Quotes About Instinct

The point of making children sleep alone, according to Western psychologists, is to make them "self-soothing," but that clearly runs contrary to our evolution. Humans are primates—we share 98 percent of our DNA with chimpanzees—and primates almost never leave infants unattended, because they would be extremely vulnerable to predators. Infants seem to know this instinctively, so being left alone in a dark room is terrifying to them.

Humans evolved in a world where nothing moved two thousand miles an hour, so there was no reason for the body to be able to counter that threat, but the brain still had to stay ahead of the game. Neurological processes in one of the most primitive parts of the brain, the amygdala, happen so fast that one could say they compete with bullets.

the greatest shortage in our society is an instinct to produce. To create solutions and hustle them out the door. To touch the humanity inside and connect to the humans in the marketplace.

Tell your lizard (brain) to shut up.

The goal is to quit the tasks you're doing because you're hiding on behalf of the lizard brain and to push through the very tasks the lizard fears. Is

As we'll see, the greatest shortage in our society is an instinct to produce.

Only wealthy organisms are able to culturally diversify, and as human beings get richer and richer, our instinct is to get ever more weird. As productivity has skyrocketed, so has our ability to do what we'd like instead of merely focusing on survival.

the greatest shortage in our society is an instinct to produce.

In a way, we're all addicts by nature.

Yet Laplace had built his probability theory on intuition. As far as he was concerned, essentially, the theory of probability is nothing but good common sense reduced to mathematics. It provides an exact appreciation of what sound minds feel with a kind of instinct, frequently without being able to account for it.

The instinct for profit, thought Jela—personal profit. That instinct was maybe not a long-term survival trait.

In evolutionary terms, that means we asked for it.

One species of lizard is born with a long tail and large body or a small tail and small body depending on one thing only—whether their mother smelled a lizard-eating snake while pregnant. When her babies are entering a snake-filled world, they are born with a long tail and big body, making them less likely to be snake food.

We didn't domesticate cats. They domesticated themselves. But not totally, you know? You take a good look at any house cat, and you can tell there's eventually going to be a day when it goes back wild, you know? When it reverts to its true nature. You fall over and die in a house with your dog, and your dog will lie down beside your dead body, maybe right on top of it, and starve to death. But a house cat will feast on your eyes as soon as its stomach starts growling.

After our earliest ancestors crawled out of the oceans, how soon did they feel the desire to crawl back in?

Do you understand how one small dog—afraid of the wolves who had attacked him and those who would attack him anew—might stand on his hind legs, might evolve in a moment, so he could run away and never return?

Here's the score. Once a thing tastes blood, it will come for more.

Self-preservation was my religion.

Law of the jungle. The betrayee gets to eat the betrayer. (Dante) Law of my jungle. Kill them all and let Hades sort them out. (Zarek)

Trust the Simi. She ain't never wrong.

Let me give you free advice, kid. Whenever something is coming for you, snap its neck or double tap. Never, ever hesitate. It's infinitely better to be judged by twelve than carried by six." – Death

Rule One, boy: shoot first then ask questions Rulw Two, Double tap just for good measure. Better safe then sorry. -Bubba

The wolf in him demanded he kick (the door) down and claim her. The man in him just wanted to hold her close and protect her. He'd never been so torn. So confused. So damned horny!

It seemed his demon couldn't tell the physical difference between when he was in danger and when he was in Danger.