Understanding Human Behavior Quotes

The views of men can only be known, or guessed at, by their words or actions.

The value of history. ..is that it teaches us what man has done and thus what man is.

Knowledge of mankind is a knowledge of their passions.

I have tried sedulously not to laugh at the acts of man, nor to lament them, nor to detest them, but to understand them.

There is no substitute for practical experience, and if you want to write about people you ought to put down that comic book and go out and meet some of them rather than studying the way that Stan Lee or Chris Claremont depict people.

We must never forget that human motives are generally far more complicated than we are apt to suppose, and that we can very rarely accurately describe the motives of another.

Leaders are made, not born. You learn to become a leader by doing what other excellent leaders have done before you. You become proficient in your job or skill, and then you become proficient at understanding the motivations and behaviors of other people.

To play any character, you have to have a total understanding of why they do what they do.

Those who have a tolerable knowledge of human nature will not stand in need of such lights.

In all the dictatorships, there's such a non-understanding of what human beings are. I mean, if you believe in the Bible, you have the story of Adam and Eve and God tells them, "Do whatever you want. The only thing you shouldn't do is eat the apple." What do they do the first thing? They eat the apple. So if you know a little bit the psychology of human beings, you have to understand that if you say something you should not do, then everybody wants to do it.

I think acting has made me very in tune with human behavior and myself as well.

I don't have any of the answers, son. Never did. All I can do is keep asking the questions. Keep trying to make sense of why people do what they do.

In fiction, I exercise my nosiness. I am as curious as my cats, and indeed that has led to trouble often enough and used up several of my nine lives. I am an avid listener. I am fascinated by other people's lives, the choices they make and how that works out through time, what they have done and left undone, what they tell me and what they keep secret and silent, what they lie about and what they confess, what they are proud of and what shames them, what they hope for and what they fear. The source of my fiction is the desire to understand people and their choices through time.

See human nonsense as nonsense and save years of trying to make sense out of it.

I like it all. I love getting inside of people's heads and playing what drives people and what makes them do what they do. That's always been what's most interesting to me about being an actor. The analyzing of what's happening, but even more so, just letting it all go and playing is fun. I love just seeing what comes out of you.

People knowledge is much more important than mere product knowledge.

Search then the ruling passion: This clue, once found, unravels all the rest.

If you can learn to understand people how they think, what they feel, what inspires them, how they're likely to act and react in a given situation- then you can motivate and influence them in a positive way.