Man
‹ 6 · Outline · 8 ›
7.Man's natural goodness or corruption
7a.The doctrine of man's natural goodness and compassion
See also: Virtue and Vice 4a
Confucius, The Sayings of ConfuciusVol. 44
- p. 20Man is born upright; one who ceases to be so and lives is lucky.read · scan
Pliny the Younger, Letters of PlinyVol. 9
- p. 319–325Feeling sorrow and admitting the need of consolation is the criterion of true manhood.read · scan
Francis Bacon, Essays, Civil and MoralVol. 3
- p. 31–32The inclination to goodness is deeply imprinted in man's nature, extending even to beasts.read · scan
- p. 32Malignant dispositions are errors of human nature; signs of goodness reveal a man's heart.read · scan
Benjamin Franklin, His AutobiographyVol. 1
- p. 71–73Argues man is not a vicious, detestable animal and can be greatly amended by good management; belief in fair characters sustains effort.read · scan
- p. 86Nature of man alone considered shows vice to be hurtful.read · scan
David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human UnderstandingVol. 37
- p. 369The mind is so formed by nature as to feel approbation or blame at certain characters.read · scan
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, A Discourse upon the Origin and the Foundation of the Inequality among MankindVol. 34
- p. 187Disputes Hobbes's view that natural man is bad, a robust child.read · scan
- p. 187Man is compassionate by nature, not merely selfish, as even Mandeville admits.read · scan
- p. 204Denies man is naturally cruel; in his primitive state he is gentle, restrained by natural compassion.read · scan
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Profession of Faith of a Savoyard VicarVol. 34
- p. 269Man is naturally good and compassionate, not a wolf; goodness belongs to sound human constitution.read · scan
- p. 269–270Human nature is fundamentally sympathetic; few are so insensible that they lack regard for what is just and good.read · scan
- p. 275Man's natural inclination to do good is seductive yet hard to gratify.read · scan
Edmund Burke, A Letter to a Noble LordVol. 24
- p. 410–411Eradicating humanity from the human breast is hard; compunctious visitings of nature still knock at their hearts.read · scan
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Minna von Barnhelm, or The Soldier's FortuneVol. 26
- p. 308–309Tellheim concludes that no one is perfectly inhuman, seeing kindness beneath Just's rough temper.read · scan
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Hermann and DorotheaVol. 19
- p. 378–379Pastor argues danger and necessity bring forth the angel in man, against the magistrate's dark view of human nature.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, New England ReformersVol. 5
- p. 263–264Men are better than they seem and respond to a stimulating, great-hearted mind.read · scan
- p. 267Emerson denies human depravity: every man loves truth, there is no pure malignity, and general purpose is fidelity.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, WorshipVol. 5
- p. 274Men are born loyal with a moral flow; social cohesion and sympathy are part of human nature.read · scan
- p. 275Man is born believing; he bears beliefs as a tree bears apples, with inborn rectitude.read · scan
John Stuart Mill, AutobiographyVol. 25
- p. 143Capacity for social motives is never extinct; the hindrance is not in the essential constitution of human nature.read · scan
John Stuart Mill, On LibertyVol. 25
- p. 255–257Human nature is not radically corrupt; Greek self-development joins Christian self-government, as Pericles surpasses Knox and Alcibiades.read · scan
7b.The doctrine of innate depravity and original sin
Aeschylus, The Libation-BearersVol. 8
- p. 100–101The aweless human soul is deemed more fearful than earth's monsters.read · scan
The Book of JobVol. 44
- p. 93What is man that he should be clean? Born of woman, corrupt, drinking iniquity like water.read · scan
Saint Augustine, The Confessions of St. AugustineVol. 7
- p. 10Infant nature reveals human selfishness; the baby's innocence lies in weak limbs, not in will.read · scan
- p. 28–29No man should ascribe his innocence to his own strength, given human infirmity.read · scan
Chapters from the KoranVol. 45
- p. 889–890Man wishes to be wicked and doubts his resurrection.read · scan
Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of ChristVol. 7
