Quotessence
Home / Topics / Instinct Quotes

Instinct Quotes

Browse 2328 quotes about Instinct.

Related topics

MenThinkingIfsIntuitionPeopleKnowsWayHumansReasonFirstsWantNaturalWorldAnimalBelieveTryingKindNeedsFeelsMindShouldFeelingsNatural InstinctGutsSelfHeartTrust Your InstinctsDoeSurvivalGivingLongPersonsSometimesMayMeanUseArtIdeasWellsWritingHas BeensChildrenActorsLooksHunchesMadeMomentsSoulDecisionImpulseCharacterDifferentInstinct IntuitionDesireFightingPlayDoneForceHardI CanBrainEndsGut InstinctI BelieveLittlesMightMatterRealStoriesWholeAbleBodyFormHuman BeingsImportantMy OwnStillsTwoCreativeEmotionHelpingSurvival InstinctActionMovingFoundInspirationalIntellectMotherPowerfulChoicesEyeFactsFollowingLawMoralPreservationSeemsStrongCertainFilmmore

Instinct Quotes

“Patriotism, or the peculiar relation of an individual to his country, is like the family instinct. In the child it is a blind devotion; in the man in intelligent love. The patriot perceives the claim made upon his country by the circumstances and time of her growth and power, and how God is to be served by using those opportunities of helping mankind. Therefore his country's honor is dear to him as his own, and he would as soon lie and steal himself as assist or excuse his country in a crime.”

MenChildrenMadeCountryHelpingLyingOpportunityIndividualGrowthMankindCrimeHe ManHonorCircumstancesClaimsRelationIntelligentBlindInstinctDearExcuseStealingDevotionPerceivePatriotismPeculiarPatriot
Book:On the principles and character of American institutions, and the duties of American citizens, 1856-1891
Create image

“Idealists are people who believe in the potential of human nature for transformation. . . . The most essential attribute of human nature is its mutability and freedom from instinct . . . it is always within our power to change our nature. So it is actually the idealists who are on the mark and the realists who are off base.”

PeopleBelieveHumansHuman NatureEssentialsMarkTransformationInstinctAttributesIdealismRealistIdealistPower To ChangeMutability
Book:People of the Lie
Create image

“We all yearn to fly. We are creatures of longing. We do not need to [physically fly] to be airborne. What I call the aerial instinct-the drive to transcend our present condition- is the defining characteristic of a human being. We are restless animals, eternal travelers who are forever in the process of becoming. Consciousness itself is a flight from the here and now to the beyond. Our reach always exceeds our grasp, which is what Heaven is for.”

NeedsHumansHeavenProcessHuman BeingsAnimalConsciousnessForeverConditionsBecomingCreaturesEternalLongingInstinctFlightCharacteristicsTravelerRestlessDefiningExceedHere And NowAirborne
Author:Sam Keen
Create image

“Sometimes you walk into things, that, if you were paying attention, vibrationally, you would know right from the beginning that it wasn't what you are wanting. In most cases, your initial knee-jerk response was a pretty good indicator of how it was going to turn out later. The things that give most of you the most grief are those things that initially you had a feeling response about, but then you talked yourself out of it for one reason or another.”

IfsKnowsGivingSometimesReasonFeelingsTurnsWalksGriefAttentionCasesInstinctResponsePay AttentionKneesInitialsJerkIndicators
Author:Esther Hicks
Create image

“Follow your bliss. That which you love you must spend your life doing, as passionately and as perfectly as your heart, mind and instincts allow. The sooner you identify that bliss, which surely resides in the soul of most human beings, the greater your chance of a truly successful life. In the act of creativity, being careful guarantees sameness and mediocrity, which means your work will be invisible. Better to be reckless than careful. Better to be bold than safe. Better to have your work seen and remembered, or you've struck out. There is no middle ground.”

MindHumansHeartMeanSoulChanceHuman BeingsCreativitySuccessfulGreaterMiddleLove YouSafeInstinctCarefulInvisibleRememberedBlissGuaranteesMediocrityRecklessSamenessSuccessful LifeMiddle GroundFollow Your Bliss
Author:George Lois
Create image

“The following proposition seems to me in a high degree probable—namely, that any animal whatever, endowed with well-marked social instincts, the parental and filial affections being here included, would inevitably acquire a moral sense or conscience, as soon as its intellectual powers had become as well, or nearly as well developed, as in man. For, firstly, the social instincts lead an animal to take pleasure in the society of its fellows, to feel a certain amount of sympathy with them, and to perform various services for them.”

MenFeelsWellsSeemsCertainSocialPleasureAnimalMoralAmountDegreesIntellectualConscienceFellowsInstinctAffectionVariousFollowingAcquirePropositionsParentalFilial
Book:Darwin on Evolution: Words of Wisdom from the Father of Evolution
Create image

“We Jews are accused of being destroyers: whatever you put up, we tear down. It is true only in a relative sense. We are not iconoclasts deliberately: we are not enemies of your institutions simply because of the dislike between us. We are a homeless mass seeking satisfaction for our constructive instincts. And in your institutions we cannot find satisfaction.”

EnemyTearsMassInstitutionsInstinctJewSatisfactionSeekingRelativeDislikeHomelessAccusedConstructiveDestroyers
Author:Maurice Samuel
Create image

“George McGovern, for all his mistakes... understands what a fantastic monument to all the best instincts of the human race this country might have been, if we could have kept it out of the hands of greedy little hustlers like Richard Nixon.”

IfsHumansLittlesHas BeensCountryHandsMightRaceMistakeInstinctFantasticHuman RaceGreedyMight Have BeenMonumentAll The Best
Book:Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72
Create image

“Every deadline was a crisis … No doubt it has something to do with a deep-seated personality defect, or maybe a kink in whatever blood vessel leads into the pineal gland … On the other hand, it might easily be something as simple and basically perverse as whatever instinct it is that causes a jackrabbit to wait until the last possible second to dart across the road in front of a speeding car.”

HandsMightLastsCausesWaitingSimpleDoubtBloodCarFrontsPersonalityCrisisInstinctNo DoubtDefectsVesselDeadlineSpeedingGlandsKinkBlood VesselsPineal GlandSpeeding Cars
Book:The Great Shark Hunt: Strange Tales from a Strange Time
Create image

“For we cannot adequately understand 'man' as an isolated biological creature, as a bundle of reflexes or a set of instincts, as an 'intelligible field' or a system in and of itself. Whatever else he may be, man is a social and an historical actor who must be understood, if at all, in close and intricate interplay with social and historical structures”

IfsMenMayActorsSocialFieldsCreaturesUnderstoodStructureHistoricalInstinctIsolatedIntricateBundlesReflexes
Book:The Sociological Imagination
Create image

“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
Create image