Top 180 Human Nature Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “There is no coming to consciousness without pain. People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own Soul. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.”

— C.G. Jung

Also featured in: Psychology Quotes, Awakening Quotes, Struggle Quotes

2. “We are hardwired to connect with others, it’s what gives purpose and meaning to our lives, and without it there is suffering.”

— Brené Brown

Also featured in: Relationship Quotes, Positive Inspirational Quotes, Psychology Quotes, Mental Health Quotes

3. “As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being.”

— C.G. Jung

Also featured in: Meaningful Quotes, Reflection Quotes, Quotes About Humanity

4. “In every adult there lurks a child – an eternal child, something that is always becoming, is never completed, and calls for unceasing care, attention, and education. That is the part of the personality which wants to develop and become whole.”

— C.G. Jung

Also featured in: Psychology Quotes, Self-Realization Quotes, Personality Quotes

5. “It’s really a wonder that I haven’t dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.”

— Anne Frank

Also featured in: Optimism Quotes, Quotes About Hope, Different Quotes, Moving Quotes

6. “We need more understanding of human nature, because the only real danger that exists is man himself.”

— C.G. Jung

Also featured in: Psychology Quotes, Real Quotes, Understanding Quotes

7. “What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form, in moving, how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?”

— William Shakespeare

Also featured in: Humanism Quotes, Quotes About Humanity, Quotes About People

8. “You’re an interesting species. An interesting mix. You’re capable of such beautiful dreams, and such horrible nightmares. You feel so lost, so cut off, so alone, only you’re not. See, in all our searching, the only thing we’ve found that makes the emptiness bearable, is each other.”

— Carl Sagan

Also featured in: Empathy Quotes, Quotes About Humanity, Lonely Quotes

9. “The only thing worth writing about is the human heart in conflict with itself.”

— William Faulkner

10. “Happiness depends upon ourselves.”

— Aristotle

Also featured in: Happiness Quotes, Emotion Quotes, Philosophical Quotes

11. “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.”

— Nelson Mandela

Also featured in: Quotes About Humanity, Beautiful Quotes, Quotes About People

12. “What the superior man seeks is in himself; what the small man seeks is in others.”

— Confucius

Also featured in: Self-Worth Quotes, Self-Realization Quotes, Motivational Quotes for Men

13. “The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.”

— Ernest Hemingway

Also featured in: Relationship Quotes, Fiction Quotes, Quotes About People

14. “No man was ever wise by chance.”

— Seneca

Also featured in: Knowledge Quotes, Smart Quotes, Philosophy Quotes

15. “When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion.”

— Abraham Lincoln

Also featured in: Personality Quotes, Morality Quotes, Emotional Quotes

16. “I would rather walk with a friend in the dark, than alone in the light.”

— Helen Keller

Also featured in: Relationship Quotes, Friendship Quotes, Friends Quotes

17. “Man is the cruelest animal.”

— Friedrich Nietzsche

Also featured in: Hard Hitting Quotes

18. “Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.”

— Oscar Wilde

Also featured in: Famous Quotes, Truth Quotes, Witty Quotes

19. “Above all, don’t lie to yourself.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Also featured in: Reflection Quotes, Existentialism Quotes, Truth Quotes, Honesty Quotes

20. “Perhaps I know best why it is man alone who laughs; he alone suffers so deeply that he had to invent laughter.”

— Friedrich Nietzsche

Also featured in: Existentialism Quotes, Thought Provoking Quotes

21. “If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.”

— J.K. Rowling

Also featured in: Personality Quotes, Quotes About People, Character Quotes

22. “Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge.”

— Plato

Also featured in: Quotes About Humanity, Desire Quotes

23. “If a person seems wicked, do not cast him away. Awaken him with your words, elevate him with your deeds, repay his injury with your kindness. Do not cast him away; cast away his wickedness.”

— Lao Tzu

Also featured in: Kindness Quotes, Quotes About Humanity, Helping Quotes

24. “Be less of a judge and you will be surprised that when you become a witness and you don’t judge yourself, you stop judging others too. And that makes you more human, more compassionate, more understanding.”

— Osho

Also featured in: Positivity Quotes, Awakening Quotes, Emotional Quotes

25. “No man is your enemy, no man is your friend, every man is your teacher.”