- p. 255–256Bearing the cross and despising self are contrary to man's nature; strength comes only from heaven.read · scan
- p. 320–321Original corruption and the burden of the mortal body bring weariness and heaviness of heart.read · scan
- p. 338–339Blindness and hardness of man's heart make him slip into carelessness through daily use of the gift.read · scan
Martin Luther, Concerning Christian LibertyVol. 36
- p. 377Human nature and natural reason are inherently superstitious, believing justification comes by laws or works.read · scan
John Calvin, Dedication of the Institutes of the Christian ReligionVol. 39
- p. 48–49Man is lost in himself, incapable of a good thought; the Son assumed real human nature.read · scan
William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of DenmarkVol. 46
- p. 144–146What should such fellows crawling between heaven and earth do? Men are arrant knaves.read · scan
Molière, Tartuffe, or The HypocriteVol. 26
- p. 291–293Orgon, betrayed, declares man a wicked animal.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48
- p. 101Humans are corrupt, powerless, and unworthy of God, who became man to unite with us.read · scan
- p. 148–149Man's heart is evil from his youth.read · scan
- p. 149Malignity is natural to man from infancy to old age.read · scan
- p. 171–172The Christian contrite heart is the human character, opposed to inhuman hardness.read · scan
- p. 204Men are corrupt, abandoned to senses and imagination, hence change in religions and morals.read · scan
- p. 219Lust has become our second nature; there are two natures in us, one good and one bad.read · scan
- p. 225Men who truly hate themselves are disposed to understand the books and know Christ.read · scan
- p. 260Men were universally announced to be corrupt and in need of a Redeemer.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, LettersVol. 48
- p. 333All that is in men apart from Christ is abominable, yielding misfortune or base pleasure.read · scan
John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's ProgressVol. 15
- p. 147–148Scripture judges the human heart as evil from youth; none is righteous.read · scan
Benjamin Franklin, His AutobiographyVol. 1
- p. 100Whitefield told hearers they were naturally half beasts and half devils.read · scan
David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human UnderstandingVol. 37
- p. 322Experience of fraud and cruelty shows general corruption of human nature.read · scan
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Profession of Faith of a Savoyard VicarVol. 34
- p. 232Injustice and cruelty led him to infer the depravity of human nature and emptiness of virtue.read · scan
Immanuel Kant, Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of MoralsVol. 32
- p. 318Philosophers lament the frailty and corruption of human nature, too weak to follow the noble rule.read · scan
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Hermann and DorotheaVol. 19
- p. 376Pessimistic view of human nature as capable of beastly savagery when restraints fall.read · scan
7c.Man's selfishness, vanity and love of power
Chapters from the KoranVol. 45
- p. 879God created man from congealed blood and taught him; yet man is outrageous when he grows rich, showing humble origin and presumption.read · scan
- p. 879–880Man's pride and unbelief bring hell; every soul is pledged for what it earns; mortals are warned.read · scan
- p. 920–921Man is ever niggardly, holding back from fear of spending.read · scan
- p. 935–936Presents man as a dependent creature of God, supplied with cattle and ships, prone to pride and denial of divine signs, and doomed to hell for arrogance.read · scan
Niccolò Machiavelli, The PrinceVol. 36
- p. 55Men are described as thankless, fickle, false, greedy and cowardly, loyal only while benefits last.read · scan
Thomas Hobbes, Of Man, Being the First Part of LeviathanVol. 34
- p. 342–343Traces human passions to self-regard: laughter comes from comparing ourselves favorably, pity from imagining like calamity.read · scan
- p. 362–363Hobbes analyses human power as original and instrumental, reducing human qualities to means of acquiring more power.read · scan
- p. 363–364A man's worth is his price, set by others' need and judgment, not by his own rating.read · scan
- p. 369–370A general inclination of all mankind is restless desire for power, differing by passions and opinions.read · scan
