top of page
Instinct Quotes


"My instinct as a philosopher is that we are effectively approaching a multicentric world, which means we need to ask new, and for the traditional left, unpleasant questions."


"Literature... is the union of suffering with the instinct for form."


"I had to go. A spirit in my feet said 'Go,' and I went."


"A good short-story writer has an instinct for sketching in just enough background to ground the specific story."


"One of the things that I loved about listening to Miles Davis is that Miles always had an instinct for which musicians were great for what situations. He could always pick a band, and that was the thing that separated him from everybody else."


"Passion for fame: A passion which is the instinct of all great souls."


"The instinct to worship is hardly less strong than the instinct to eat."


"When I see a slippery slope, my instinct is to build a terrace."


"Their every instinct - and I have to say this is without exception - is to iron out the bumps, and It's always the bumps that are the most interesting stuff."


"The herd instinct among forecasters makes sheep look like independent thinkers."


"When instinct speaks, listen to it. It might be the next push you need to reach greater heights."


"A general loathing of a gang or sect usually has some sound basis in instinct."


"The very essence of instinct is that it's followed independently of reason."


"Surely we have always acted; it is an instinct inherent in all of us. Some of us are better at it than others, but we all do it."


"I had this instinct and I just knew it. It was a very strange thing and as soon as I finished recording it, we were all in the studio saying we have something really special here."


"If you swim with sharks, make sure you have the appetite of a whale."


"I remember that, although I was full of fervour, I didn't have the slightest inkling, even at forty, of the deeper side to the movement we were pursuing by instinct. It was in the air!"


"I had an instinct before and maybe now I don't have that instinct as much as knowing what to do, what shots to hit, where to place the ball, things like that."


"Instinct must be thwarted just as one prunes the branches of a tree so that it will grow better."


"A wolf's thoughts are seldom far from its appetite."


"There must be instinct on d inside to have an increase on d outside."


"He felt a spasm of excitement because he knew instinctively who it was, or at least knew who it was he wanted it to be, and once you know what it is you want to be true, instinct is a very useful device for enabling you to know that it is."



"A man falling off a cliff to certain death will stretch out a hand even to his worst enemy."


"Your instinct, rather than precision stabbing, is more about just random bludgeoning."


"Metaphysics is the finding of bad reasons for what we believe upon instinct; but to find these reasons is no less an instinct."


"You have put yourself at risk to activate your instinctual genius."
bottom of page