Arie de Geus (1930) Dutch businessman
Source: The Living Company, 1997, p. 3
Arie de Geus (1930) Dutch businessman
Source: The Living Company, 1997, p. 3
“The only thing that one really knows about human nature is that it changes.”
Oscar Wilde book The Soul of Man under Socialism
The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)
Context: The only thing that one really knows about human nature is that it changes. Change is the one quality we can predicate of it. The systems that fail are those that rely on the permanency of human nature, and not on its growth and development. The error of Louis XIV was that he thought human nature would always be the same. The result of his error was the French Revolution. It was an admirable result. All the results of the mistakes of governments are quite admirable.
Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) Italian mathematician, physicist, philosopher and astronomer
A note on this statement is included by Stillman Drake in his Galileo at Work, His Scientific Biography (1981): Galileo adhered to this position in his Dialogue at least as to the "integral bodies of the universe." by which he meant stars and planets, here called "parts of the universe." But he did not attempt to explain the planetary motions on any mechanical basis, nor does this argument from "best arrangement" have any bearing on inertial motion, which to Galileo was indifference to motion and rest and not a tendency to move, either circularly or straight.
Letter to Francesco Ingoli (1624)
Baba Hari Dass (1923–2018) master yogi, author, builder, commentator of Indian spiritual tradition
Source: Everyday Peace: Letters for Life (2000), p.17
“You put too much stock in human intelligence, it doesn't annihilate human nature.”
Philip Roth book American Pastoral
Source: American Pastoral
Rachel Carson (1907–1964) American marine biologist and conservationist
Preface to Humane Biology Projects (1961) by the Animal Welfare Institute