Konrad Lorenz Quotes

We are all ruled in what we do by impulses; and these impulses are so organized that our actions in general serve for our self preservation and that of the race.

Our civilization is still in a middle stage, scarcely beast in that it is no longer wholly guided by instinct; scarcely human, in that it is not yet wholly guided by reason.

If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance with his instincts, he will accept it even on the slenderest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way.

Every living being seeks instinctively to complete itself.

Coming up through high school, coaches would tell me not to swing so hard. It's the only way I know. It just happens.

Machines have altered our way of life, but not our instincts. Consequently, there is maladjustment.

There is not, in my opinion, anything more mysterious in nature than this instinct in animals, which thus rise above reason, and yet fall infinitely short of it.

It is too bad if you have to do everything upon reflection and can't do anything from early habit.

Dogs act exactly the way we would act if we had no shame.

That is the way we are made: we don't reason, where we feel; we just feel.

How, then, find the courage for action? By slipping a little into unconsciousness, spontaneity, instinct which holds one to the earth and dictates the relatively good and useful. By accepting the human condition more simply, and candidly, by dreading troubles less, calculating less, hoping more.

Instinct leads, logic does but follow.

Life will find a way.

Judiciously show a cat milk, if you wish her to thirst for it. Judiciously show a dog his natural prey, if you wish him to bring it down one day.

Let him make use of instinct who cannot make use of reason.

Never mind the use--do it!

To 'turn around' is to end up facing the same way. Maybe that is the problem, all the turning organizations around.

All human activity is prompted by desire.

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

Making lists of reasons was sometimes a good way to figure things out.

You can't reason with your heart; it has its own laws, and thumps about things which the intellect scorns.

We do want to drive out the beast in man, but we do not want on that account to emasculate him.

I always worked until I had something done and I always stopped when I knew what was going to happen next. That way I could be sure of going on the next day.

One must, of course, have one's entire experience behind one and not have lost the freshness of instinct.

...youth is only being in a way like it might be an animal. No, it is not just like being an animal so much as being like one of these malenky toys you viddy being sold in the streets, like little chellovecks made out of tin and with a spring inside and then a winding handle on the outside and you wind it up grrr grrr grrr and off it itties, like walking, O my brothers. But it itties in a straight line and bangs straight into things bang bang and it cannot help what it is doing. Being young is like being like one of these malenky machines.