Julian Lincoln Simon Quotes

Many species reciprocate, but only humans gossip, and much of what we gossip about is the vale of other people as partners for reciprocal relationships.

The more one studies the harmony of music, and then studies human nature, how people agree and how they disagree, how there is attraction and repulsion, the more one will see that it is all music.

Living is a compromise, between doing what you want and doing what other people want.

It is their character indeed that makes people who they are. But it is by reason of their actions that they are happy or the reverse.

Human nature, as manifested in tribalism and nationalism, provides the momentum of the machinery of human evolution.

It has been my experience that people who are at cross-purposes with nature are cynical about mankind and ill at ease with themselves.

People ask me, "Are you right wing or are you left wing?" and I always say, "I'm for the whole bird." A one-winged bird didn't ever get off the ground.

All people are endowed with the faculty of compassion, and for this reason can develop the humanitarian spirit.

People are like bicycles. They can keep their balance only as long as they keep moving.

I've always been antagonistic to any naïve application of the selfish gene theory to politics. Some people have attempted to suggest that it means we are selfish or we should be selfish.

People are human beings.If you are nice to me, than I am nice to you. I live by my mother's advice, which is that the Golden Rule is the way to go.

It is in our collective behavior that we are most mysterious.

We now know, from the latest research about neurons, that we are hard-wired for empathy. We're hard-wired for cooperation. That is something about what we are as people - what it means to be a human being. And what Barack Obama was addressing was not just race or just the nature of politics. The great speeches address who we are as people, what it means to be a human being.

There never was a time when we were created perfect and fell into sin and needed to be rescued. We are evolving people; we are not fallen people. We are not a little lower than the angels. We're a little higher than the apes. It's a very different perspective.

It is a general rule of human nature that people despise those who treat them well, and look up to those who make no concessions.

I suppose it's too bad people can't be a little more consistent. But if they were, maybe they would stop being people.

I am puzzled by people today who, after moralizing about the need for cooperation and goodwill and love-thy-neighbor-as-thyself, suddenly invoke the most primitive, barbarous motivations for any kind of progress.

People, like water, will run downhill, seeking their lowest level unless something interdicts them.

People always say there is competition in nature, but I think that because we are human, it's not only competition. Because we are human we have something other than competition - sharing, helping others, or being oneself. Competition is really kind of ugly.

Anarchists believe that we can govern ourselves in the absence of coercive and centralized authority; the underlying premise about human nature (to use an infinitely problematized but necessary term here) is fundamentally positive. And the evidence that in disasters people are really pretty kind, generous, brave, resourceful and creative fed that.

In an ideal world the scientist should find a method to prevent the most severe forms of autism but allow the milder forms to survive. After all, the really social people did not invent the first stone spear. It was probably invented by an Aspie who chipped away at rocks while the other people socialized around the campfire. Without autism traits we might still be living in caves.

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 who have no weaknesses are terrible; there is no way of taking advantage of them.

My point is, people really don't change very much.