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Primal Quotes

Browse 281 quotes about Primal.

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Primal Quotes

“But a smell shivered him awake. It was a scent as old as the world. It was a hundred aromas of a thousand places. It was the tang of pine needles. It was the musk of sex. It was the muscular rot of mushrooms. It was the spice of oak. Meaty and redolent of soil and bark and herb. It was bats and husks and burrows and moss. It was solid and alive - so alive! And it was close. The vapors invaded Nicholas' nostrils and his hair rose to their roots. His eyes were as heavy as manhole covers, but he opened them. Through the dying calm inside him snaked a tremble of fear. The trees themselves seemed tense, waiting. The moonlight was a hard shell, sharp and ready to ready be struck and to ring like steel. A shadow moved. It poured like oil from between the tall trees and flowed across dark sandy dirt, lengthening into the middle of the ring. Trees seem to bend toward it, spellbound. A long, long shadow...”

FearMagicAncientSmellSupernaturalForestPrimalOdorVisitationGreen ManHair Standing On EndOld GodSemiconscious
Book:The Dead Path
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“Seeing the God statement Suppose the statement Blessed Are the pure in heart, for they shall see God were placed like a wreath of violets, Lilies, laurel, and olive, blossoms strung together Like words in a sentence, a garland Launched, set out on a flowing creek Imagine that wreath carried Down the frothy rapids, tossed, floating Slipping over water-smooth, moss-colored Boulders, in and out of slow, dark pools, Through poplar and willow shadows. It dips, Sinks momentarily, emerges, travels, maitains Its ring, its declaration and syntax. At times it widens in a broad, deep Current, makes sense as a gift. The pure becomes inclusive, spatial, Generous. God and heart are two Spread wings of one open reading. And at times it narrows, restricts. Violets and heart entangle With God. The blessed braces, Overlaps lilies and laurel. Still, at any point you might reach down yourself, catch that ring of blossoms, lift it up, wear its beauty and blooming distinction across your forehead. Look into a mirror. See what you can see.”

PoetryNaturePoetMindfulnessBlessedSacredHolinessMysticPrimal
Book:Quickening Fields
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“Grace." He drew out the word so it became a long, deep, guttural growl. A sound as primitive as a lion's roar for its mate. Her skin prickled with animal awareness and the breath caught in her throat. Every drop of moisture evaporated from her mouth. Low in her belly, blood began to beat slow and hard with anticipation. Her face must have betrayed her unfurling arousal. Or perhaps, like her, he reacted to the sudden charge in the air, as electric as the pause before a lightning strike. Still without shifting his fierce focus, he set down the box he carried. Then he reached to close the doors and slide the bolt across. Any doubt as to his purpose fled. A delicious thrill rippled through her. The summerhouse was raised on a platform so the windows opened above eye height. With the doors locked, it was a bower designed for private sin. Sin was clearly his aim. Now she looked more closely, she realized it wasn't anger that tightened the skin over the bones of his face. It was incendiary hunger. She should protest. Question. Demand he tell her why he was here. But overwhelming need kept her silent and pinned to the window seat.”

PrimalPassionate LoveArousedGrace And MatthewMatthew Lansdowne
Book:Untouched
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“He acts like an animal, has an animal's habits! Eats like one, moves like one, talks like one! There's even something -sub-human -something not quite to the stage of humanity yet! Yes, something - ape-like about him, like one of those pictures I've seen in - anthropological studies! Thousands and thousands of years have passed him right by, and there he is - Stanley Kowalski - survivor of the Stone Age! Bearing the raw meat home from the kill in the jungle! And you - you here - waiting for him! Maybe he'll strike you or maybe grunt and kiss you! That is, if kisses have been discovered yet! Night falls and the other apes gather! There in the front of the cave, all grunting like him, and swilling and gnawing and hulking! His poker night! - you call it - this party of apes! Somebody growls - some creature snatches at something - the fight is on! God! Maybe we are a long way from beng made in God's image, but Stella - my sister - there has been some progress since then! Such things as art - as poetry and music - such kinds of new light have come into the world since then! In some kinds of people some tendered feelings have had some little beginning! That we have got to make grow! And cling to, and hold as our flag! In this dark march towards what-ever it is we're approaching . . . Don't - don't hang back with the brutes!”

