Quotes
Quotes about Instinct
I was now a coward on instinct.
Those obstinate questionings
Of sense and outward things,
Fallings from us, vanishings,
Blank misgivings of a creature
Moving about in worlds not realized,
High instincts before which our mortal nature
Did tremble like a guilty thing surprised.
A few strong instincts, and a few plain rules.
Bright gem instinct with music, vocal spark.
An instinctive taste teaches men to build their churches in flat countries, with spire steeples, which, as they cannot be referred to any other object, point as with silent finger to the sky and star.
If the single man plant himself indomitably on his instincts, and there abide, the huge world will come round to him.
Great thoughts, great feelings came to them,
Like instincts, unawares.
The ultimate, angels' law,
Indulging every instinct of the soul
There where law, life, joy, impulse are one thing!
Every man feels instinctively that all the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action.
The efficacy of religion lies precisely in what is not rational, philosophic or eternal; its efficacy lies in the unforeseen, the miraculous, the extraordinary. Thus religion attracts more devotion according as it demands more faith,--that is to say, as it becomes more incredible to the profane mind. The philosopher aspires to explain away all mysteries, to dissolve them into light. Mystery on the other hand is demanded and pursued by the religious instinct; mystery constitutes the essence of worship, the power of proselytism. When the "cross" became the "foolishness" of the cross, it took possession of the masses.
Perverse, how perverse the human instincts
Man is a double creature in whom flesh contradicts spirit and instinct opposes aspirations
Life is like music, it must be composed by ear, feeling and instinct, not by rule. Nevertheless one had better know the rules, for they sometimes guide in doubtful cases, though not often.
The instinct of a man is to pursue everything that flies from him, and to fly from all that pursue him.
Indolence is a delightful but distressing state; we must be doing something to be happy. Action is no less necessary than thought to the instinctive tendencies of the human frame.
Man must get his thoughts, words and actions out of this vast moral jungle. We are not predators. We are, hopefully, more than instinctive killers and selfish brutes. Why take such a dim view of our potentialities and capabilities?
The Farmer and the Snake One winter a Farmer found a Snake stiff and frozen with cold. He had compassion on it, and taking it up, placed it in his bosom. The Snake was quickly revived by the warmth, and resuming its natural instincts, bit its benefactor, inflicting on him a mortal wound. Oh, cried the Farmer with his last breath, I am rightly served for pitying a scoundrel. The greatest kindness will not bind the ungrateful.
Love isn't an emotion or an instinct--it's an art.
For all his learning or sophistication, man still instinctively reaches towards that force beyond. Only arrogance can deny its existence, and the denial falters in the face of evidence on every hand.
Obeying an inalienable law, things grew, spreading riotous and strange in their instinct for growth.
Most bosses know instinctively that their power depends more on employee's compliance than on threats or sanctions.
Every genuine boy is a rebel and an anarch. If he were allowed to develop according to his own instincts, his own inclinations, society would undergo such a radical transformation as to make the adult revolutionary cower and cringe.
Business more than any other occupation is a continual dealing with the future; it is a continual calculation, an instinctive exercise in foresight.
criminal, n. A person with predatory instincts who has not sufficient capital to form a corporation.
The herd instinct among forecasters makes sheep look like independent thinkers.
