Hunter S. Thompson Quotes

Women aren't physically afraid of men; women are genetically afraid of men. It's happened for such a long time.

A living creature develops a destructive impulse when it wants to destroy a source of danger... The original motive is not pleasure in destruction... I destroy in a dangerous situation because I want to live and do not want to have any anxiety. In short, the impulse to destroy serves a primary biological will to live.

Even if they don't know it, everyone has the instinct to survive.

Self-preservation is the first law of nature.

Just like an animal, when you want to survive, you don't think anymore.

It is ingrained in all living creatures, first of all, to preserve their own safety, to guard against what is harmful, to strive for what is advantageous.

Anxiety is a kind of fuel that activates the fight-or-flight part of the brain in me. It makes sure that a velociraptor isn't around the corner and that you do as much as you possibly can to survive. Because Hollywood has a lot in common with 'Jurassic Park' and its primeval-dinosaur universe.

The first inclination which an animal has is to protect itself

From a Darwinian perspective, it is clear what pain is doing. It's a warning: 'Don't do that again.' If you burn yourself, you're never going to pick up a live coal again.

I once did a film in which I was being chased by wolves. I had a scene where the Alpha of the pack leapt on the hood of my car and stared me down through the windshield. I will never forget staring into those eyes; this wasn't a dog - not even a tough, bad-ass dog - no, this was a wolf.

When threatened, the nervous system sometimes goes into a 'freeze response.' You assess the risk and determine that fight or flight doesn't help you. Staying put does.

My first instinct is always to fight back because ever since I was a kid, that's what I've always had to do to survive.

I grew up reading thrillers, science fiction, fantasy - you name it - and one day I asked myself if there was a reason why a fear of spiders was so common. Was there something buried deep in our evolutionary history that made being scared of spiders a survival instinct?

Self-Preservation is a full-time occupation.

Insects sting, not from malice, but because they want to live. It is the same with critics; they desire our blood not our pain.

Self-preservation is the first principle of our nature.

Fear, in evolution, has a special prominence: perhaps more than any other emotion it is crucial for survival.

I do think that procrastination evolved in humans for good reasons. If you're trying to stay alive as a human being on the savanna 20,000 years ago, worrying about what's right behind that bush is a lot more important than worrying about what might happen three weeks from now.

Fear is an emotion indispensable for survival.

It's the same with men as with horses and dogs, nothing wants to die.

Something about the howling of a wolf took a man right out of his here and now and left him in a dark forest of the mind, running naked before the pack.

It is a very natural human trait to destroy that which frightens us.

Survival is my primary instinct...it's out of my control. It's stronger than me. It's an outside force, a voice that says 'do this for your life or it will devour you.'

Self-preservation's a man's first duty. And natives don't mind dying, you know. They don't feel about it as Europeans do.