Language is a window into human nature, but it is also a fistula, an open wound through which we’re exposed to an infectious world.
I believe that any auteur categorised in terms of an -ist or an -ism wouldn’t be able to capture the complex essence of human nature.
To the intelligent man with an interest in human nature it must often appear strange that so much of the energy of the scientific world has been spent on the study of the body and so little on the study of the mind.
I try to be as honest as I possibly can about the contradictions within my own heart and thereby get to something ‘true’ and revealing and important about contemporary American culture and human nature.
He who knows no hardships will know no hardihood. He who faces no calamity will need no courage. Mysterious though it is, the characteristics in human nature which we love best grow in a soil with a strong mixture of troubles.
Human nature is complex. Even if we do have inclinations toward violence, we also have inclination to empathy, to cooperation, to self-control.
It’s human nature – we want to be chosen, we want to be picked and when there’s this thing that isn’t choosing you, that can affect your self-confidence and your self-worth.
No two dramatists think or write alike. Ten thousand playwrights can take the same premise, as they have done since Shakespeare, and not one play will resemble the other except in the premise. Your knowledge, your understanding of human nature, and your imagination will take care of that.
That human beings seek their own well-being and that of those close to them is not an especially provocative discovery. What is important is that this universal aspect of human nature persists no matter what economic system is in place; it merely expresses itself in different forms.
Human nature is weak.
How many thorns of human nature are bristling conceits, buds of promise grown sharp for want of congenial climate.
When one travels around the world, one notices to what an extraordinary degree human nature is the same, whether in India or America, in Europe or Australia.
If you say something in advance – if you describe a problem as it arises, people always turn on you because they don’t want to hear about it. But when it’s too late to do anything, they will then turn around and say that you were right. That’s human nature.
The idea that man is a tabula rasa, or Mao’s sheet of blank paper upon which the most beautiful characters can be written, is an old one with disastrous implications. I do not think though that the cults you mention could survive honest thought about human nature.
The reason to do any barking – well, the reason for me – is that ‘Three Billboards’ feels so off about so many things. It’s one of those movies that really do think they’re saying something profound about human nature and injustice.
What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?
You can’t ever win the war on crime, or the war on terror. You can’t repeal human nature.
Becoming chronically ill has definitely given me a greater understanding of human nature, and I’ve learned to accept people’s lack of long-term compassion for others while they live their busy lives.
I’m insatiably curious about human nature. I feel very lucky that as a writer I get to learn so much about it just to do my job right.
There is a very remarkable inclination in human nature to bestow on external objects the same emotions which it observes in itself, and to find every where those ideas which are most present to it.
Hackers are becoming more sophisticated in conjuring up new ways to hijack your system by exploiting technical vulnerabilities or human nature. Don’t become the next victim of unscrupulous cyberspace intruders.
That’s a part of human nature that men and women, women and women, whatever your sexuality, you flirt with each other and it’s completely harmless and it doesn’t really mean it crosses a line… You can tell where it is.
It’s only human nature to want to know what you can do on your own or with someone else.
I can understand why people want to know who ‘the real Ruth Jones’ is. That’s human nature. But do you ever get that from an interview?
It is clear that this essential Christian doctrine gives a new value to human nature, to human history and to human life which is not to be found in the other great oriental religions.
The Russian revolution is one of history’s car wrecks. We do know the ending, but we continue to watch. It expresses aspects of human nature we find unacceptable.
I am fascinated by people’s flaws and delusions: all the messy bits of human nature we all try to pretend we don’t have.
It is human nature, especially as we get older, to look for stability in our lives. But if you want to be a successful entrepreneur, you have to fight against that somewhat, as starting a business requires movement. You cannot stay still.
The point of departure of the process to which we wish to contribute is the fact that war is the natural reaction of human nature in the savage state, while peace is the result of acquired characteristics.
Deep in the human nature, there is an almost irresistible tendency to concentrate physical and mental energy on attempts at solving problems that seem to be unsolvable. Indeed, for some kinds of active people, only the seemingly unsolvable problems can arouse their interest.
Fraternity among nations, however, touches the deepest desire of human nature.
You need to have tremendous confidence in your work, even a touch of arrogance, chutzpah. Many very fine researchers lack intellectual daring. It’s human nature to want to be cozy, secure. But that can be a cul de sac.
It is a law of human nature that in victory even the coward may boast of his prowess, while defeat injures the reputation even of the brave.
Some people won’t like me; that’s just human nature. I battled with that for years, trying to please people, but now I haven’t got time to win people over! I’ve got nappies to change!
Evolutionary psychology is one of four sciences that are bringing human nature back into the picture.
I mean, you always want everybody to pat you on the back and tell you you’re wonderful every time you do something; I think that’s human nature.
Climbing is all about freedom, the freedom to go beyond all the rules and take a chance, to experience something new, to gain insight into human nature.
Kolaigaran’ is not a typical hero-villain subject. We explored the other side of human nature, which is grey.
Democratic institutions are based on a reality of human nature: that those with power, however benign or even noble their intentions, will do what they can to keep it.
In the past 20 years scientists from very diverse disciplines – anthropologists, archaeologists, sociologists, psychologists – have all moved to a much more hopeful, optimistic view of human nature.
For decades, the Arab states have seemed exceptions to the laws of politics and human nature. While liberty expanded in many parts of the globe, these nations were left behind, their ‘freedom deficit’ signaling the political underdevelopment that accompanied many other economic and social maladies.
One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today.
I have a deep fascination with human nature, with all its virtues and all its defects.
Ideas devour the ages as men are devoured by their passions. When man is cured, human nature will cure itself perhaps.
For the same reason we have the Brad Pitts and the George Clooneys, it’s just part of human nature to idolize stereotypes.
Religion is never going to go away, and anyone who thinks it will doesn’t understand what religion is. It is a language to describe the experience of human nature, so for as long as people struggle to describe what it means to be alive, it will be a ready-made language to express those feelings.
The capacity to suffer varies more than anything that I have observed in human nature.
One of the things I believe in is a sense of human nature.
The government believed that adherence to authority was human nature, so the Gezi protests were a real surprise to them. After the initial moment of shock, they decided to severely punish those participating in what they called an act of disobedience to authority.
It’s one of the most basic laws of human nature, isn’t it? The more we are denied something, the more we want it. The more silence given to this or that topic, the more power.
All the great novels, all the great films, all the great dramas are fictions that actually tell us the truth about us or about human nature or about human situations without being tied into the minutia of documentary events. Otherwise we might as well just make documentaries.
None of us is guaranteed against failure or corruption of any kind; witness what’s going on in the world in this moment, the follies of human nature and the failures of human nature.
It is insight into human nature that is the key to the communicator’s skill. For whereas the writer is concerned with what he puts into his writings, the communicator is concerned with what the reader gets out of it. He therefore becomes a student of how people read or listen.