— Florence Scovel Shinn

Also featured in: Learning Quotes, Spiritual Growth Quotes, Quotes About Humanity, Quotes About People

26. “No man is an island, entire of itself.”

— John Donne

Also featured in: Relationship Quotes, Quotes About Humanity, Quotes About People, Sympathy Quotes

27. “It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels.”

— Saint Augustine

Also featured in: Morality Quotes, Values Quotes, Virtue Quotes

28. “Love and work, work and love... that’s all there is.”

— Sigmund Freud

Also featured in: Psychology Quotes, Fulfillment Quotes, Quotes About Work, Love Is Quotes

29. “The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.”

— William James

Also featured in: Relationship Quotes, Self-Esteem Quotes, Appreciation Quotes, Know Your Worth Quotes

30. “Let me be that I am and seek not to alter me.”

— William Shakespeare

Also featured in: Self-Worth Quotes, Be Yourself Quotes, Being Yourself Quotes

31. “The only time you look in your neighbor’s bowl is to make sure that they have enough. You don’t look in your neighbor’s bowl to see if you have as much as them.”

— Louis C.K.

Also featured in: Empathy Quotes, Kindness Quotes, Generosity Quotes, Selfishness Quotes

32. “People do not seem to realise that their opinion of the world is also a confession of their character.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Also featured in: Personality Quotes, Quotes About People

33. “If a man is to live, he must be all alive, body, soul, mind, heart, spirit.”

— Thomas Merton

Also featured in: Short Quotes About Life, Awakening Quotes, Meaning of Life Quotes, Soul Quotes

34. “To conquer oneself is the best and noblest victory; to be vanquished by one’s own nature is the worst and most ignoble defeat.”

— Plato

Also featured in: Victory Quotes, Philosophy Quotes, Important Quotes

35. “Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction.”

— Erich Fromm

Also featured in: Effort Quotes, Desire Quotes, Quotes About Greed

36. “Of all the animals, man is the only one that is cruel. He is the only one that inflicts pain for the pleasure of doing it.”

— Mark Twain

Also featured in: Morality Quotes, Quotes About People, Pain Quotes

37. “All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsion, habit, reason, passion, and desire.”

— Aristotle

Also featured in: Philosophy Quotes

38. “By nature, men are nearly alike; by practice, they get to be wide apart.”

— Confucius

39. “We are what we think.”

— Buddha

Also featured in: Scripture Quotes, Meaning Quotes, Perspective Quotes

40. “Wall Street never changes, the pockets change, the suckers change, the stocks change, but Wall Street never changes, because human nature never changes.”

— Jesse Lauriston Livermore

Also featured in: Quotes About Money

41. “Love and work are the cornerstones of our humanness.”

— Sigmund Freud

Also featured in: Psychology Quotes, Quotes About Work, Love Is Quotes

42. “No matter how far you travel, you can never get away from yourself.”

— Haruki Murakami

Also featured in: Personality Quotes, Identity Quotes, Existentialism Quotes

43. “Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he can and should be and he will become as he can and should be.”

— Stephen R. Covey

Also featured in: Transformation Quotes, Influence Quotes, Expectations Quotes

44. “The heart of the human problem, is the problem of the human heart.”

— Oswald J. Smith

Also featured in: Deep Quotes, Quotes About Heart

45. “The soul of man is immortal and imperishable.”

— Plato

Also featured in: Deep Quotes, Philosophy Quotes, Soul Quotes

46. “I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.”

— Henry David Thoreau

Also featured in: Changing the World Quotes, Optimism Quotes, Not Giving Up Quotes

47. “Man’s search for meaning is the chief motivation of his life.”

— Viktor E. Frankl

Also featured in: Psychology Quotes, Meaning Quotes, Fulfillment Quotes, Mental Health Quotes

48. “Beware of no man more than of yourself; we carry our worst enemies within us.”

— Charles H. Spurgeon

49. “The nobler sort of man emphasizes the good qualities in others, and does not accentuate the bad. The inferior does.”

— Confucius

Also featured in: Empathy Quotes, Be Kind Quotes, Personality Quotes

50. “I am not what I think I am, and I am not what you think I am. I am what I think you think I am.”

— Charles Horton Cooley

Also featured in: Personality Quotes, Identity Quotes