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Behaviour Quotes

Browse 655 quotes about Behaviour.

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Behaviour Quotes

“Opportunism is self interest seeking with guile often involving subtle forms of deceit, especially calculated efforts to mislead, distort, disguise, obfuscate, or otherwise confuse. This vastly complicates the problems of economic organisation. Plainly if it were not for opportunism all behaviour could be rule governed”

IfsSelfProblemFormInterestEffortEconomicEconomicsSeekingSubtleDeceitBehaviourDisguiseSelf InterestMisleadInvolvingOrganisationGuileOpportunism
Author:Oliver E. Williamson
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“Variable behaviour of the sun is an obvious explanation, and there is increasing evidence that Earth's climate responds to changing patterns of solarmagnetic activity. ... If you look back into the sun's past, you find that we live in a period of abnormally high solar activity. ... It's a boom-bust system, and I would expect a crash soon. ... Having a crash would certainly allow us to pin down the sun's true level of influence on the Earth's climate. Then we will be able to act on fact, rather than from fear.”

IfsLooksFactsAbleEarthPastLevelsSunInfluencePeriodsActivityEvidenceClimatePatternsObviousExplanationGlobal WarmingCrashBehaviourPinsVariables
Author:Nigel Weiss
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“I have neither the learning nor the experience to know whether the doomsayers are right about the human causes of climate change. But I am willing to acknowledge that people who know a lot more than I do may be right when they claim that it is the consequence of our own behaviour. I assume that this is why the BBC's coverage of the issue abandoned the pretence of impartiality long ago.”

PeopleKnowsHumansMayLongCausesIssuesWillingConsequenceClaimsAssumingClimateClimate ChangeAcknowledgeGlobal WarmingAbandonedLong AgoBehaviourCoveragePretenceImpartiality
Author:Jeremy Paxman
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“The preservation of biodiversity is not just a job for governments. International and non-governmental organisations, the private sector and each and every individual have a role to play in changing entrenched outlooks and ending destructive patterns of behaviour”

PlayGovernmentJobsIndividualNatureRolesEnvironmentInternationalPatternsDestructiveBehaviourPreservationOutlookOur EnvironmentOrganisationPrivate SectorNatural EnvironmentBiodiversity
Author:Kofi Annan
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“What is the use of this fuss about morality when the issue only involves a horse? The first and most difficult teaching of civilisation concerns man's behaviour to his inferiors. Make humanity gentle or reasonable toward animals, and strife or injustice between human beings would speedily terminate.”

MenFirstsHumansUseLawHumanityDifficultHuman BeingsAnimalIssuesTeachingMoralityConcernHorseDifficultyInjusticeGentleReasonableBehaviourInferiorsStrifeCivilisation
Book:The Illustrated Horse Management: Containing Descriptive Remarks Upon Anatomy, Medicine, Shoeing, Teeth, Food, Vices, Stables : Likewise a Plain Account of the Situation, Nature and Value of the Various Points : Together with Comments on Grooms, Dealers, Breeders, Breakers and Trainers : Also, on Carriages and Harness
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“It was as if personality itself had a 'face'. This non-physical face of personality seemed to be the real key to personality change. It remained scarred, distorted, 'ugly' or inferior the person himself acted out this role in his behaviour regardless of the changes in physical appearance. If this 'face of personality' could be reconstructed, if old emotional scars could be removed, then the person himself changed, even without facial plastic surgery.”

IfsPersonsRealFacesRolesChangedEmotionalKeysPersonalityAppearanceUglyScarPlasticBehaviourInferiorsSurgeryPlastic SurgeryFacialPhysical Appearance
Book:Psycho-Cybernetics Deluxe Edition: The Original Text of the Classic Guide to a New Life
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“Sometimes we may find that our partner continues to seek satisfaction in ways that we cannot live with. Nevertheless, when we decide to go our own way, we still have a choice as to how we separate. We can separate with bad feelings, blaming the other's faults and unacceptable behaviour, or we can separate with forgiveness, love and understanding.”

WayHeartMayStillsSometimesFeelingsChoicesUnderstandingBrokenBlameFaultsSatisfactionPartnersBreakupBroken HeartBehaviourNeverthelessForgiveness Love
Author:Peter Russell
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“People in office have to become models of correct behaviour. What they say and how they act should be beyond criticism. And when they commit the slightest mistake, they should quit their office on moral grounds without waiting to be proved guilty. Moral values must take centre stage in all walks of life.”

