Instinctive Behavior Quotes

When in doubt or danger, run in circles, scream and shout.

The wise are instructed by reason; ordinary minds by experience; the stupid, by necessity; and brutes by instinct.

Fish aren't smart. It's not like they have advanced degrees.

One must act in painting as in life, directly.

I don't use my brain about the creative thing. From a business standpoint, I instinctively do things: when I get something right, it's never because I use my brain.

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.

If you had a million Shakespeares, could they write like a monkey?

There's nothing you can really do to prepare to rock. Do you prepare to eat a delicious meal? Are you hungry? Then you're gonna eat it.

I think one of the important evolutions is that we no longer feel compulsively the need to argue, or to justify things on a kind of rational level. We are much more willing to admit that certain things are completely instinctive and others are really intellectual.

I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself. A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself.

It's real primal; I just like playing music.

His name, Buzz, fits. He can buzz along at 40 miles an hour when his genetic memory moves him.

The natural impulse of men is to follow and whoever has the strongest sense of purpose will always dominate.

How like us is that filthy beast the ape.

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

Was this a betrayal, or was it an act of courage? Perhaps both. Neither one involves forethought: such things take place in an instant, in an eyeblink. This can only be because they have been rehearsed by us already, over and over, in silence and darkness; in such silence, such darkness, that we are ignorant of them ourselves. Blind but sure-footed, we step forward as if into a remembered dance.

A [wo]man who is unconscious of [her/]himself acts in a blind, instinctive way and is in addition fooled by all the illusions that arise when he sees everything that he is not conscious of in himself coming to meet him from outside as projections upon his neighbour.

The way I played the game, the way I live my life, is very emotional.

You won't find one fish in a million that has enough sense to come in when it rains.

The public is moved by mood more than logic, by instinct more than reason, and that is something that every politician must make use of or guard against

Often the hands grasp more quickly than the head.

Reverse every natural instinct and do the opposite of what you are inclined to do, and you will probably come very close to having a perfect golf swing.

Acting is invigorating. But I don't analyse it too much. It's like a dog smelling where it's going to do its toilet in the morning.

I find time to write the way kids find time to ride their bikes.

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