Quotes About Savage

Laws fixed, certain, and uniform, are said to be the distinguishing traits of civilized from savage communities. In these last, seldom are any laws, unless it be the arbitrary and uncertain will of the strongest.

Women are amazing creatures-sweet, soft, gentle, and far more savage than we are.

The peoples furthest from civilization are the ones where equality between man and woman are furthest apart-and we consider this one of the signs of savagery.

We live in a primitive time—don't we, Will?—neither savage nor wise. Half measures are the curse of it. Any rational society would either kill me or give me my books.

Problem-solving is hunting; it is savage pleasure and we are born to it.

Science is nothing but trained and organized common sense, differing from the latter only as a veteran may differ from a raw recruit and its methods differ from those of common sense only as far as the guardsman's cut and thrust differ from the manner in which a savage wields his club.

Every civilization when it loses its inner vision and its cleaner energy, falls into a new sort of sordidness, more vast and more stupendous than the old savage sort. An Augean stable of metallic filth.

T]he pure light of chivalry... distinguishes the noble from the base, the gentle knight from the churl and the savage;... rates our life far, far beneath the pitch of our honour, raises us victorious over pain, toil, and suffering, and teaches us to fear no evil but disgrace.

the human mind was no better than in its earliest period of savagery, only better informed

He acquired a reputation for savage brutality unique even in that savage, brutal age, his most famous act being the simultaneous execution of thirty thousand captive enemy soldiers by impalement, i.e., a stake driven up through the anus and out the mouth. He was not a nice fellow.

It was now evening, and by the dim light we could just discern the savage countenances around us, gleaming with wild curiosity and wonder; the naked forms and tattooed limbs of brawny warriors, with here and there the slighter figures of young girls... Nothing can exceed the fierce gesticulation of these people when animated in conversation, and on this occasion they gave loose to all their natural vivacity, shouting and dancing about in a manner that well-night intimidated us.

We generally describe the most repulsive examples of man's cruelty as brutal or bestial, implying that such behavior is characteristic of less highly developed animals than ourselves. In fact, however, the extremes of brutal behavior are confined to us: there exists no parallel in nature to our savage treatment of each other. The unmistakable truth is that man is the most vicious and cruel species that ever walked the earth.

As Benjamin Franklin put it, "No European who has tasted Savage Life can afterwards bear to live in our societies."48

Every savage can dance.

Certainly, sir; and it has the advantage also of being in vogue amongst the less polished societies of the world. Every savage can dance.

We received our colouring from the Norsemen, hairy savages who hacked their gods to pieces and hung the flesh from trees. We are the ones who sacked Rome. Fear only feeble old age and death in bed. Don't forget who you are.

What I've discovered and really confirmed to myself is that opera really likes loud colours, and you need something bold, something savage, unpredictable, passionate. You can't really run a two-hour opera round some muted murmuring.

When I have that sinking feeling in my stomach before a fight and I have that dread that I'm going to step in there with a savage who is coming in there to hurt me... I have my best fights. I'm at my best under those circumstances.

As a result, the highly civilized man can endure incomparably more than the savage, whether of moral or physical strain. Being better able to control himself under all circumstances, he has a great advantage over the savage.

German poets betrayed their savagery, being moved 'more by hatred for other people's countries than by love of their own'.3

Policy calmly formulated in public-school accents behind closed doors can manifest itself in very raucous and savage proceedings when translated into action.

The mutilation of the savage has its tragic survival in the self-denial that mars our lives.

from all the graces of my homeland I chose only your savage heart.

It could be argued that every age gets the comfort savagery writer it deserves.