Human Nature Quotes

Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.

Some humans would do anything to see if it was possible to do it. If you put a large switch in some cave somewhere, with a sign on it saying 'End-of-the-World Switch. PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH', the paint wouldn't even have time to dry.

Humans do have a knack for choosing precisely those things which are worst for them.

If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more.

A wise man speaks because he has something to say; a fool because he has to say something.

War does not determine who is right - only who is left.

To hurt is as human as to breathe.

Human nature is so well disposed towards those who are in interesting situations, that a young person, who either marries or dies, is sure of being kindly spoken of.

The evil like power, power over people, and they want to see you in fear. They want you to know you are going to die. So they'll talk. They'll gloat. They'll watch you squirm. They'll put off the murder like another man will put off a good cigar. So hope like hell your captor is an evil man. A good man will kill you with hardly a word.

People are too complicated to have simple labels.

You cannot change what you are, only what you do.

It may help to understand human affairs to be clear that most of the great triumphs and tragedies of history are caused, not by people being fundamentally good or fundamentally bad, but by people being fundamentally people.

The only way human beings can win a war is to prevent it.

Never expect to outgrow loneliness. Never hope to find people who will understand you, someone to fill that space. An intelligent, sensitive person is the exception, the very great exception. If you expect to find people who will understand you, you will grow murderous with disappointment. The best you’ll ever do is to understand yourself, know what it is that you want.

"There is safety in reserve, but no attraction. One cannot love a reserved person."
"Not till the reserve ceases towards one's self; and then the attraction may be the greater."

You can never go home again, but the truth is you can never leave home, so it's all right. And yet it is innate in human nature to try to go home again, and it may in fact be what life is all about: getting back to home, back to death, and then out of death and back to life.

All the history of human life has been a struggle between wisdom and stupidity.

Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful.

"Yes, him - Snape said he hates me because he hated my father. Is that true?"
"Well, they did rather detest each other. Not unlike yourself and Mr Malfoy. And then, your father did something Snape could never forgive."
"What?"
"He saved his life."
"What?"
"Yes ..." said Dumbledore dreamily. "Funny, the way people's minds work, isn't it?"

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.