John William Draper Quotes

Human nature is a scoundrel's favorite explanation.

Human life is full of the play of samskaras - tendencies developed by repeated actions.

Life is beautiful but people are crazy.

People are very complex. And for a psychologist, you get fascinated by the complexity of human beings, and that is what I have lived with, you know, in my career all of my life, is the complexity of human beings.

Our humanity rests upon a series of learned behaviors, woven together into patterns that are infinitely fragile and never directly inherited.

as wax receives its impression from a seal, so the character of human life is shaped by example.

Nature governs man by no principle more fixed than that which leads him to pursue his interest.

Human behavior is so intriguing. I find myself giving thumbs up signs all the time. I know I look like an absolute dork, but I do it anyway.

It's funny how humans can wrap their mind around things and fit them into their version of reality.

The thief and the murderer follow nature just as much as the philanthropist.

Anatomy presupposes a corpse; psychology presupposes a world of corpses.

People will suffer almost anything, as long as it means they don't have to change.

Humanity is constitutionally lazy.

Probably 90 percent of our life decisions are powered by the twin engines of inertia and laziness.

I have found that by looking at what is rewarded and punished, and why, universally - i.e., in nature as well as in humanity - I have been able to learn more about what is "good" and "bad" than by listening to most people's views about good and bad.

People didn't change. they liked what they liked even if they didn't understand why.

If the genius of invention were to reveal to-morrow the secret of immortality, of eternal beauty and youth, for which all humanity is aching, the same inexorable agents which prevent a mass from changing suddenly its velocity would likewise resist the force of the new knowledge until time gradually modifies human thought.

It is the talent of human nature to run from one extreme to another.

Could we know what men are most apt to remember, we might know what they are most apt to do.

nothing in life is more corroding than habit.

It's just amazing how hard it is for people to change, even when amazing things happen. It almost reinforces who you are instead of making you change.

People look like rivers very much: water is everywhere the same, but the rivers are narrow, fast, wide, pure, cold, muddy and warm. The people are the same. They have the rudiment of every human habit in them and they behave according to them. Sometimes they even do not look like themselves, but they still stay whatever they are.

To postpone unpleasantness is human; to forget it is divine.

- and you are truly human now. You can love, and fear, and forbid things to be what they are, and overact.

Goodness begins simply with the fact of life itself.