EvolutionAbusePrimitivePrimalRegressionApeBlanche DuboisApe LikeStanley Kowalski
Book:A Streetcar Named Desire
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“Lucien's red hair gleamed like the leaves above us as he scanned the woods for anything to fill our bellies. His woods, by blood and law. He was a son of this forest, and here... He looked crafted from it. For it. Even that gold eye. Lucien eventually stopped at a jade stream wending through a granite-flanked gully, a spot he claimed had once been rich with trout. I was in the process of constructing a rudimentary fishing pole when he waded into the stream, boots off and pants rolled to his knees, and caught one with his bare hands. He'd tied his hair up, a few strands of it falling into his face as he swooped down again and threw a second trout onto the sandy bank where I'd been trying to find a substitute for fishing twine. We remained silent as the fish eventually stopped flapping, their sides catching and gleaming with all the colours so bright above us. Lucien picked them up by their tails, as if he'd done it a thousand times. He might very well have, right here in this stream. 'I'll clean them while you start the fire.”

SexySarah J MaasFishingFeyreFeyre ArcheronPrimalManlyLucienStreamCatching Fish
Book:A Court of Wings and Ruin
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“The best move here is to simply listen and maintain eye contact. Your calmness is a primal attempt to telepathically reflect the insanity back to the freak so they’ll realize they’ve gone off the deep end. This can be rough because the freakout may be pointed directly at you, but even under attack, your job is the same: Listen. Nod. Repeat”

CalmInsanityFreakListenPrimalAttackNodFreakout
Book:Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager
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“Every kind of language is... specialized form of bodily gesture, and in this sense it may be said that the dance is the mother of all languages... an original language of total bodily gesture. This "original" language of total bodily gesture is thus the one and only real language, which everybody who is in any way expressing himself is using all the time. What we call speech and the other kinds of language are only parts of it which have undergone specialized development.”

LanguageEvolutionDanceAnthropologyPrimalBody LanguageNon Verbal Communication
Book:The Principles of Art
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“Jew and Gentile are two worlds, between you Gentiles and us Jews there lies an unbridgeable gulf...There are two life forces in the world Jewish and Gentile...I do not believe that this primal difference between Gentile and Jew is reconcilable...The difference between us is abysmal...You might say: 'Well, let us exist side by side and tolerate each other. We will not attack your morality, nor you ours.' But the misfortune is that the two are not merely different; they are opposed in mortal enmity. No man can accept both, or, accepting either, do otherwise than despise the other.”

MenWorldBelieveWellsTwoDifferentMightLyingForceSidesDifferencesAcceptingMoralityJewMortalsMisfortunesDespiseToleratePrimalEnmityTwo WorldsGentilesTwo Lives
Author:Maurice Samuel
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“Nearly everyone underestimates how powerful the touch of another person's hand can be. The need to be touched is something so primal, so fundamentally a part of our existence as human beings that its true impact upon us can be difficult to put into words. That power doesn't necessarily have anything to do with sex, either. From the time we are infants, we learn to associate the touch of a human hand with safety, with comfort, with love.”

NeedsHumansPersonsHandsSexDifficultHuman BeingsPowerfulExistenceComfortSafetyImpactTouchedAssociatesUnderestimateInfantPrimalHuman Hands
Book:Dead Beat: A Novel of The Dresden Files
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“It is worthwhile adding that the power of the poem to teach not only sensibilities and the subtle movements of the spirit but knowledge, real lasting felt knowledge, is going mostly unnoticed among our scholars. The body of knowledge locked into and releasable from poetry can replace practically any university in the Republic. First things first, then: the primal importance of a poem is what it can add to the individual mind.Poetry is the voice of a poet at its birth, and the voice of a people in its ultimate fulfillment as a successful and useful work of art.”

