Jane Smiley Quotes

Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone.

Thus self-love as one part of human nature, and the several particular principles as the other part, are, themselves, their objects and ends, stated and shown.

To prefer evil to good is not in human nature; and when a man is compelled to choose one of two evils, no one will choose the greater when he might have the less.

Bad people doing bad things is not interesting. What I find interesting is good people doing bad things.

A man always has two reasons for doing anything: a good reason and the real reason.

I'm very interested in good and evil and the moral natures of people.

Everything we know about human nature and about government tells us that individuals using their own money will achieve far more good for themselves and far more for others than politicians spending money they didn't have to work to earn.

An argument fatal to the communist theory, is suggested by the fact, that a desire for property is one of the elements of our nature.

I believe it is universally understood and acknowledged that all men will ever act correctly, unless they have a motive to do otherwise.

In the 1980s, we were advised, why don't you follow Reaganomics or Thatcherite economics. We said, yes, there are good points, let's see how we can fit them in the Indian economy. Every country has its own way of moving forward.

The Tea Party folks may be sincere, loyal citizens, but their notions about how the economy works are exactly that: mere notions. Their core notion is that government needs to do nothing more than get out of the way of business in order for the economy to boom and bloom.

I say you don't need religion, or political ideology, to understand human nature. Science reveals that human nature is greedy and selfish, altruistic and helpful.

I'm with Milton and the Rolling Stones: I don't find the Devil an unsympathetic character. But in any case, my fiction is populated as much by people who do good as it is by those who do bad. I'm interested in imaginatively accommodating as much of the human as possible, for which you need both moral extremes and everything in between.

Mencius said that human nature is good. I disagree with that.

Most people, 95% of people, are good people. It's the 5% who get seduced by power.

There surely is in human nature an inherent propensity to extract all the good out of all the evil.

As if one could know the good a person is capable of, when one doesn't know the bad he might do.

Shakespeare reveals human nature brilliantly: he shines a light on our instinctive desire to dominate each other.

Human nature is evil, and goodness is caused by intentional activity.

I don't subscribe to any particular doctrine or ideology. I just think that there's kind of a good and bad, the good being life in its purest, happiest form, and the other being the darker side of existence.

There is no limit to suffering human beings have been willing to inflict on others, no matter how innocent, no matter how young, and no matter how old. This fact must lead all reasonable human beings, that is, all human beings who take evidence seriously, to draw only one possible conclusion: Human nature is not basically good.

What 'Twilight Zone' did was show we all have a great capacity for good and evil.

Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure. It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do, as well as to determine what we shall do.

In the state of nature profit is the measure of right.

That human beings seek their own well-being and that of those close to them is not an especially provocative discovery. What is important is that this universal aspect of human nature persists no matter what economic system is in place; it merely expresses itself in different forms.