Statements of great people about man and personality

Since ancient times, people have been trying to understand their nature and understand the impulses that drive them. Scientists, thinkers and writers have devoted many works to issues of personality and morality. Opinions and conclusions vary. You can agree with some, but not with others.

Perhaps the reader will find interesting the statements we have selected from great people about man, which will bring him at least a little closer to solving the eternal mystery.

About human qualities

People never cease to argue about what character traits a person must have in order to be a worthy member of society. What qualities need to be developed, and which ones to struggle with? The statements of great people about man and his character will help shed light on this issue.

Pride turned angels into demons. Humility makes a person like an angel. (R. Duval).
Weak people believe in luck; strong people believe in cause and effect. (R.W. Emerson).
Live like a brave man and, if fate is unfavorable, repel its blows face to face. (M. T. Cicero).
Envy is people's blinds that prevent them from thinking clearly. (H. Malcolm).
A selfish person is not able to love others, because he does not know how to love himself. (E. Fromm).
Patience is a wonderful quality, but life is too short to endure for long. (A. Faraj).
Courage is not given to people for rent. (L. Kostenko).
Man is the only being who refuses to be who he is. (A. Camus).
There is a certain inspiration in the freedom of human nature that rises above itself to accomplish a feat. (A. Hamilton).
Read also: The best quotes from the book “Love Lives for Three Years” by Frederic Beigbeder

42 best quotes about self-development and personal improvement

#1 Author - Niels Bohr . An expert is a person who has made all possible mistakes in a very narrow specialty.

#2 Author - Anaxagoras. Nothing can be known, nothing can be learned, nothing can be ascertained: feelings are limited, the mind is weak, life is short.

#3 Author - Charles Montesquieu. You need to study a lot to know a lot.

#4 Author - Georg Simmel An educated person is one who knows where to find what he does not know.

#5 Author - Grigory Landau. Just like with anyone else, you can get used to yourself without ever recognizing yourself.

#6 Author - Henry Hasking. A man who is too old to learn has probably always been too old to learn.

#7 Author - Thomas Szasz. You often hear: “He hasn’t found himself yet.” But you cannot find yourself - you can only create yourself.

#8 Author - W. Shakespeare. Brevity is the soul of wit.

#9 Author - Maria Ebner-Eschenbach A good book contains more truths than the author wanted to put into it.

#10 Author - Ingmar Bergman. Life has exactly the value we want to give it.

#11 Author - Fyodor Dostoevsky. We must love life more than its meaning.

#12 Author - Stanislav Jerzy Lec. The darker it is, the easier it is to be a star.

#13 Author - Wieslaw Brudzinski. The mistakes of young people are an inexhaustible source of experience for those who are older.

#14 Author - Dominik Opolsky. You won't be able to find yourself by following your trail.

#15 Author - Grigory Landau. To find yourself, you need to remake yourself.

#16 Author - Grigory Landau. Glory is a love accessible to few; love is glory available to everyone.

#17 Author - Isaac Newton. When learning science, examples are more useful than rules.

#18 Author - Vernon Lowe. Experience is the worst teacher; he offers a test before class.

#19 Author - Johann Wolfgang Goethe. We, in essence, learn from those books about which we are not able to judge. The author of a book that we can judge should have learned from us.

#20 Author - Georges Feydeau. If you are lazy and persistent, you will certainly achieve something.

#21 Author - Lawrence Peter. There is nothing new under the sun, but there is something old that we don't know.

#22 Author - Jules Renard. The more you read, the less you imitate.

#23 Author - Victor Grzegorczyk. Wisdom is not wrinkles, but convolutions.

#24 Author - Franklin Jones. Originality is the art of hiding your sources.

#25 Author - Alexander Perlyuk. What is said directly is understood worse than a hint.

#26 Author - Fyodor Dostoevsky. A person does not live his whole life, but creates himself, creates himself.

#27 Author - Napoleon I. Power is never funny.

#28 Author - Thales of Miletus. Know yourself!

#29 Author - Evgeny Sagalovsky. It is not enough to know your worth - you also need to be able to realize yourself.

