Quotes About Self-preservation

Pea was aware suddenly of how fragile her heart was, how much darkness was inside it, fighting, always, with the light. She did not like the rat. She would neverlike the rat, but she knew what she must do to save her own heart.

He said, 'I forgive you, Pa. And he said those words because he sensed that it was the only way to save his own heart, to stop it from breaking in two. Despereaux, reader, spoke those words to save himself.

And why shouldn't they? Carers aren't machines. You try and do your best for every donor, but in the end, it wears you down. You don't have unlimited patience and energy. So when you get a chance to choose, of course, you choose your own kind. That's natural. There's no way I could have gone on for

But was it wrong to put yourself first? That's called survival, right? If you're running for your life, you don't get the luxury of being nice. They were going to learn that. It's fine to wave the pompoms for teamwork—all for one and one for all—but when push came to shove, these guys wouldn't be risking their lives for Chloe, maybe not even for each other. I was sure of it. Once things got worse, it would be every kid for himself. It always is.

If he knew one thing about life, it was this: look out for yourself. No one else would do it for you. If you were cheated or tricked, it was your own fault, and a lesson best learned before the world devoured you.

himself, that he might survive tomorrow's

Man will do away with anything that threatens him with loneliness—even himself.

Some people are like vacuums. They will suck everything out of you until there is nothing left of you behind

Do not invest time and money into yourself to have others completely destroy it!

'Tis in my memory lock'd,And you yourself shall keep the key of it.

He who has injured thee was either stronger or weaker than thee. If weaker, spare him; if stronger, spare thyself.

You may keep your beauty and your health, unless you destroy them yourself, or discourage them to stay with you, by using them ill.

What sustains this "win-lose" mindset is a sense of scarcity, the fear that there is just not enough to go around, so we need to look out for ourselves even at the expense of others.

In one form or the other, the quest for human dignity has proved to be one of the most propulsive elements for wars, civil strife and willing sacrifice. Yet the entitlement to dignity, enshrined among the 'human rights', does not aspire to being the most self-evident, essential need for human survival, such as food, or physical health. Compared to that other candidate for the basic impulse of human existence - self-preservation - it may even be deemed self-indulgent.

I don't want to be a strong hero who can save society. I just want to save myself.

Would I have fared better if I had stood my ground and stared down my pursuers? Could so-called self-preservation sometimes backfire and become the very cause of pain?

The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence to written law, would be to lose the law itself, with life, liberty, property and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus absurdly sacrificing the end to the means.

If I do not destroy the "family," the "family" will destroy me. —R. D. Laing

Me, I always stayed away from him. Where I come from they have a saying: 'The farther away you keep from the czar, the longer you stay alive.' 

A memorandum is written to protect the writer - not to inform his reader.

but I have clawed back some shreds of decency and dignity and I will not have them taken from me again.

I've heard that people stand in bad situations because a relationship like that gets turned up by degrees. It is said that a frog will jump out of a pot of boiling water. Place him in a pot and turn it up a little at a time, and he will stay until he is boiled to death. Us frogs understand this.

The whistle buried under my skin and became a permanent part of me. I had a radar for certain eyes afterward. It was a heightened awareness of the bad shit that could happen if I wasn't careful, and I could adjust the degree of it, but I would never be able to turn it off.

Pride be damned, we do what must be done to survive.