Human nature is not nearly as bad as it has been thought to be... In fact it can be said that the possibilities of human nature have customarily been sold short.
— Abraham Maslow
Human Nature
A living man can be enslaved and reduced to the historic condition of an object. But if he dies in refusing to be enslaved, he reaffirms the existence of another kind of human nature which refuses to be classified as an object.
Whatever we may do, excess will always keep its place in the heart of man, in the place where solitude is found. We all carry within us our places of exile, our crimes and our ravages. But our task is not to unleash them on the world; it is to fight them in ourselves and in others.
Man is the only creature who refuses to be what he is.
Man usually avoids attributing cleverness to somebody else—unless it is an enemy.
Man is an animal that diddles, and there is no animal that diddles but man.
— Edgar Allan Poe
Philosophy
No insect hangs its nest on threads as frail as those which will sustain the weight of human vanity.
I am convinced that we have a degree of delight, and that no small one, in the real misfortunes and pains of others.
It is true that may hold in these things, which is the general root of superstition; namely, that men observe when things hit, and not when they miss; and commit to memory the one, and forget and pass over the other.
— Francis Bacon
Philosophy