#Human Nature
"The mass-man is one who has neither the force of intellect to apprehend the principles issuing in what we know as the humane life, nor the force of character to adhere to those principles steadily and strictly as laws of conduct; and because such people make up the great and overwhelming majority of mankind, they are called collectively the masses. The line of differentiation between the masses and the Remnant is set invariably by quality, not by circumstance. The Remnant are those who by force of intellect are able to apprehend these principles, and by force of character are able, at least measurably, to cleave to them. The masses are those who are unable to do either."
React to this quote
More by Albert Jay Nock
See allResonant Thoughts
Explore Further
Related Quotes
"All concur that free society is a failure. We slaveholders say you must recur to domestic slavery, the olde…"
— George Fitzhugh"Man's greatest advances these last few generations have been made by the application of human intelligence …"
— Norman Angell"Disgusting, ridiculous, when other people did it."
— Anthony Burgess"High ideals make a people strong. … decay comes when ideals wane."
— Louis Sullivan"Humanity has just crossed a major landmark in its history with the majority of people now living in cities.…"
— Geoffrey West"In the world according to Garp, we are all terminal cases."
— John Irving
Related Thinkers
Related Topics
Deep Dives
- Stephen King on Human Nature
- Robert A. Heinlein on Human Nature
- Ernest Hemingway on Human Nature
- Mark Twain on Human Nature
- George Bernard Shaw on Human Nature
- Anton Chekhov on Human Nature
- Virginia Woolf on Human Nature
- Ursula K. Le Guin on Human Nature
- Stephen King on life
- Stephen King on time
- knowledge & Beauty
- knowledge & Change

