Mark Twain Quotes

Altruism is innate, but it's not instinctual. Everybody's wired for it, but a switch has to be flipped.

Human nature must have come much nearer perfection than it is now, or will be in many generations, to exclude from such a control prejudice, selfishness, ambition, and injustice.

Religion, superstition, oaths, education, laws, all give way before passions, interest, and power.

It has always seemed strange to me. The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest are the traits of success.

Somehow, the guys in power have to be reached by counter-power, or through a change in their hearts and minds, or change will not come.

Everyone endeavors as much as possible to make others love what he loves, and to hate what he hates... This effort to make everyone approve what we love or hate is in truth ambition, and so we see that each person by nature desires that other persons should live according to his way of thinking.

We would not be here if humanity were inherently evil. We'd have eaten ourselves alive long ago.

It's human nature to want to help and soothe and save with your love, but it's also arrogant.

The humanitarian lays stress almost solely upon breadth of knowledge and sympathy.

Only the liberation of the natural capacity for love in human beings can master their sadistic destructiveness.

If having a soul means being able to feel love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals are better off than a lot of humans.

I guess real maturity, which most of us never achieve, is when you realize that you're not the center of the universe.

Let us try to teach generosity and altruism, because we are born selfish.

The individual is capable of both great compassion and great indifference. He has it within his means to nourish the former and outgrow the latter.

Kindness has converted more sinners than zeal, eloquence, or learning.

Humankind would improve if we concentrated less on being human and more on being kind.

I fundamentally believe that people have a genuine desire to be positively engaged in the world around them.

People who have expertise just love to share it. That's human nature.

I found out that people are incredibly compassionate and kind. It really changed my view of the world.

Our everyday cares, making a living, the crazy rat race of life, often make us forget the value of a good deed. Thus, the goodness that exists within each and every one of us is covered with layer upon layer of indifference and unawareness. In fact, we almost have to be reminded of the fact that goodness is there inside us.

I feel very lucky because of my parents and then my education, the opportunities that I've had, so I would like to continue working to improve lives for others.

It's one thing to fight for what you believe in, another thing to fight for what others believe in.

I don't think of myself as doing good works. It's not, 'Oh, I must give these poor people a voice.'

Nothing liberates our greatness like the desire to help, the desire to serve.

I guess because I'm a liberal I think it's not people's natural instinct to be completely self-interested.