Human Nature Quotes

I am an average good Christian, when you don't push my Christianity too far. And all the rest of you–which is a great comfort–are, in this respect, much the same as I am. ~ The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins "Men get tired of everything, of heaven no less than of hell; and that all history is nothing but a record of the oscillations of the world between these two extremes. An epoch is but a swing of the pendulum; and each generation thinks the world is progressing because it is always moving." ~ Man And Superman by George Bernard Shaw How marvellously lie our anxieties, in filmy layers, one over the other! Take away that which has lain on the upper surface for so long-the care of cares-the only one, as it seemed to you, between your soul and the radiance of Heaven-and straight you find a new stratum there. ~ Uncle Silas by J. Sheridan Le Fanu "Revenge may be wicked, but it's natural." ~ Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray "Men's evil manners live in brass: their virtues
We write in water." ~ Henry VIII by William Shakespeare Human love was a wonderful thing, he told himself, and it was most wonderful where it had least to gain. ~ One of Ours by Willa Cather Few people can resist doing what is universally expected of them. This invisible pressure is more difficult to stand against than individual tyranny. ~ That Fortune by Charles Dudley Warner Everybody said so. Far be it from me to assert that what everybody says must be true. Everybody is, often, as likely to be wrong as right. ~ The Haunted Man by Charles Dickens With no power to annul the elemental evil in him, though readily enough he could hide it; apprehending the good, but powerless to be it; a nature like Claggart's surcharged with energy as such natures almost invariably are, what recourse is left to it but to recoil upon itself and like the scorpion for which the Creator alone is responsible, act out to the end the part allotted it. ~ Billy Budd by Herman Melville "War makes men simple," he said, "elemental; life in peace is neither simple nor elemental, it is subtle, full of changing environments, to which man must adapt himself; the cunning, the astute, the adaptable, will ever rule in times of peace." ~ Saint's Progress by John Galsworthy