- p. 371–372Describes how men's dispositions arise from their passions and self-estimates.read · scan
- p. 389–390Men's precautions such as locking doors show mistrust of fellows; passions and resulting actions are in themselves no sin.read · scan
- p. 400Most men pursue wealth, command or sensual pleasure, so only fear can be reckoned on.read · scan
Izaak Walton, The Life of Dr. John DonneVol. 15
- p. 364Desire for glory is said to be natural to man, living and dying with us like radical heat.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48
- p. 20–21Man loves malice against the fortunate and proud, not the unfortunate.read · scan
- p. 42–43Self-love makes man see himself small, miserable and imperfect, and breeds hatred of the truth that reproves him.read · scan
- p. 43–44The human heart is unjust and unreasonable, unwilling to be candid to one man though right to all.read · scan
- p. 59–60Our dependence on reputation proves the nothingness of our being.read · scan
- p. 60Vanity is anchored in the human heart, including Pascal's own.read · scan
- p. 151Man is full of pride, ambition, lust, weakness, misery and injustice; failing to know this is blindness.read · scan
- p. 151–152Self is hateful because it makes itself the center of everything.read · scan
- p. 152Human nature is self-centred and hateful to those who love justice.read · scan
- p. 152Each man is all in all to himself, wrongly judging nature by himself.read · scan
John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning EducationVol. 37
- p. 27Man is more wilful and proud, more desirous of mastery than any other creature.read · scan
William Penn, Some Fruits of SolitudeVol. 1
- p. 323Men are full of themselves though they own nothing, not even themselves.read · scan
- p. 326–327Weakness and self-love are part of human nature.read · scan
Alexander Pope, Solitude; On a Certain Lady at Court; Essay on ManVol. 40
- p. 407Pride leads man to think creation exists for him and to judge God's providence.read · scan
- p. 415–422Man's pride in thinking all made for him is rebuked.read · scan
Benjamin Franklin, His AutobiographyVol. 1
- p. 144He admits vanity in ascribing success to his Dialogue, yet lets Dr. B. keep his opinion.read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of NationsVol. 10
- p. 19Man, unlike other animals, constantly needs the help of others and must appeal to their self-love to obtain it.read · scan
- p. 109Universal human conceit in own abilities and good fortune, an ancient evil noted by moralists.read · scan
Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and BeautifulVol. 24
- p. 78Mankind has a propensity to make itself and its works the measure of excellence.read · scan
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Hermann and DorotheaVol. 19
- p. 340Observes man's unwillingness to relinquish even his meanest possession, and how panic destroys judgment.read · scan
- p. 340–342Each flees thinking only of self, carried by the current of the crowd.read · scan
Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6
- p. 202–204Mankind is weak and little to be trusted when self shakes the balanceread · scan
- p. 230–231Man as tyrant over the weak, with savage ruthless deeds toward bees and birds; the poet's independence and dignity.read · scan
- p. 285–287Man, proud usurping foe and tyrant, alone gifted with pity from Heaven yet slays creatures for pleasure.read · scan
Friedrich Schiller, William TellVol. 26
- p. 456–457She calls the heart of man ruthless: offended pride makes reason forsake him.read · scan
Friedrich von Schiller, Letters upon the Aesthetic Education of ManVol. 32
- p. 214–215Man's nature is selfish and violent, so society needs a third character between physical and moral.read · scan
William Ellery Channing, On the Elevation of the Laboring ClassesVol. 28
- p. 311–312Notes sensuality, selfishness and prejudice in multitudes as barriers to improvement.read · scan
Percy Bysshe Shelley, The CenciVol. 18
- p. 353Beatrice contrasts natural disasters with cruel, formal man, righteous in words and a Cain in deeds.read · scan
Thomas Carlyle, Inaugural Address at EdinburghVol. 25
- p. 386Others show no specific ill-will; each is intent on his own aims and heedlessly treads on you.read · scan
Charles Darwin, The Origin of SpeciesVol. 11
- p. 49It is in human nature to fancy any novelty, however slight, in one's own possession.read · scan
Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the BeagleVol. 29
- p. 403Man's cruel delight in killing tame birds, such as a boy killing doves for dinner, and birds not yet knowing man as dangerous.read · scan
William Makepeace Thackeray, Jonathan SwiftVol. 28
- p. 10–11Men are by nature warlike, predatory and eager for plunder and dominion, always finding a pretext.read · scan
Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Two Years Before the MastVol. 23
- p. 70The narrator admits a well man at sea feels pleasant superiority over the seasick, conscious of a comparison favorable to his own manhood.read · scan
John Ruskin, Sesame and LiliesVol. 28
- p. 95Objectors say only acquisitiveness and jealousy are in human nature; Ruskin defends honesty and generosity as real motives.read · scan
7d.Man's folly, inconstancy and self-deception
See also: Happiness 7a · Diversion 2a
Aesop, FablesVol. 17
- p. 35–36Fable showing man's slavery to others' opinion; trying to please everyone yields folly and loss.read · scan
- p. 36The miser shows human folly of valuing possession over use; hoarding gold is as useless as an empty hole.read · scan
- p. 36–37Fox and mosquitoes fable, a prudential lesson about animals; man barely implied.read · scan
Euripides, HippolytusVol. 8
- p. 343–344Men are called blind and striving, inventing countless arts yet unable to create a true heart in one who has none.read · scan
Marcus Tullius Cicero, On FriendshipVol. 9
- p. 30Human nature is not indifferent to political power, and most people prove inconstant in prosperity or adversity.read · scan
- p. 38–39Human weakness: people resent reproof more than their faults and are drawn by flattery to ruin, though nature signals what we need.read · scan
Pliny the Younger, Letters of PlinyVol. 9
- p. 337–338All mankind are subject to indiscretions and each has favourite follies.read · scan
Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations of Marcus AureliusVol. 2
- p. 225Men's morals are hard to endure, even one's own.read · scan
Chapters from the KoranVol. 45
- p. 884Man is created in trouble, boasts of wasted wealth, thinks none sees him, yet is given eyes, tongue and guidance.read · scan
- p. 885Man is ungrateful though made from a clot, fated, killed and raised again by God.read · scan
- p. 890–891Man is witness against himself, not left to himself, made from seed and blood into male and female.read · scan
- p. 913–914Man prays for evil as for good and is ever hasty.read · scan
- p. 918–919Man is ungrateful in safety after crying to God in distress, yet God has honoured the children of Adam.read · scan
- p. 992Man alone bore the trust of faith that heavens and mountains refused, yet is unjust and ignorant.read · scan
Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of ChristVol. 7
- p. 294It is man's nature to be deceived by fancies; a weak mind is drawn by love of present or fear of future.read · scan
- p. 308–309Men are weak, unstable, quickly deceived and changed; hope in men is vain.read · scan
Niccolò Machiavelli, The PrinceVol. 36
- p. 51Human nature does not allow constant practice of all good qualities.read · scan
- p. 79It is human nature not to think of storms when the sea is calm.read · scan
William Harrison, A Description of Elizabethan EnglandVol. 35
- p. 274Observes it is the nature of man to covet what is hard to attainread · scan
- p. 328Laments human blindness: we foresee no harm until we feel it and prize foreign trifles over home goods.read · scan
Sir Walter Raleigh, Preface to the History of the WorldVol. 39
- p. 112–113Human life is itself nothing but digression, and human error is universal, even among teachers who stray from the path they teach.read · scan
- p. 113–114Men are so subject to private passions that they seem different persons in the same day.read · scan
Francis Bacon, Essays, Civil and MoralVol. 3
- p. 7A natural though corrupt love of the lie itself belongs to human nature.read · scan
- p. 26Man, made to contemplate heaven and noble objects, demeans himself by kneeling before a little idol of love.read · scan
- p. 28–31Human nature holds more of the fool than the wise, so faculties that catch the foolish are most potent.read · scan
William Harvey, On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in AnimalsVol. 38
- p. 62–64To err and be deceived is human.read · scan
George Herbert, PoemsVol. 40
