Self Preservation Quotes - Page 4

• I think most generations tend to learn the lesson of war the hard way. There is a deep attraction to the empowerment. Freud is right: societies either become locked in a collective embrace of Eros, as individuals do, or a collective embrace of Thanatos, the death instinct. They swing between the two. The notion that societies are naturally prone toward self-preservation is wrong. Self-annihilation can be deeply addictive, intoxicating, enticing. So I take a darker view of human nature, that war is probably always going to be with us. I think history bears me out.

  Chris Hedges

  War, Thinking, Self

  "Addicted to War: A Conversation with Chris Hedges". Interview with Metta Spencer, peacemagazine.org. April-June 2007.

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• No one could have called Mr. Standen quick-witted, but the possession of three sisters had considerably sharpened his instinct of self-preservation.

  Georgette Heyer

  Self, Three, Instinct

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• Ornon said, "I have seen him jump across atriums four stories above the ground, a distance that would make your blood freeze, and I heard him once confess that he sometimes thinks the distance is beyond him. He always jumps, Your Majesty. The Thieves are not trained in self-preservation. I beg you would take my advice.

  Megan Whalen Turner

  Distance, Thinking, Self

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• Writing is the thing that sustains me and keeps me going. It is a form of self-preservation for me.

  Bei Dao

  Writing, Self, Form

  Source: quod.lib.umich.edu

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• According to Dickens, the first rule of human nature is self-preservation and when I forgive him for writing a character as pathetic as Oliver Twist, I'll thank him for the advice.

  Melina Marchetta

  Writing, Character, Self

  Melina Marchetta (2010). “Jellicoe Road”, p.8, Harper Collins

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• As comedy presents the vital rhythm of self-preservation, tragedy exhibits that of self-consummation.

  Susanne Katherina Langer

  Self, Tragedy, Comedy

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• I normally can't stand vice-free people. They conflate a narcissistic instinct for self-preservation with moral superiority. Plus, they suck the life right out of a party.

  Dennis Lehane

  Party, Self, People

  "Moonlight Mile". Book by Dennis Lehane, November 2, 2010.

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• And this is the final meaning of work: the extension of human consciousness. The lesser meaning of work is the achieving of self-preservation.

  D. H. Lawrence

  Change, Work, Self

  D.H. Lawrence (2013). “Delphi Works of D.H. Lawrence (Illustrated)”, p.4779, Delphi Classics

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• I have to say, music was always my self preservation survival technique. This sort of sacred space in my life and in my mind.

  Jon Gordon

  Self, Space, Survival

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• When a nation is on the downward path, when it feels its belief in its own future, its hope of freedom slipping from it, when it begins to see submission as a first necessity and the virtues of submission as measures of self-preservation, then it must overhaul its God.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Self, Path, Firsts

  Friedrich Nietzsche “Delphi Complete Works of Friedrich Nietzsche (Illustrated): Friedrich Nietzsche”, Delphi Classics

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• Of course I was wearing make-up, I never went anywhere without red lipstick for 25 years! It was a form of self-preservation for me to continue to wear lipstick even though my face was broken.

  Nan Goldin

  Self, Years, Broken

  Source: foggysapphires.wordpress.com

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• When you go on an extreme diet, your body's self-preservation mechanism responds by burning calories as slowly as possible. Of course, that makes it much more difficult to lose weight.

  Tony Robbins

  Self, Burning, Goes On

  Source: www.psychologytoday.com

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• When I read the article [in The New Yorker] by David Grann, I was very struck by people responding to the article, of people thinking I was such a hero and what a wonderful person I was, and I didn't feel that at all. I felt like I had very much, like Todd [Willingham], taken a path of self-preservation.

  Elizabeth Gilbert

  Taken, Hero, Thinking

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• One day, Annabel saw the sun and moon in the sky at the same time. The sight filled her with a terror which entirely consumed her and did not leave her until the night closed in catastrophe for she had no instinct for self-preservation if she was confronted by ambiguities.

  Angela Carter

  Moon, Night, Sight

  Angela Carter (1971). “Love: a novel”

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• Two things are to blame for our predicament, one a corollary of the other. The first reason is that we did not have enough troops in Samarra. The skill and courage of 150 American soldiers prevented chaos, but was never enough to fully secure a city of 120,000 people or maintain the rule of law [...] Second, because of a lack of troops, American military leaders are forced to make a choice between mission objectives and self-preservation.