PeopleMindFirstsArtRealBodySpiritIndividualFeltVoiceTeachSuccessfulMovementPoetBirthUltimateImportanceAddUniversityFulfillmentSubtlePoetry IsLastingWorks Of ArtRepublicWorthwhileScholarLockedSensibilityPrimalUnnoticedFirst Things First
Author:Guy Davenport
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“Ethical and moral questions and how we answer them may determine whether primal scenes will continue to be a source of joy and comfort to future generations. The decisions are ours and we have to search our minds and souls for the right answers... We must be eternally vigilant, embrace the broad concept of an environmental ethic to survive.”

MindMaySoulJoyDecisionAnswersMoralGenerationsSourceComfortFutureSceneEthicsConceptsEmbraceEnvironmentalDetermineBroadsEthicalFuture GenerationPrimalVigilantRight Answers
Author:Sigurd F. Olson
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“O how far remov'd, Predestination! is thy foot from such As see not the First Cause entire: and ye, O mortal men! be wary how ye judge: For we, who see the Maker, know not yet The number of the chosen; and esteem Such scantiness of knowledge our delight: For all good is, in that primal good, Concentrate; and God's will and ours are one.”

KnowsMenFirstsCausesNumbersFeetJudgingDelightGods WillChosenDoctrineEsteemMortalsMakersPrimalPredestination
Author:Dante Alighieri
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“Truly, there are terrible primal arcana of earth which had better be left unknown and unevoked; dread secrets which have nothing to do with man, and which man may learn only in exchange for peace and sanity; cryptic truths which make the knower evermore an alien among his kind, and cause him to walk alone on earth.”

MenKindMayEarthLeftCausesWalksSecretTerribleAliensSanityDreadPrimalEvermoreCryptic
Book:H.P. Lovecraft: The Ultimate Collection (160 Works Including Early Writings, Fiction, Collaborations, Poetry, Essays & Bonus Audiobook Links)
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“Belonging is the innate human desire to be part of something larger than us. Because this yearning is so primal, we often try to acquire it by fitting in and by seeking approval, which are not only hollow substitutes for belonging, but often barriers to it. Because true belonging only happens when we present our authentic, imperfect selves to the world, our sense of belonging can never be greater than our level of self-acceptance.”

WorldTryingHumansSelfHappensMotivationalDesireLevelsGreaterAcceptanceSeekingAcquireBarriersBelongingSubstitutesSelf AcceptanceImperfectYearningApprovalInnateHollowFittingPrimal
Book:Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead
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“Our lives are pretty calm. Merging on the freeway in the closest you get to risking your life. So what’s missing now is that primal emotion of being scared to death, and I think that’s why people crave thrills like roller coasters or scary movies. They give you the chance to feel this very primal emotion in a very controlled environment.”

PeopleThinkingGivingFeelsChanceEmotionEnvironmentOur LivesMissingCalmScaredScaryControlledClosestCravePrimalRoller CoasterCoastersFreewaysBeing ScaredMergingRisking Your Life
Author:Oren Peli
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“Why, then, does water-form the very basis of life in all life's various manifestations? Because water embraces everything is in and all through everything; because it rises above the distinctions between plants and animals and human beings; because it is a universal element shared by all; itself undetermined, yet determining; because, like the primal mother it is, it supplies the stuff of life to everything living.”

HumansDoeFormMotherStuffWaterHuman BeingsAnimalElementsUniversalBasesEmbracePlantVariousManifestationDistinctionRise AboveSuppliesPrimalHumans And AnimalsPlants And Animals
Author:Theodor Schwenk
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“We debase the richness of both nature and our own minds if we view the great pageant of our intellectual history as a compendium of new information leading from primal superstition to final exactitude. We know that the sun is hub of our little corner of the universe, and that ties of genealogy connect all living things on our planet, because these theories assemble and explain so much otherwise disparate and unrelated information not because Galileo trained his telescope on the moons of Jupiter or because Darwin took a ride on a Galápagos tortoise.”