- p. 345–346Man is given all blessings but restlessness, so weariness may lead him to God.read · scan
Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Life Is a DreamVol. 26
- p. 7Rosaura observes that fair faces in the world often mask black hearts.read · scan
- p. 52Sailor, soldier, lover, merchant and beggar each dream their desires; men are actors on earth's stage.read · scan
Sir Thomas Browne, Religio MediciVol. 3
- p. 310The multitude, though reasonable individually, together form one great beast, enemy of reason, virtue and religion.read · scan
John Milton, Samson AgonistesVol. 4
- p. 415Manoa laments the vanity and deceivable trust in mortal strength and the deceptive nature of man's good wishes.read · scan
Molière, Tartuffe, or The HypocriteVol. 26
- p. 213–214Men are strange creatures who never keep the mean.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48
- p. 39Man is a subject of error without grace.read · scan
- p. 44Men like to be deceived and are deceived by those wanting our love.read · scan
- p. 45Human life is perpetual illusion; society is founded on mutual deceit, rooted in the heart.read · scan
- p. 47–48Man is inconstant, changeable and variable, like an odd organ; he weeps and laughs at the same thing.read · scan
- p. 50–51Man is credulous and incredulous, timid and rash; dependent, inconstant, weary and restless.read · scan
- p. 52Men seek quarrels, perils, war and entertainment because they cannot remain with pleasure at home.read · scan
- p. 53–54Philosophers scorn hare-chasing yet misunderstand our nature; the chase screens us from thoughts of death and calamity.read · scan
- p. 54Both censurers and censured misunderstand man's true nature; seeking excitement is only wrong when taken as true happiness.read · scan
- p. 54Men do not know themselves: they seek the chase, not the quarry, and think they seek quiet but seek excitement.read · scan
- p. 55Pascal shows man's wretchedness and frivolity: weariness is rooted in the heart, yet trifles like billiards amuse him.read · scan
- p. 55Vanity and folly characterize human pursuits of every sort.read · scan
- p. 56Human misery is masked by pursuits; the great have others to amuse them.read · scan
- p. 57–58King or not, man is miserable when forced to meditate on himself.read · scan
- p. 58If relieved of cares men would reflect on what they are, whence they came, whither they go.read · scan
- p. 58The heart of man is hollow; men are kept occupied and amused to avoid self-knowledge.read · scan
- p. 62Sneezing absorbs the soul, but as involuntary it is no proof of man's weakness or slavery.read · scan
- p. 62–63Youths, stripped of diversion, feel their nothingness and are unhappy when left to think of self.read · scan
- p. 63–64Human miseries of death and ignorance underlie our turn to diversion.read · scan
- p. 64Diversion is both our only consolation and greatest misery, preventing self-reflection and leading unconsciously to death.read · scan
- p. 64Human imprudence and idleness make us wander in times not ours.read · scan
- p. 66–67Human misfortune and self-deception: we hide the precipice from ourselves and run toward it.read · scan
- p. 73Man's strange inconsistency: sensitive to trifles, insensible to eternity and death.read · scan
- p. 73Strange confusion in human nature; men boast of unbelief.read · scan
- p. 76–77Man's sensibility to trifles and insensibility to great things is a strange inversion.read · scan
- p. 96–97Man is called presumptuous for limiting reality to what he sees.read · scan
- p. 114Human weakness explains why trivial things like lute-playing are admired.read · scan
- p. 119Man's nature advances and retreats, like fever's hot and cold fits.read · scan
- p. 124Men are astonishingly unaware of their natural weakness, pretending natural wisdom.read · scan
- p. 124–125Scepticism gains strength from those who do not know man's weakness.read · scan
- p. 277–278The human heart is inclined to fickleness, change and gain.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, Minor WorksVol. 48
- p. 431It is a natural infirmity of man to think he possesses truth and deny what he cannot grasp.read · scan
John Dryden, All for Love; or, The World Well LostVol. 18
- p. 67–69Dolabella says men are children of a larger growth, with changeable, craving, vain appetites and a soul blind to itself.read · scan
William Penn, Some Fruits of SolitudeVol. 1
