E. L. Doctorow Quotes

We talk about that a lot: how, when you're under pressure, it brings out the best and the worst in people.

No intelligent man believes that anybody ever willingly errs or willingly does base and evil deeds; they are well aware that all who do base and evil things do them unwillingly.

You can't go around hoping that most people have sterling moral characters. The most you can hope for is that people will pretend that they do.

I do not believe we can blame genetics for adultery, homosexuality, dishonesty and other character flaws.

That's human nature - the ups and downs.

Man may act according to that principle or inclination which for the present happens to be strongest, and yet act in a way disproportionate to, and violate his real proper nature.

If we want to make a statement about a man's nature on the basis of his physiognomy, we must take everything into account; it is in his distress that a man is tested, for then his nature is revealed.

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.

The problem here is with a human being, not with a monster, not with an animal. The human being does things that even the monster does not do, because the human is more sophisticated.

A man is not good or bad for one action.

I don't think any of us know how we would react until we were put in a situation where we have to do something bad or do something good. I think I'd like to believe I'd act like a decent human being, but I'm realistic to know I don't know.

Psychology keeps trying to vindicate human nature. History keeps undermining the effort.

Evil is the product of the ability of humans to make abstract that which is concrete.

Men are more moral than they think and far more immoral than they can imagine.

I have survivor's curiosity, I guess.

I was awfully curious to find out why I didn't go insane.

When a young man massacres innocents, we have been trained to believe that the act was due to improper levels of chemical enzymes and misfiring synapses. As we learn more about our cells, we forget more about our souls.

When one is having good fortune, one's mind tends to be clear. When one is struck by a disaster, one's mind tends to be muddled.

Those who are incapable of committing great crimes do not readily suspect them in others.

I don't believe that we evolved moral psychology; it just doesn't seem plausible to me as a biological phenomenon.

There is nothing in the whole frame of man which seems to me so unaccountable as that thing called conscience.

Ethics, politics and psychology are all far more difficult to understand now that we know the depths to which human nature can sink.

I try to show ugliness, but with compassion for the people who commit ugly acts.

I didn't want 'BSG' to have to rewrite Anders as a sniveling, whining ball of despair who's hiding out in the corner.

The virtues and vices are all put in motion by interest.