#30 Author - Stanislav Jerzy Lec. To be yourself, you need to be someone.

#31 Author - Blaise Pascal. Otherwise, the words arranged take on a different meaning, otherwise the thoughts arranged make a different impression.

#32 Author - Samuel Johnson. Knowledge is of two kinds: either we know something, or we know where to find information about it.

#33 Author - Lech Konopiński. Only the unique should be repeated.

#34 Author - Francois Fenelon. The more you say, the less people will remember.

#35 Author - Lawrence Peter. What could be more painful than learning from experience? Just one thing: don't learn from your own experience.

#36 Author - Jean Duch. Lack of experience allows youth to do what old age considers impossible.

#37 Author - Anton Chekhov. A smart person loves to learn, and a fool loves to teach.

#38 Author - Seneca. By teaching others, we learn ourselves.

#39 Author - Gilbert Chesterton. Intellectuals are divided into two categories: some worship intelligence, others use it.

#40 By Henry Wheeler Shaw. The less we know, the more we suspect.

#41 Author - Stephen Fry. Original thought? Nothing could be easier. Libraries are simply filled with them.

#42 Author - Henry Peter Broome. Try to know everything about something and something about everything.

About the choices people make

Most likely, everyone has repeatedly heard the statement that a person is the master of his own destiny and everything depends only on the right choice. This can be confirmed by the wise statements of great people on this topic.

In life, there is always a choice to be an optimist or a pessimist. I choose optimism. (D. Anderson).
Happiness is a choice that requires a lot of effort. (Aeschylus).
When making your choices in life, do not neglect life itself. (S. Johnson).
Each person builds his world in his own image. He has the right to choose, but no force will free him from the need for this choice. (A. Rand).
For some reason, anyone can become a savage. The difference between a good and a bad person is only the choice of reason. (W. James).
The history of free people was never really an accident - it was their choice! (D. D. Eisenhower).
We almost always have a choice, and the better it is, the more control we have over our own lives. (W. Glasser).

Quotes from strong people

The weakness of a strong person lies in his strength, since he is forced to keep his mark: do not cry, do not ask for help. And so on until the last... until it breaks. This fate befell me too.

You can only go through life with people who are equal in strength to you. The weak are inclined to blame you for their misfortunes, but you get involved with the strong and you yourself begin to do what you so disliked in the weak.

Let the path of the weak lead through good to evil: he will still never reach his goal. The strong one will be able to choose the goal and means, breaking all the rules.

What makes a person truly strong? Of course, his weaknesses.

Life's difficulties affect everyone differently: they make the strong happy, but they make the weak angry.

Globalization seems to have affected not only industry, but also people. They are used and thrown away. It seems that people have become disposable.

The mind weakens us. Only a person of small intelligence can be truly persistent. Alas, such persistence does not lead to anything good.

The strength of a child is trust. Only it gives him knowledge, but once he grows up... he trusts someone and he’s lost.

Read the continuation of the best aphorisms and quotes on the pages:

A man who has conquered others is strong; a man who has conquered himself is powerful.

It takes time to gain strength and complete the changes you have started. Time and continuous effort. – Louise Hay

Sayings of Omar Khayyam about people

This wonderful Persian scientist, philosopher and poet is probably known to many. His short poems, filled with deep meaning, are close and understandable to people to this day. Therefore, re-reading the statements of great people about man in various publications, one can always come across the wise aphorisms of Omar Khayyam.

You must be good with both friend and enemy! He who is good by nature will not find malice in him. If you offend a friend, you will make an enemy. If you hug an enemy, you will find a friend.
The threats of hell and the hopes of heaven! I don’t know what’s next in life, but at least you can be sure of one thing – it flies, everything else is nonsense.
After all, only those who are worse than us think badly of us, and those who are much better than us... So, they all simply have no time for us.
In fact, we are just pieces on this chessboard of life and, in the end, we will all leave it, going into oblivion.
If people gossip about you, it means that you are enough not only for yourself, but also for others. They just fill themselves with you.
“What will people think?” - this question should come in the very last place. In essence, they don't care. Life is yours after all.
The world will remain the same when we die, as if we had never come. There is not and never was a shortage in it, and it will not be empty later.

