Now I believe I can hear the philosophers protesting that it can only be misery to live in folly, illusion, deception and ignorance, but it isn't --it's human.

It is human nature to think wisely and act foolishly.

It is almost impossible to smile on the outside without feeling better on the inside.

Man has demonstrated that he is master of everything -- except his own nature.

My nature is subdued to what it works in, like the dyer's hand.

Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.

What is called an acute knowledge of human nature is mostly nothing but the observer's own weaknesses reflected back from others.

It is a pleasure to give advice, humiliating to need it, normal to ignore it.

Too many people confine their exercise to jumping to conclusions, running up bills, stretching the truth, bending over backward, lying down on the job, sidestepping responsibility and pushing their luck.

There is an electric fire in human nature tending to purify -- so that among these human creatures there is continually some birth of new heroism. The pity is that we must wonder at it, as we should at finding a pearl in rubbish.