#human-nature

"I have no faith in human perfectibility. I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon humanity. Man is now only more active - not more happy - nor more wise, than he was 6000 years ago."

"Unfortunately for the good sense of mankind, the fact of their fallibility is far from carrying the weight in their practical judgement, which is always allowed to it in theory; for while every one well knows himself to be fallible, few think it necessary to take any precautions against their own fallibility."

"For all the books in his possession, he still failed to read the stories written plain as day in the faces of the people around him."

"In the end, you have to choose whether or not to trust someone."

"I'm not in search of sanctity, sacredness, purity; these things are found after this life, not in this life; but in this life I search to be completely human: to feel, to give, to take, to laugh, to get lost, to be found, to dance, to love and to lust, to be so human."

"We the people have no excuse for starry-eyed sycophantic group-think in the Information Age. Knowledge is but a fingertip away."

"The purpose of the gospel is to make bad men good and good men better, and to change human nature."

"A sin is nothing more than regret. Not for doing it once, but doing it again when you know you’re going to regret it."

"There is some kind of a sweet innocence in being human- in not having to be just happy or just sad- in the nature of being able to be both broken and whole, at the same time."

"The biggest changes in a women's nature are brought by love; in man, by ambition"

"Hearts rebuilt from hope resurrect dreams killed by hate."

"Men go to far greater lengths to avoid what they fear than to obtain what they desire."

"Though the ancient poet in Plutarch tells us we must not trouble the gods with our affairs because they take no heed of our angers and disputes, we can never enough decry the disorderly sallies of our minds."

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe."

"He lives down in a ribcage in the dry leaves of a heart."

"Man is the only creature who refuses to be what he is."

"You can talk with someone for years, everyday, and still, it won't mean as much as what you can have when you sit in front of someone, not saying a word, yet you feel that person with your heart, you feel like you have known the person for forever.... connections are made with the heart, not the tongue."

"I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies but not the madness of people."

"It is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquility: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it."

"I believe in equality. Equality for everybody. No matter how stupid they are or how superior I am to them."