Philosophical statements about people

People tend to worry more about what they can't see than what they can. (Yu. Caesar).
The moment you stop trying to become a better person is the moment you become worse than you already are. (K. Bryant).
If people talk bad about you, live in such a way that they envy you. (Plato).
Good people don't need laws to act responsibly, but bad people will find a way around them. (Plato).
Human happiness has two equal wings: flowers and grapes - beautiful and useful. (M. Rylsky).
Respect people not for wealth, but for philanthropy. After all, we value the sun not for its greatness, its benefits are important to us. (G. Bailey).
We are not an infinity of standard selves, but an infinity of different Universes. (V. Simonenko).
Philosophical treatises and clever statements about people by prominent figures give only a faint idea of the purpose of man. Truth is known only to God. (R. Duval).
Every person is a creation of the era in which he lives and few are able to rise above the ideas of their time. (Voltaire).
A person must bring grain to the world, just as an ear of grain carries grain to people. (G. Koval).
In order for a person to continue his development, there must be at least one minute of despair in his life. (D. Maxoroli).
Great people have high values and great labels. (D. Gitomer).
Praise does not make anyone better or worse. (M. Aurelius).

About the role of man in society

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing. (E. Burke).
The tragedy is not that bad people act cruelly and oppress others, but that good people look on in silence. (M. L. King Jr.).
One of the key problems today is that politics has become such a shame that good people don't go into government. (D. Trump).
A society that produces twice as many lawyers as poets and artists is doomed. (D. Fogerty).
Either we accept the flaws in good people, or we must rip pages out of the bible. (R. Duval).
Almost all people can overcome adversity, but if you want to test a person, give him power. (A. Lincoln).
Great people talk about ideas, ordinary people talk about things, insignificant people talk about wine. (F. Lebowitz).
Difficulties often prepare an ordinary person for an extraordinary destiny. (K. Marcus).

With humor about human shortcomings

Such statements by great people about man and his vices allow you to look critically at yourself from the outside.

People will laugh at anything except their own idiocy. (Ishavardes).
Two things are infinite: the Universe and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe. (A. Einstein).
When people say they hate life, what are they comparing it to? Is there a more attractive alternative? (To Bryant).
Say “no” more often than “yes” and you will soon find that you surround yourself with good people. (L. Lohan).
Some people come into our lives and leave a mark on our hearts. From others we expect nothing more than footprints on the stairs. (D. Handy).
The only difference between a fool and a genius is that genius has limits. (A. Einstein).
By the time a man realizes that his father was right, he already has his own son who does not think he is right. (C. Wadsworth).
The human brain is a wonderful thing. It begins its work at the moment of birth and does not stop until the person begins to speak publicly. (D. Jessel).
No one knows how to rush others like a lazy person. Because, to please his own laziness, he wants to appear diligent. (La Rochefoucauld).

Personality

The actions of wise people are dictated by the mind, the less intelligent people - by experience, the most ignorant - by necessity, animals - by nature. Cicero Marcus Tullius

The baseness [of action, behavior] is unforgivable. Unknown author

Do this to live happily. Unknown author

Only he is truly learned who does well. Saying by an unknown Indian author

When you see a wise person, think about becoming like him. When you see a person who does not have wisdom, consider your own actions. Confucius (Kun Tzu)

After looking at a person's actions, look at their reasons, determine whether they cause him concern. And then will a person be able to hide what he is? Confucius (Kun Tzu)

Human actions performed upon reflection are called deeds. Long reflection and frequently repeated actions create a habit, after which it becomes a permanent rule. Xunzi

A person’s bad qualities and actions depend on himself. Xunzi

We need to act according to what pleases us most. Aurelius Augustine

Virtue is the embodiment of good deeds, and sin is the opposite of this. Haribhadra

