tossed about by the waves of a turbulent sea.”

“Men shrink less from offending one who inspires love than one who inspires fear.”

“Men are driven by two principal impulses, either by love or by fear.”

“Men judge generally more by the eye than by the hand, because it belongs to everybody to see you, to few to come in touch with you.”

“Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions.”

“Hatred is gained as much by good works as by evil.”

“It is necessary for him who lays out a state and arranges laws for it to presuppose that all men are evil and that they are always going to act according to the wickedness of their spirits whenever they have free scope.”

“Of mankind we may say in general they are fickle, hypocritical, and greedy of gain.”