“What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.”
Topic
nature
977 quotes
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“Fishes live in the sea, as men do a-land; the great ones eat up the little ones.”
“If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin.”
“I have always considered it as treason against the great republic of human nature, to make any man's virtues the means of deceiving him.”
“One of the first conditions of happiness is that the link between Man and Nature shall not be broken.”
“He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition will waste his life in fruitless efforts.”
“Hence poetry is something more philosophic and of graver import than history, since its statements are rather of the nature of universals, whereas those of history are singulars.”
“Psychology keeps trying to vindicate human nature. History keeps undermining the effort.”
“Love is a canvas furnished by nature and embroidered by imagination.”
“The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity... and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself.”
“Our treasure lies in the beehive of our knowledge. We are perpetually on the way thither, being by nature winged insects and honey gatherers of the mind.”
“All my life I have tried to pluck a thistle and plant a flower wherever the flower would grow in thought and mind.”
“Nature and human life are as various as our several constitutions. Who shall say what prospect life offers to another?”
“Man's nature is not essentially evil. Brute nature has been know to yield to the influence of love. You must never despair of human nature.”
“I have no hostility to nature, but a child's love to it. I expand and live in the warm day like corn and melons.”
“Love is a portion of the soul itself, and it is of the same nature as the celestial breathing of the atmosphere of paradise.”
“Time destroys the speculation of men, but it confirms nature.”
“What we call Man's power over Nature turns out to be a power exercised by some men over other men with Nature as its instrument.”
“But while they prate of economic laws, men and women are starving. We must lay hold of the fact that economic laws are not made by nature. They are made by human beings.”
“There are more men ennobled by study than by nature.”
“If you look deep enough you will see music the heart of nature being everywhere music.”
“Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow.”
“To me a lush carpet of pine needles or spongy grass is more welcome than the most luxurious Persian rug.”
“In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.”