“Human nature is above all things — lazy.”
Source: Household Papers and Stories (1864), Ch. 6.
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Harriet Beecher Stowe 87
Abolitionist, author 1811–1896Related quotes
As quoted in Carl Reinhold Bråkenhielm (2009), "Linnaeus and homo religiosus," Universitet, p. 83.
“To conduct great matters and never commit a fault is above the force of human nature.”
Life of Fabius
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
“Intellectual laziness is punishable by brain death. It is a natural law.”
Usenet signatures
“Human nature with all its infirmities and depravation is still capable of great things.”
Letter to Abigail Adams (29 October 1775), published Letters of John Adams, Addressed to His Wife, Vol. 1 (1841), ed. Charles Francis Adams, p. 72
1770s
Context: Human nature with all its infirmities and depravation is still capable of great things. It is capable of attaining to degrees of wisdom and goodness, which we have reason to believe, appear as respectable in the estimation of superior intelligences. Education makes a greater difference between man and man, than nature has made between man and brute. The virtues and powers to which men may be trained, by early education and constant discipline, are truly sublime and astonishing. Newton and Locke are examples of the deep sagacity which may be acquired by long habits of thinking and study.
“[M]an when not stimulated by hope or necessity is naturally a lazy animal.”
In Korea with Marquis Ito (1908), page 292
“He disdains all things above his reach, and preferreth all countries above his own.”
Miscellaneous Works: An Affectate Traveller.
