Quotes About Instinct

Even in modern humans, System 1 takes over in emergencies and assigns total priority to self-protective actions.

when we are uncomfortable and unhappy, we lose touch with our intuition.

Although System 2 believes itself to be where the action is, the automatic System 1 is the hero of the book. I describe System 1 as effortlessly originating impressions and feelings that are the main sources of the explicit beliefs and deliberate choices of System 2. The

The normal state of your mind is that you have intuitive feelings and opinions about almost everything that comes your way. You like or dislike people long before you know much about them; you trust or distrust strangers without knowing why; you feel that an enterprise is bound to succeed without analyzing

He had no idea what was wrong, but he knew something was wrong. It turned out that the heart of the fire had not been in the kitchen but in the basement beneath where the men had stood.

Most of us are pitch-perfect in detecting anger in the first word of a telephone call, recognize as we enter a room that we were the subject of the conversation, and quickly react to subtle signs that the driver of the car in the next lane is dangerous. Our everyday intuitive abilities are no less marvelous than the striking insights of an experienced firefighter or physician—only more common.

Organisms that treat threats as more urgent than opportunities have a better chance to survive and reproduce.

and this capability is certainly not restricted to humans. Even in modern humans, System 1 takes over in emergencies and assigns total priority to self-protective actions. Imagine yourself at the wheel of a car that unexpectedly skids on a large oil slick. You will find that you have responded to the threat before you became fully conscious of it.

What came quickly to my mind was an intuition from System 1. I'll have to start over and search my memory deliberately.

In the absence of a competing intuition, logic prevails.

Zajonc argued that the effect of repetition on liking is a profoundly im- portant biological fact, and that it extends to all animals.

Intuition is nothing more and nothing less than recognition.

The emotional tail wags the rational dog

Survival prospects are poor for an animal that is not suspicious of novelty. However, it is also adaptive for the initial caution

You think with your body, not with your brain.

We have inherited from our ancestors a great facility to learn when to be afraid. Indeed, one experience is often sufficient to establish a long term aversion and fear.

A child may not know how to feed itself, or what to eat, yet it knows hunger.

Chickens have an uncanny sense of direction.

She is violent only when violence is acted upon her first. When shown kindness, she is kind. That is the way of animals and humans alike.

Live with wolves, and you learn to howl.

What is play to the cat is death to the mouse.

Birds sing, wolves howl, crickets chirp. But why? Money? Fame? Record contracts? Endorsements? What's it all for? They do it because they're alive. They do it because life is about making things.

The excellence reflex is a natural reaction to fix something that isn't right, or to improve something that could be better. The excellence reflex is rooted in instinct and upbringing, and then constantly honed through awareness, caring and practice. The overarching concern to do the right thing well is something we can't train for. Either it's there or it isn't.

Un antiguo proverbio reza: «Si las hienas te van pisando los talones, arrójales para que se alimenten el más jugoso de los bocados: un cordero recién nacido. Ya verás, cuando abran las mandíbulas para triturar a su presa, no hay hiena ni chacal que preste atención al resto».