IfsKnowsMindLittlesUniverseViewsSunInformationPlanetsTheoryMoonIntellectualFinalsCornersTiesSuperstitionsOur PlanetLiving ThingsRichnessPrimalTelescopesJupiterPageantGenealogyGalsNew InformationHubTortoisesExactitude
Author:Stephen Jay Gould
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“Mathematics is a presuppositionless science. To found it I do not need God, as does Kronecker, or the assumption of a special faculty of our understanding attuned to the principle of mathematical induction, as does Poincaré, or the primal intuition of Brouwer, or, finally, as do Russell and Whitehead, axioms of infinity, reducibility, or completeness, which in fact are actual, contentual assumptions that cannot be compensated for by consistency proofs.”

NeedsDoeFactsFoundUnderstandingPrinciplesSpecialMathematicsIntuitionProofMathematicalAssumptionFacultyInfinityConsistencyPrimalAxiomsCompletenessNeed God
Author:David Hilbert
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“At last, Mythic feeling and conscious perception no longer confront each other as antagonists but as allies. Passionate nationalism is no longer directed toward tribal, dynastic or theological loyalties, but toward that primal substance, the racially based nationhood itself. Here is the message which will one day melt away all dross, eliminate all that is base, and bring into being all that is noble.”

FeelingsLastsOne DayPerceptionMessagesConsciousPassionateNobleLoyaltySubstanceNationalismAlliesTheologicalPrimalAntagonistDross
Author:Alfred Rosenberg
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“Number, as it were, lies behind the psychic realm as a dynamic ordering principle, the primal element of which Jung called spirit. As an archetype, number becomes not only a psychic factor, but more generally, a world-structuring factor. In other words, numbers point to a background reality in which psyche and matter are no longer distinguishable.”

WorldMatterRealitySpiritLyingNumbersBehindsPrinciplesElementsBackgroundsFactorsRealmsPsychicsPrimalArchetypeJung
Author:Marie-Louise von Franz
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“Spider-Man is a genuine American myth with a dark, primal power, but it's also got this great superhero, and - hey! - he can fly through the theater at 40 miles an hour. It's got villains, it's got skyscrapers, it's colorful, it's Manhattan. I knew it would be a challenge, but I saw the inherent theatricality in it, and I couldn't resist.”

MenWould BeHoursChallengesDarkSawsTheaterMythMilesGenuineHeyVillainInherentSuperheroSpidersManhattanPrimalColorfulSpider ManSkyscraper
Author:Julie Taymor
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“The wealth of any ecosystem is its perennials. The primal herbivore-predator-disturbance-rest dance is literally the breath and pulse of the earth. Grasses recycle oxygen far more efficiently than trees. The turnover is faster. Grass reaches out and turns solar energy into carbon. Tillage hyper-aerates the soil, burning out carbon. But because a plant creates bilateral symmetry at the soil horizon, it sloughs off root mass when the top gets chopped off.”

EarthTurnsEnergyWealthTreeMassRootsBreathsPlantBurningFasterGrassSoilHorizonReach OutCarbonOxygenPulsePrimalEcosystemsPredatorDisturbanceSymmetryHyperSolar EnergyTurnoverSlough
Author:Joel Salatin
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“I submit that tennis is the most beautiful sport there is, and also the most demanding....Basketball comes close, but it's a team sport and lacks tennis's primal mano a mano intensity. Boxing might come close- at least at the lighter weight divisions- but the actual physical damage the fighters inflict on each other makes it too concretely brutal to be really beautiful- a level of abstraction and formality (i.e., play) is necessary for a sport to possess true metaphysical beauty (in my opinion).”

PlayMightBeautifulSportsLevelsOpinionTeamBasketballWeightFighterDamageTennisBoxingDivisionIntensitySubmitBrutalMetaphysicalAbstractionPrimalLightersReally BeautifulSports TeamFormalityPhysical Beauty
Author:David Foster Wallace
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