"Human nature is intractable stuff, hard jagged stuff, the kind of stuff that dreams are wrecked on."

Elizabeth Goudge Literature See all quotes by Elizabeth Goudge →

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“There is no greater tyranny than that of social custom.”

“A sense of identity is the gift of love, and only love can give it.”

“The human desire to be understood is never quite sincere. It is on our own terms that we desire to be understood, not on the terms of truth.”

“Life is a reaching out for something or someone. That is its definition.”

“In this world death has a habit of intervening before we can pay our debts, and the only thing to be done is to pay them to another.”

“We all of us try to make God in our image. It is one of the worst of our temptations.”

Resonant Thoughts

"We need to expand the civil-rights struggle to a higher level—to the level of human rights. Whenever you are in a civil-rights struggle, whether you know it or not, you are confining yourself to the j…"

— Malcolm X

Social Activism1925–1965

#justice

"On the one hand, society needs a common faith and vigorous institutions with the power to coerce; and on the other, the individual as a human soul or as the bearer of a new and possibly saving heresy,…"

— Jacques Barzun

Literature1907–2012

#Human Nature

"We were the "chosen people," chosen to be killed?"

— Maurice Sendak

Literature1928–2012

#Human Nature

"The Managers of that Trade themselves, and others, testify, that many of these African nations inhabit fertile countries, are industrious farmers, enjoy plenty, and lived quietly, averse to war, befor…"

— Thomas Paine

Politics1737–1809

#Human Nature