Quotes About Instinct

four tumbling, squealing cubs

to show his children how to kill, and then he must hunt outside the hunting-grounds of his pack or tribe. The real reason for this is that man-killing means, sooner or later, the arrival of white

Well," said Rikki-tikki, and his tail began to fluff up again, "marks or no marks, do you think it is right for you to eat fledglings out of a nest?

Each dog barks in his own yard! We will see what the Pack will say to this fostering of man-cubs. The cub is mine, and to my teeth he will come in the end, O bush-tailed thieves!

On occasions, very occasionally, things happen as you feel they will, as you feel in your bones they will.

How do the turtles find Ascension Island? There are sharks in the water too. Some of the turtles get eaten by sharks. Do the turtles know about sharks? How do they not think about the sharks when they're swimming that 1,400 miles? Green turtles must have the kind of mind that doesn't think about sharks unless a shark is there. That must be how it is with them. I can't believe they'd swim 1,400 miles thinking about sharks.

instinctive daddy reflex, the same move that had probably saved me from breaking my neck or hurtling to my death a hundred times, only I'd never seen it in action from this angle before, and I was amazed at its speed and precision. Too bad he didn't have an arm like that he could use to save himself.

But why is it that if you imagine a baby who smells of milk, for example, you can't help smiling? Why is there such an agreement around the world about what is or isn't a foul smell? Who decided what smells bad? Is it impossible that somewhere in this world there are people who, if they sat next to a homeless fellow they'd get the urge to snuggle up to him, but if they sat next to a baby they'd get an urge to kill it?

After a day of heat and hunger, one is weak and listless. But a certain stuport, an internal numbness, has its benefits: man could not survive here without it, for otherwise the biological, animal part of his nature would bite to death everything that is still human in him.

Vertigo is the conflict between the fear of falling and the desire to fall.

Perhaps we, who are language animals, possess a song and story instinct; we need and move toward stories and songs not because we are taught to do so but because it is in our nature to need them.

Alles is strategie. Dat is de wijsheid van de spin. Alles is voedsel. Dat is de wijsheid van de haai.

Never ignore a gut feeling, but never believe that it's enough.

Eagles don't catch flies.

Badgers know where their strength lies. Do you?

The African lions rush to attack bulls; they do not attack butterflies. [Lat., In tauros Libyci ruunt leones; Non sunt papilionibus molesti.]

Like all primitive natures, she adored everything that appealed to her eyes and her ears.

Oh, man, man—race of crocodiles

There are some situations which men understand by instinct, but which reason is powerless to explain.

His was one of those rare organizations, endowed with an obedient intelligence like that of the dog;

The Revolution in the United States was produced by a mature and thoughtful taste for liberty, and not by a vague and undefined instinct for independence.

Jill told me that when you're really in love, you know right away. I'm not exactly sure how this happens. Is it like a flash of lightning? Like an angel tapping you on the shoulder? Or is it similar to choosing a puppy? You think you're picking the cutest one, but really you wind up going home with the one who keeps insisting on climbing into your lap.

But try as you might to protect people from danger, you cannot keep them from their true nature.

When you are a wolf, no place is safe, no one can be trusted. Unless they are what you are. Hunted.