Innate Instincts Quotes

You can't suppress the things that make us human. It's pointless to try.

Without guilt / What is a man? An animal, isn't he? / A wolf forgiven at his meat, / A beetle innocent in his copulation.

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.

Why we play as children is not because it is our work or because it is how we learn, though both statements are true; we play because we are wired for joy, it is imperative as human beings.

You think human nature is a beast, that it must be put in a cage. But it's the cage that makes the animal bad.

The priests and the scientists are right about one thing: At our heart, at our base, we are no better than animals.

I first read 'Lord of the Flies' as a teenager. I remember feeling disillusioned afterwards, but not for a second did I think to doubt Golding's view of human nature.

Education produces natural intuitions, and natural intuitions are erased by education.

We are all somebody's children, and when we're in pain, we regress, instinctively looking to our parents to make everything better.

The instinct of brutes and insects can be the effect of nothing else than the wisdom and skill of a powerful ever-living agent.

We're animals. We're violent. We're criminal. And if I've done anything, I've had kids express themselves as they are.