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Instinct Quotes

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Instinct Quotes

“In his student days, he used to argue that if a woman has no other course open to her but starvation, prostitution, or throwing herself from a bridge, then surely the prostitute, who has shown the most tenacious instinct for self-preservation, should be considered stronger and saner than her frailer and no longer living sisters. One couldn't have it both ways, he'd pointed out: if women are seduced and abandoned they're supposed to go mad, but if they survive, and seduce in their turn, then they were mad to begin with.”

IfsWayShouldSelfUsedTurnsCoursesStudentsStrongerMadInstinctArguingBridgesThrowingAbandonedPreservationProstitutionStarvationSeducingSelf PreservationTenacious
Book:Alias Grace: A Novel
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“Fairy tales begin with conflict because we all begin our lives with conflict. We are all misfit for the world, and somehow we must fit in, fit in with other people, and thus we must invent or find the means through communication to satisfy as well as resolve conflicting desires and instincts.”

PeopleWorldWellsMeanDesireOur LivesCommunicationFitConflictInstinctTalesFairyResolveFairy TaleMisfits
Book:The Irresistible Fairy Tale: The Cultural and Social History of a Genre
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“The impossible often has a kind of integrity to it which the merely improbable lacks. How often have you been presented with an apparently rational explanation of something that works in all respects other than one, which is just that it is hopelessly improbable? Your instinct is to say, 'Yes, but he or she simply wouldn't do that.”

KindImpossibleIntegrityInstinctRationalExplanationRespecting OthersImprobable
Book:The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul
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“In the same way that I tend to make up my mind about people within thirty seconds of meeting them, I also make up my mind about whether a business proposal excites me within about thirty seconds of looking at it. I rely far more on gut instinct than researching huge amounts of statistics.”

PeopleWayMindHugeAmountMeetingsInstinctThirtyRelyGutsStatisticsSecondsProposalGut Instinct
Book:Losing My Virginity: The Autobiography
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“And silence. She liked the silence most of all. The silence in which the body, senses, the instincts, are more alert, more powerful, more sensitized, live a more richly perfumed and intoxication life, instead of transmuting into thoughts, words, into exquisite abstractions, mathematics of emotion in place of violent impact, the volcanic eruptions of fever, lust and delight.”

BodyPowerfulEmotionSilenceMathematicsImpactInstinctDelightSensesLustViolentAbstractionExquisiteFeverIntoxicationEruptionVolcanic Eruptions
Author:Anais Nin
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“The generals who had called Zia a mullah behind his back felt ashamed at having underestimated him: not only was he a mullah, he was a mullah whose understanding of religion didn't go beyond parroting what he had heard from the next mullah. A mullah without a beard, a mullah in a four-star general's uniform, a mullah with the instincts of a corrupt tax inspector.”

NextStarsFeltUnderstandingBehindsFourHeardTaxesInstinctAshamedUniformsBeardUnderestimatedInspectors
Author:Mohammed Hanif
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“What you call love does not sound very beautiful. Think of the way we adore the Throne. That adoration makes us the best version of ourselves. We feel encouraged to go further with or instincts, not to change ourselves for love. If I were yours and you were mine, I would want you to be exactly as you are. I would never eclipse you with my desires.”

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Author:Lauren Kate
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“I have been a hundred times on the point of killing myself, but still was fond of life. This ridiculous weakness is perhaps one of our worst instincts. What can be more absurd than choosing to carry a burden that one really wants to throw to the ground? To detest, and yet to strive to preserve our existence? To caress the serpent that devours us, and hug him close to our bosoms till he has gnawed into our hearts?”

WantHeartHas BeensStillsExistenceWorstWeaknessHundredInstinctStriveKillingBurdenRidiculousAbsurdPreservesHugBosomsSerpentCaressDetestKilling Myself
Author:Voltaire
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“Courage is about learning how to function despite the fear, to put aside your instincts to run or give in completely to the anger born from fear. Courage is about using your brain and your heart when every cell of your body is screaming at your to fight or flee - and then following through on what you believe is the right thing to do.”

GivingBelieveHeartBodyRunningFightingFearBornBrainCourageFunctionInstinctFollowingYour BodyDespiteCellsThings To DoRight ThingFollow ThroughFear CourageUsing Your Brain
Book:Ghost Story: A Novel of the Dresden Files
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“Our relationship couldn't continue to balance, as it did, on the point of a knife. We would fall off one edge or the other, depending entirely upon his decision, or his instincts. My decision was made, made before I'd ever consciously chosen, and I was committed to seeing it through. Because there was nothing more terrifying to me, more excruciating, than the thought of turning away from him. It was an impossibility.”

