Clarissa Pinkola Estes Quotes

I think that man is conditioned to violence.

Habit is, of all the plants of human growth, the one that has the least need of nutritious soil in order to live, and is the first to appear on the most seemingly barren rock.

Even the most sensitive person can get used to even the most insensitive thing. Cruelty isn’t a personality trait. Cruelty is a habit.

Habit can overcome anything but instinct, and can greatly modify even that.

The bird is powered by its own life and by its motivation.

You back a big cat into a corner and somebody is going to get bloody.

I was what? - twelve years old - and I was thrown in the cells with these people, so I learned fast.

Two things control men's nature, instinct and experience.

Habit is ten times nature.

I think if you come from a history of persecution you have to develop a sense of humour.

The fish, once escaped from the trap, doesn't go back

I was highly influenced by violence.

There are millions of women all around the world who are in dangerous, terrifying situations. It's up to us as storytellers to give people hope, to let people know that there is a way out.

I really think truth comes from the body. When you're running for your life, you breathe differently; you talk differently.

I think that maybe human beings are conditioned to violence.

The world on the outside was tougher than I imagined. I felt allergic to fresh air, and my feet hurt from wearing shoes again. I didn't know how long I was going to live, so I did everything as fast as I could.

When I was raped I lost my virginity and almost lost my life. I also discarded certain assumptions I had held about how the world worked and about how safe I was.

Ben yanked Hi sideways as spikes snapped from the wall…Once again, only Ben’s reflexes had saved him. “Please stop doing that!” Ben barked. “Please keep doing that!” Hi warbled.

Habit is second nature.

There are... for us no instincts—we no longer need the term in psychology. Everything we have been in the habit of calling an 'instinct' today is a result largely of training—belonging to man's learned behavior.

Reading is one form of escape. Running for your life is another.

Every perversion has survived many tests of its capabilities.

All living things contain a measure of madness that moves them in strange, sometimes inexplicable ways. This madness can be saving; it is part and parcel of the ability to adapt. Without it, no species would survive.

Disasters will always come and go, leaving their victims either completely broken or steeled and seasoned and better able to face the next crop of challenges that may occur.

All the general fear I've been feeling condenses into an immediate fear of this girl, this predator who might kill me in seconds. Adrenaline shoots through me and I sling the pack over one shoulder and run full-speed for the woods. I can hear the blade whistling toward me and reflexively hike the pack up to protect my head. The blade lodges in the pack. Both straps on my shoulders now, I make for the trees. Somehow I knew the girl will not pursue me. That she'll be drawn back into the Cornucopia before all the good stuff is gone. A grin crosses my face. Thanks for the knife, I think.