Natural Impulse Quotes

An intelligent couple can read their Darwin and know that the ultimate reason for their sexual urges is procreation. They know that the woman cannot conceive because she is on the pill. Yet they find that their sexual desire is in no way diminished by the knowledge. Sexual desire is sexual desire and its force, in an individual's psychology, is independent of the ultimate Darwinian pressure that drove it. It is a strong urge which exists independently of its ultimate rationale.

I work on instinct. It's my best adviser.

I've always kind of done exactly what my instincts said.

Our law requires no solemnity or form in regard to the marriage of slaves, and whether they ‘take up’ with each other, by the express permission of their owners, or from a mere impulse of nature…cannot, in contemplation of law, make any sort of difference.

[There is] a type of which he [Theodore Roosevelt] is perhaps the master specimen—the politician who could not help being one if he tried…. when Mr. Roosevelt takes a step which the mass of his fellow citizens regard as carefully considered for its political effect, the chances are at least even that he is merely obeying a natural impulse, which may make for either strength or weakness.

Writing is like the relationship with your bowels. First you can, then you can't. Finally, you must. Only then should you reach for the paper.

The very essence of instinct is that it's followed independently of reason.

Everything good is instinct--and, as a result, easy, necessary, free.

... we have gratefully to receive from the hand of God the institution of the state with its magistrates as a means of preservation.... On the other hand ... by virtue of our natural impulse, we must ever watch against the danger which lurks for our personal liberty in the power of the state.

A life which goes excessively against natural impulse is... likely to involve effects of strain that may be quite as bad as indulgence in forbidden impulses would have been. People who live a life which is unnatural beyond a point are likely to be filled with envy, malice and uncharitableness.

Don't you dare underestimate the power of your own instinct. Instinct is a lifesaver for sharks and entrepreneurs alike. Most people can recall times they ignored their gut only to regret it later. Learning to actually listen to your instinct is a great form of self-preservation. It's both incredibly easy and tough at the same time, but worth the effort to master.

I have never been able to go against my instinct.

For a decision-the freest of my actions just happens like hiccups inside me or like a bird singing outside me.

But, – and there it is, – we want to live and move, though we have no reason to, because it happens that it is the nature of life to live and move, to want to live and move. If it were not for this, life would be dead. It is because of this life that is in you that you dream of your immortality.

The artist produces for the liberation of his soul. It is his nature to create as it is the nature of water to run down the hill.

I go on working for the same reason that a hen goes on laying eggs. There is in every living creature an obscure but powerful impulse to active functioning. Life demands to be lived. Inaction, save as a measure of recuperation between bursts of activity, is painful and dangerous to the healthy organism- in fact, it is almost impossible. Only the dying can be really idle.

Why writers write I do not know. As well ask why a hen lays an egg or why a cow stands patiently while an underprivileged farmer burglarizes her.

I just follow my instinct.

I know whom we must fight...it is the Church. For all its history, it's tried to suppress and control every natural impulse.That is what the Church does, and every church is the same: control, destroy, obliterate every good feeling.

People react to 'Drive' in a way that is very primal.

You don't decide to paint. It's like getting hungry and going to the kitchen to eat. It's a need, not a choice.

Love in an animal sense is an illness, but a necessity which one has to overcome.

People don't actually stay still, you know - when their area is a disaster, they go somewhere else, right? And that's just a natural human impulse.

If we're a natural man, we're attracted to a woman. You are our natural partner in the act of procreation. Now there's a time and a place for everything, but when a fine-looking woman, with a fine-looking form walks down the street, a man could be working with a jackhammer, and when he spies that woman, he'll watch her as she walks. What kind of thought comes up in your mind? You don't say, "Oh, what a great creature." Like a dog you may say, "Man, I'd sure like to have some of that!" That's not what you want.

Surely we have always acted; it is an instinct inherent in all of us. Some of us are better at it than others, but we all do it.