Quotes about Human nature

Men may change their climate, but they cannot change their nature. A man that goes out a fool cannot ride or sail himself into common sense.

But man is freer than all the animals, on account of his free-will, with which he is endowed above all other animals.

Original sin is that thing about man which makes him capable of conceiving of his own perfection and incapable of achieving it.

But he knew well enough that any man in the right circumstances could be dehumanised by panic.

The laws of man may bind him in chains or may put him to death, but they never can make him wise, virtuous, or happy.

Man is at the bottom an animal, midway a citizen, and at the top divine. But the climate of this world is such that few ripen at the top.

There is not one among us in whom a devil does not dwell; at some time, on some point, that devil masters each of us…it is not having been in the Dark House, but having left it that counts.

Unhappily we are so weak that we find it easier to believe and speak evil of others, rather than good.

How great is the frailty of human nature which is ever prone to evil! Today you confess your sins and tomorrow you again commit the sins which you confessed. One moment you resolve to be careful, and yet after an hour you act as though you had made no resolution.

All men are equal in nature, and also in original sin. It is in the merits and demerits of their actions that they differ.

Even though the natural light of the human mind is inadequate to make known what is revealed by faith, nevertheless what is divinely taught to us by faith cannot be contrary to what we are endowed with by nature. One or the other would have to be false, and since we have both of them from God, he would be the cause of our error, which is impossible.

Human beings are by their nature social and political, living in community even more than every other animal.