HUMAN NATURE

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

I. (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The shared psychological attributes of humankind that are assumed to be shared by all human beings

Example:

a great observer of human nature

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("human nature" is a kind of...):

attribute (an abstraction belonging to or characteristic of an entity)

Credits

Context examples:

Human nature is so prone to fall into it!

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

I have indeed observed the same disposition among most of the mathematicians I have known in Europe, although I could never discover the least analogy between the two sciences; unless those people suppose, that because the smallest circle has as many degrees as the largest, therefore the regulation and management of the world require no more abilities than the handling and turning of a globe; but I rather take this quality to spring from a very common infirmity of human nature, inclining us to be most curious and conceited in matters where we have least concern, and for which we are least adapted by study or nature.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

“A man who has been three years biting his nails on a desert island, Jim, can't expect to appear as sane as you or me. It doesn't lie in human nature. Was it cheese you said he had a fancy for?”

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

My heart was cramped with my fears, and I winced at every blow, yet I was conscious also of an absolute fascination, with a wild thrill of fierce joy and a certain exultation in our common human nature which could rise above pain and fear in its straining after the very humblest form of fame.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

‘I perceive that all is as it should be. But we have to be careful, for we have twice been deceived by wigs and once by paint. I could tell you tales of cobbler’s wax which would disgust you with human nature.’

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Didn't they steal sips of tea, stuff gingerbread ad libitum, get a hot biscuit apiece, and as a crowning trespass, didn't they each whisk a captivating little tart into their tiny pockets, there to stick and crumble treacherously, teaching them that both human nature and a pastry are frail?

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

It is really wonderful how much resilience there is in human nature.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Human nature could support no more.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Yet some feelings, unallied to the dross of human nature, beat even in these rugged bosoms.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)