PeopleShouldValuesWaitingWalksMistakeMoralStageMoralityOfficeModelsCriticismQuittingCommitGuiltyBehaviourCentreWalks Of LifeMoral Values
Author:D. R. Karthikeyan
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“Psychologism is, I believe, correct only in so far as it insists upon what may be called 'methodological individualism' as opposed to 'methodological collectivism'; it rightly insists that the 'behaviour' and the 'actions' of collectives, such as states or social groups, must be reduced to the behaviour and to the actions of human individuals. But the belief that the choice of such an individualist method implies the choice of a psychological method is mistaken.”

BelieveHumansMayStatesActionScienceChoicesIndividualBeliefI BelieveSocialMistakeGroupsMethodPsychologicalCollectivesIndividualismBehaviourMistakenCollectivismSocial Groups
Author:Karl Popper
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“They say it's not the snoring itself but those anxiety-packed moments in between snorts. It's the waiting for the nasal passages of the person lying beside you to strike again. And strike it always does. In the dark, almost against your will, you produce that special glare reserved for people who cannot control their own behaviour.”

PeoplePersonsDoeMomentsLyingWaitingDarkSpecialProduceAnxietyStrikesPassagesBehaviourReservedGlareBeside YouSnoring
Author:Sloane Crosley
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“This civilisation is the work of man, who high-handedly and ignorant of the true workings of Nature, has created a world without meaning or foundation, which now threatens to destroy him, for through his behaviour and his activities, he, who should be her master, has disturbed Natureäs inherent unity.”

MenWorldShouldMastersActivityFoundationUnityIgnorantInherentBehaviourDisturbedCivilisation
Book:The Water Wizard – The Extraordinary Properties of Natural Water: Volume 1 of Renowned Environmentalist Viktor Schauberger’s Eco-Technology Series
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“Play is a subset of voluntary behaviour involving a selective mechanism which reverses the usual contingencies of power so as to permit the subject a controllable and dialectical simulation of the moderately unmastered arousals and regulations of everyday life, in a way that is alternatively vivifying and euphoric.”

WayPlaySubjectsEverydayPermitUsualMechanismRegulationReverseBehaviourEveryday LifeInvolvingSelectiveSimulationContingencyArousalEuphoric
Author:Brian Sutton-Smith
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“Most people define learning too narrowly as mere 'problem-solving', so they focus on identifying and correcting errors in the external environment. Solving problems is important. But if learning is to persist, managers and employees must also look inward. The need to reflect critically on their own behaviour, identify the ways they often inadvertently contribute to the organisation’s problems, and then change how they act.”

PeopleIfsWayNeedsLooksImportantProblemEnvironmentFocusErrorsMereManagersEmployeeInwardBehaviourProblem SolvingPersistOrganisationIdentifyingCorrectingExternal Environment
Author:Chris Argyris
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“Each of us is born with two contradictory sets of instructions: a conservative tendency, made up of instincts for self-preservation, self-aggrandizement, and saving energy, and an expansive tendency made up of instincts for exploring, for enjoying novelty and risk-the curiosity that leads to creativity belongs to this set. But whereas the first tendency requires little encouragement or support from outside to motivate behaviour, the second can wilt if not cultivated.”

IfsFirstsLittlesMadeTwoSelfEnergyEnjoyBornCreativitySupportRiskEncouragementInstinctCuriosityConservativeTendenciesSavingInstructionBehaviourExploringPreservationContradictoryNoveltySelf PreservationSaving Energy
Book:Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and
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“There is, however, one feature that I would like to suggest should be incorporated in the machines, and that is a 'random element.' Each machine should be supplied with a tape bearing a random series of figures, e.g., 0 and 1 in equal quantities, and this series of figures should be used in the choices made by the machine. This would result in the behaviour of the machine not being by any means completely determined by the experiences to which it was subjected, and would have some valuable uses when one was experimenting with it.”

ShouldMeanArtMadeUseUsedChoicesChanceResultsFiguresEqualElementsMachinesSeriesValuableDeterminedFeaturesQuantityTapeBehaviourChoices Made
Author:Alan Turing
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“It is inherently dangerous to allow a country, such as Iraq, to retain weapons of mass destruction, particularly in light of its past aggressive behaviour. If the world community fails to disarm Iraq we fear that other rogue states will be encouraged to believe that they too can have these most deadly of weapons to systematically defy international resolutions and that the world will do nothing to stop them.”

IfsWorldBelieveCountryStatesLightPastCommunityFailingDangerousWeaponsMassDestructionInternationalIraqResolutionAggressiveBehaviourWeapons Of Mass DestructionMass DestructionRoguesBe Encouraged
Author:Stephen Harper
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