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Survival Quotes

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Survival Quotes

“Further strengthenings of the self-centered instinct for survival recruit even greater numbers of people into some sort of ring of fellowship (church or gender, red state or blue) by populating the terra incognita outside the ring with enough barbarians to verify the existence of a civilization within--to define the preferred stock by what, as all good people agree, it decidedly is not.”

“In the greater part of humankind there resides an instinct for survival. It is this which can clutch at straws and effect a rescue from them. It is this which can, now and then, outwit fate.”

Greater Fate Effects Survival Instinct Now And Then Humankind Rescue Straws Clutch

Author:Tanith Lee

“However great a man's fear of life, suicide remains the courageous act, the clear-headed act of a mathematician. The suicide has judged by the laws of chance - so many odds against one that to live will be more miserable than to die. His sense of mathematics is greater than his sense of survival. But think how a sense of survival must clamor to be heard at the last moment, what excuses it must present of a totally unscientific nature.”

Thinking Men Moments Lasts Law Dies Chance Clear Greater Heard Survival Mathematics Remains Suicide Excuse Miserable Courageous Judged Odds Mathematician Suicidal Clamor Fears Of Life

Author:Graham Greene

“All species capable of grasping this fact manage better in the struggle for existence than those which rely upon their own strength alone: the wolf, which hunts in a pack, has a greater chance of survival than the lion, which hunts alone.”

Facts Chance Existence Struggle Greater Survival Capable Species Manage Rely Lions Packs Hunts Grasping Rely Upon Lone Wolf Struggle For Existence

Author:Christian Lous Lange

“But the culture has failed, almost entirely, in inculcating internal controls on actions that have their origin in authority. For this reason, the latter constitutes a far greater danger to human survival.”

Humans Reason Action Culture Greater Danger Authority Survival Latter Internals Obedience To Authority

Author:Stanley Milgram

“I knew of no instruction manual for reaching a higher level of humanity and a greater wisdom. But I felt intuitively that laughter was the beginning of wisdom, as is was indispensable for survival.”

Humanity Felt Levels Greater Higher Survival Laughter Reaching Instruction Indispensable Manuals Higher Level

Author:Ingrid Betancourt

“I live a soldier's life when I'm working. That's how it feels to me, except I've got a slightly greater chance of survival.”

Feels Chance Greater Survival Soldier

Author:Tilda Swinton

“I believe that to meet the challenge of our times, human beings will have to develop a greater sense of universal responsibility. We must all learn to work not just for our own self, family, or nation but for the benefit of all humankind. Universal responsibility is the key to human survival. It is the best foundation for world peace, the equitable use of natural resources, and through concern for future generations, the proper care of the environment.”

“Human existence may be simpler than we thought. There is no predestination, no unfathomed mystery of life. Demons and gods do not vie for our allegiance. Instead, we are self-made, independent, alone, and fragile, a biological species adapted to live in a biological world. What counts for long-term survival is intelligent self-understanding, based upon a greater independence of thought than that tolerated today even in our most advanced democratic societies.”

“Man tends to increase at a greater rate than his means of subsistence.”

Men Mean Greater Survival Increase Rate Subsistence

Book:The Descent of Man (Diversion Classics)

Source: The Descent of Man (Diversion Classics)

“Statistics show that a soldier's chances of survival in the front lines of combat are greater than the chances of an unborn child avoiding abortion. What should be the safest place to live in America - a mother's womb - is now the most dangerous place.”

“Civilization - and by this I do not mean talking cinemas and tinned food, nor even surgery and hygienic houses, but the whole moral and artistic organization of Europe - has not in itself the power of survival. It came into being through Christianity, and without it has no significance or power to command allegiance ... It is no longer possible, as it was in the time of Gibbon, to accept the benefits of civilization and at the same time deny the supernatural basis on which it rests ... Christianity ... is in greater need of combative strength than it has been for centuries.”