Promiscuity manifests itself not only in actions, but also in words. Abul Faraj

Past actions are much easier to blame than to correct. Giovanni Boccaccio

Actions are the fruits of thoughts. If there are reasonable thoughts, there will be good deeds. Baltasar Gracian y Morales

Often we would have to be ashamed of our most noble deeds if others knew our motives. Francois de La Rochefoucauld

The main thing is how a person evaluates his actions. Margaret of Navarre

Every person has the inherent freedom to commit any act, that is, what he considers best. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

Most people are capable of great deeds rather than good deeds. Charles Louis Montesquieu

In a good deed there is always both kindness and strength to perform it. Charles Louis Montesquieu

If any action is virtuous or vicious, this is only a sign of a certain mental quality or character; it must flow from the constant principles of our spirit, extending to the whole conduct of man and entering into his personal character. David Hume

A bad deed torments us not when it has just been committed, but when, after a long time, we remember it, because the memory of it does not fade. Jean Jacques Rousseau

One of the advantages of good actions is that they elevate the soul and predispose it to even better deeds. Jean Jacques Rousseau

Only by actions do we judge internal movements, thoughts, actions, and other feelings. Claude Adrian Helvetius

A slavish act is not always the act of a slave. Georg Christoph Aichtenberg

A person is reflected in his actions. Johann Friedrich Schiller

The highest act is to put others before yourself. William Blake

In our judgments of people, we must be careful not to attach great importance to random actions. Through random good deeds, weak people want to regain their own respect, while vain people want to elevate themselves in the eyes of society. Henry Taylor

Just as we define our actions, our actions define us. George Eliot

External actions are no different from internal ones. In an evil deed, the intention, in essence, is also evil, and not good. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

For my action to have moral value, my belief must be associated with it. It is immoral to do something out of fear of punishment or in order to gain others' good opinion of oneself. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

For an action to have moral value, it is necessary to understand whether it is fair or unfair, whether it is good or bad. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

The beauty of an act lies, first of all, in the fact that it is performed easily and as if without any stress. Immanuel Kant

The destructiveness of a bad act lies in the fact that it contains within itself the germ of new abominations. Johann Friedrich Schiller

Any immoral act done consciously offends reason; remorse reminds a person that he acted like a slave, like an animal. Alexander Ivanovich Herzen

To act smartly, intelligence alone is not enough. Fedor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky

You can explain and justify previous actions only by committing new ones. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Referring to the bad deeds of others is washing yourself with dirt. Jean Petit-San

When a person commits some unexpected act, it is usually attributed to unworthy motives. William Somerset Maugham

Unfortunately, it is not always possible to do what you think is right without causing pain to others. William Somerset Maugham

A human act is more honorable, better and more magnificent the more distant its consequences. John Ruskin

Every action continues to build us, it weaves our colorful robe. Every action is free, but clothing is necessary. Our experience is our clothing. Friedrich Nietzsche

You will rarely be mistaken if you attribute exceptional actions to vanity, mediocre ones to habit, and small ones to fear. Friedrich Nietzsche

The value of any accomplishment is determined by the morality of the performer. For me it is certain that at all times society has presented a field for the eagle, the vulture and the bird, and the path of each has been laid out according to his moral inclinations. Chabua Iraklievich Amirejibi

A person and his actions are two different things. While a good deed deserves approval, and a bad deed deserves condemnation, a person, regardless of whether he has committed a good or a bad deed, is always worthy of either respect or compassion. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

Most of people's actions are carried out not by reasoning, not even by feeling, but by unconscious imitation, by suggestion. Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy

There is one undoubted sign that divides people's actions into good and evil: love and unity of people increases the action - it is good; produces enmity and disunity - he is bad. Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy

A dirty fly can stain the entire wall, and a small dirty act can ruin the whole thing. Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

Everyone is more willing to say about themselves: “I’m doing the right thing” than “I’m doing the wrong thing.” Franz Brentano

The benefit from an immoral act is received by the individual, and the moral damage falls on the community. Georg Simmel

It’s too easy to be original, to act differently from everyone else. Antonio Gramsci

A formula can only describe the actions of a not entirely free person. Eric Bern