  Pete Hegseth

  Military, Self, Law

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• By the way, I haven't heard an 'I'm sorry' from you yet." My sense of grievance had overwhelmed my sense of self-preservation. I am sorry that the maenad picked on you." I glared at him. "Not enough," I said. I was trying hard to hang on to this conversation. Angelic Sookie, vision of love and beauty, I am prostrate that the wicked evil maenad violated your smooth and voluptuous body, in an attempt to deliver a message to me." That's more like it.

  Charlaine Harris

  Sorry, Self, Evil

  Charlaine Harris (2003). “Dead in Dixie”

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• ...We leave our homeland, our property and our friends. We give up the familiar ground that supports our ego, admit the helplessness of ego to control its world and secure itself. We give up our clingings to superiority and self-preservation...It means giving up searching for a home, becoming a refugee, a lonely person who must depend on himself...Fundamentally, no one can help us. If we seek to relieve our loneliness, we will be distracted from the path. Instead, we must make a relationship with loneliness until it becomes aloneness.

  Chogyam Trungpa

  Lonely, Giving Up, Loneliness

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• Man's rights are evident branches of, rather than deductions from, the duty of self-preservation, commonly called the first law of nature.

  Samuel Adams

  Men, Rights, Self

  Samuel Adams (1946). “Samuel Adams: selections from his writings”

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• So he decided to stay out of it and instead turned back to Lady Bridgerton, who was, as it happened, the closest person to him, anyway. “And how are you this afternoon?” he asked. Lady Bridgerton gave him a very small smile as she handed him his cup of tea. “Smart man,” she murmured. “It’s self-preservation, really,” he said noncommittally. “Don’t say that. They wouldn’t hurt you.” “No, but I’m sure to be injured in the cross fire.

  Julia Quinn

  Hurt, Smart, Men

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• For a moment the feeling crept over me that my work, my vision, is going to destroy me, and for a fleeting moment I let myself take a long, hard look at myself, something I would not otherwise do--out of instinct, on principle, out of self-preservation--look at myself with objective curiosity to see whether my vision has not destroyed me already. I found it comforting to note that I was still breathing.

  Werner Herzog

  Self, Breathing, Long

  Werner Herzog (2009). “Conquest of the useless: reflections from the making of Fitzcarraldo”, Ecco Pr

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• I consider kissing her right there on the dirty couch, but self-preservation stops me. Once someone hurts you, it’s harder to relax around them, harder to think of them as safe to love. But it doesn’t stop you wanting them. Sometimes I actually think it makes the wanting worse

  Holly Black

  Hurt, Dirty, Kissing

  Holly Black (2010). “White Cat”, p.45, Simon and Schuster

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• I always thought fainting showed an inherent weakness of character, but I understood it now. It was an act of self-preservation. Confronted by emotion too extreme to handle, the body shuts down to keep from running around like a chicken with its head cut off, potentially injuring itself.

  Karen Marie Moning

  Running, Character, Cutting

  Karen Marie Moning (2011). “Shadowfever: Fever Series”, p.171, Delacorte Press

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• In his student days, he used to argue that if a woman has no other course open to her but starvation, prostitution, or throwing herself from a bridge, then surely the prostitute, who has shown the most tenacious instinct for self-preservation, should be considered stronger and saner than her frailer and no longer living sisters. One couldn't have it both ways, he'd pointed out: if women are seduced and abandoned they're supposed to go mad, but if they survive, and seduce in their turn, then they were mad to begin with.

  Margaret Atwood

  Self, Bridges, Mad

  Margaret Atwood (2011). “Alias Grace: A Novel”, Anchor

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• It is in vain to oppose constitutional barriers to the impulse of self-preservation. It is worse than in vain; because it plants in the Constitution itself necessary usurpations of power, every precedent of which is a germ of unnecessary and multiplied repetitions.

  James Madison

  Self, Germs, Constitution

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1852). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution: Written in 1788”, p.219

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• At the same time the Muslims are commanded to exercise self-restraint as much as possible. Force
  is a dangerous weapon. It may have to be used for self-defense or self-preservation, but we must
  always remember that self-restraint is pleasing in the eyes of Allah. Even when we are fighting, it
  should be for a principle not out of passion.

  Abdullah Yusuf Ali

  Passion, Eye, Fighting

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