MadeFallDecisionSeeingBalanceInstinctEdgesCommittedChosenKnivesOur RelationshipImpossibilityTwilight Book
Author:Stephenie Meyer
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“I eat not because I want to, not because I have to overcome anything, not to prove myself to anyone, but because it's there. I eat because that's what people do. And somehow when the food is put in front of you by an institution, when there's a large gray force behind it and you don't have to thank anyone for it, you have the animal instinct to make it disappear.”

PeopleWantForceAnimalBehindsFrontsProveOvercomingInstitutionsInstinctDisappearGrayProve MyselfAnimal Instinct
Author:Ned Vizzini
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“You will find ambiguity a great ally on your road to power. Give a sign of Slytherin on one day, and contradict it with a sign of Gryffindor the next; and the Slytherins will be enabled to believe what they wish, while the Gryffindors argue themselves into supporting you as well. So long as there is uncertainty, people can believe whatever seems to be to their own advantage. And so long as you appear strong, so long as you appear to be winning, their instincts will tell them that their advantage lies with you. Walk always in the shadow, and light and darkness both will follow.”

PeopleGivingBelieveWellsLongLightSeemsLyingNextWinningStrongWishWalksDarknessOne DayShadowAdvantageInstinctArguingUncertaintyAlliesAmbiguityLight And DarknessGryffindor
Author:Eliezer Yudkowsky
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“I was young, and by instinct of self-preservation I had to collect my energy on something, if I were not to be whirled away with the dusk on the farm-roads, or the smoke on the plain. I begun in the evenings to write stories, fairy-tales, and romances, that would take my mind a long way off, to other countries and times.”

IfsWayWritingMindLongSelfCountryStoriesRomanceYoungEnergyInstinctTalesEveningSmokeFairyFarmsFairy TaleOther CountriesPreservationLong WayDuskSelf Preservation
Author:Isak Dinesen
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“Life is full of toil, sacrifice, and pain, and from the time we stop growing, we know that we've begun dying. We watch helplessly as year by year, our bodies age and fail, while our survival instincts compel us to keep on going-which means living with the terrifying knowledge that ultimately death is inescapable.”

KnowsYearsMeanBodyAgePainLife IsWatchesGrowingFailingSacrificeDyingSurvivalInstinctToilSurvival Instinct
Book:Ghost Story: A Novel of the Dresden Files
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“And it was kind of funny to see all these professional fighters unwilling to get within a mile of the female. Then again, if you wanted to survive doing the work they did, accurate risk assessment was something you developed early -- and even Qhuinn, who was the object of the protective instinct the Chosen was rocking, wouldn't have dared touch her.”

IfsKindWantedRiskObjectsFemaleInstinctMilesChosenFighterAccurateProtectiveUnwillingAssessment
Book:Lover At Last: A Novel of the Black Dagger Brotherhood
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“And human instinct is ancient and reliable, utterly mysterious and possibly capable of great genius. I believe that refined, fluent instincts are a person's most valuable asset. My own instincts have repeatedly guided me against the grain of logic and probability. When I have trusted and followed their direction, they have never been wrong. I don't know how or why. But I know that every significant experience-positive or negative-sharpens them and makes them more accurate.”

KnowsBelieveHumansPersonsI BelieveMy OwnKnow HowGeniusCapableNegativeLogicInstinctAncientValuableSignificantMysteriousAssetsAccurateGrainTrustedProbabilityRefinedFluentSignificant Experiences
Book:This Is How: Proven Aid in Overcoming Shyness, Molestation, Fatness, Spinsterhood, Grief, Disease, Lushery, Decrepitude & More. For Young and Old Alike.
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“I had a strong sudden instinct that I must be alone. I didn’t want to see any people at all. I had seen so many people all my life -- I was an average mixer, but more than average in a tendency to identify myself, my ideas, my destiny, with those of all classes that came in contact with. I was always saving or being saved -- in a single morning I would go through the emotions ascribable to Wellington at Waterloo. I lived in a world of inscrutable hostiles and inalienable friends and supporters.”

PeopleWorldWantIdeasStrongEmotionClassDestinyMorningInstinctAverageSavedContactTendenciesSavingSupporterHostileMy DestinyInscrutableWaterlooWellington
Book:The Jazz Age: Essays
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“The proper aim of giving is to put the recipient in a state where he no longer needs our gifts...Thus a heavy task is laid upon Gift-love. It must work toward its own abdication. We must aim at making ourselves superfluous. The hour when we can say 'They need me no longer' should be our reward. But the instinct, simply in its own nature, has no power to fulfill this law.”

NeedsGivingShouldStatesLawHoursTasksAimInstinctCharityRewardsHeavyPhilanthropySuperfluousPhilanthropicAbdication
Author:C. S. Lewis
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