- p. 325Man is absurd, spending all on the bare house and neglecting the furniture within, despite pretences to wit.read · scan
- p. 331Man, noblest creature and image of God, sordidly worships gold for God.read · scan
David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human UnderstandingVol. 37
- p. 368Infirmity of human minds makes them regard only their private system.read · scan
- p. 381–382Human nature has a propensity to credulity and vanity that weakens trust in testimony of prodigies.read · scan
- p. 383An ineradicable human propensity to the marvellous, and men's readiness to lie in all ages, explain prodigies.read · scan
- p. 415Sceptic shows the whimsical condition of mankind, who must act, reason and believe without satisfying foundations.read · scan
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Profession of Faith of a Savoyard VicarVol. 34
- p. 236–237Mankind seen as victims of their own or others' vices.read · scan
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in FranceVol. 24
- p. 376–377Mankind is ignorant and fallible, and wise conduct attends to that nature.read · scan
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Tragedy of Faust, Part IVol. 19
- p. 51–53Men despise what they do not grasp, and misprize the good and fair.read · scan
- p. 58–60Man is called folly's microcosm who esteems himself a perfect whole.read · scan
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Hermann and DorotheaVol. 19
- p. 339–340The doctor laments that men gape at a neighbor's misfortune, ignoring their own risk; it lies in man's nature.read · scan
Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6
- p. 118–120Man's foresight is vain; best-laid schemes of mice and men go agley, leaving grief. Mouse lives in the present, man fears the future.read · scan
- p. 156–157Human bodies are fools who invent troubles when no real ills vex them.read · scan
- p. 184–186Frailty and stepping aside are human; God alone knows each heart's springs and bias.read · scan
- p. 189–192Wish to see ourselves as others see us would free us from blunders, foolish notions, airs and vain show even in devotion.read · scan
Friedrich von Schiller, Letters upon the Aesthetic Education of ManVol. 32
- p. 229Something in the spirit of man blocks reception of truth despite its light.read · scan
- p. 232Asks whether reformers are wounded in reason or in self-love by the disorders of the moral world.read · scan
Alessandro Manzoni, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed)Vol. 21
- p. 254Narrator observes that agitated and perplexed men, even villains, eagerly implore help from those who can relieve them, and so bungle their usual cunning.read · scan
- p. 459Men rebel violently against medium evils but bow in silence under extreme ones, bearing insupportable suffering with stupefaction.read · scan
- p. 517Men in general are to be pitied for the ease of speaking over thinking.read · scan
- p. 641Man is like a sick person changing beds, always finding new discomforts; better to aim at doing well than being well.read · scan
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Household TalesVol. 17
- p. 54–55The closing remark, 'Truly men are like that', says men submit to fear and aid deceit.read · scan
Thomas Carlyle, Sir Walter ScottVol. 25
- p. 438Man is a fool; a strong man led by a small passion into delirium.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, An Address Delivered before the Senior Class in Divinity CollegeVol. 5
- p. 36Man is ashamed of himself and rarely dares to be wise and good; the community's soul is sick.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, MannersVol. 5
- p. 205–207Man seems sly and elusive, dreading a full meeting with his fellow and hiding behind screens, like Adam.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, NatureVol. 5
- p. 232No man is quite sane; each has a vein of folly and overrates what he has to say or do.read · scan
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1018–1019Men are puppets and a little breed, unkind, gossiping and delighting in a brother's shame.read · scan
Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Two Years Before the MastVol. 23
- p. 354Dana observes anomalous changes of feeling to which all people are subject.read · scan
James Russell Lowell, Abraham LincolnVol. 28
- p. 429Men acting gregariously are always in extremes, as human nature and history show.read · scan
‹ 6 · Outline · 8 ›