Edna St. Vincent Millay Quotes

Self-preservation, nature's first great law, all the creatures, except man, doth awe.

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

Retaliation is related to nature and instinct, not to law. Law, by definition, cannot obey the same rules as nature.

It is unfair to blame man too fiercely for being pugnacious; he learned the habit from Nature.

Viewed narrowly, all life is universal hunger and an expression of energy associated with it.

Greed is a basic part of animal nature. Being against it is like being against breathing or eating. It means nothing.

I have an odd theory on happiness, and it bothers people. My general theory is that happiness is a reward for an animal doing what it should be doing. So if a horse runs, it feels happy. Or if you are too thin, you can't be happy, because evolution wants you to be tense and anxious, trying to wake up in the morning looking for food.

Happiness is just another of the tricks that our genetic system plays on us to carry out its only role, which is the survival of the species.

To destroy is still the strongest instinct of our nature.

In accord with Nature’s Laws, nothing is more right than the preservation of one’s own race.

I think the default position of humans is to be terrible, and we have to train it out of our children. That's just part of survival, right? Predator animals don't survive by being nice; humans are basically predator animals.

Self-preservation is the first principle of our nature.

This is the tendency of all living things: to avoid pain and to cling to pleasure.

The active part of man consists of powerful instincts.

Survival," I said softly. "It's selfish, and it's dark, and we've always been a species willing to do anything to satisfy our needs. Individuals have morals. Mobs have appetites.

What else should you be? Human beings didn't evolve brains in order to lie around on lakes. Killing's the first thing we learned. And a good thing we did, or we'd be dead, and the tigers would own the earth.

Politics is applied biology.

Apart from anything else, I am designed by evolution, like we all are: if we see a little thing like that, big eyes, tiny nose, we go 'aaah'. That's what evolution does. We are programmed to do that. So to find babies the most amazing, isn't surprising, I don't think.

There's a real sense of fighting and destruction in our DNA that we don't get in touch with.

As humans, we have evolved to compete... it is in our genes, and we love to watch a competition.

Telling us to obey instinct is like telling us to obey 'people.' People say different things: so do instincts. Our instincts are at war... Each instinct, if you listen to it, will claim to be gratified at the expense of the rest.

We adore babies because they're so cute. And, of course, we are amused by jokes because they are funny. This is all backwards. It is. And Darwin shows us why.

Human nature is such that people are born with a love of profit If they follow these inclinations, they will struggle and snatch from each other, and inclinations to defer or yield will die.

We really are creatures of a violent world, biologically speaking - watching violence and learning about it is one of our cognitive drives.

I think that genetically we're programmed to battle each other.