Everything in nature is the result of fixed laws.
Charles DarwinRead
The very essence of instinct is that it's followed independently of reason.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Instinct drives behavior without the influence of rational thought.
In this quote, Charles Darwin emphasizes that instinct operates on a fundamental level, guiding actions and decisions, often in ways that are not governed by logical reasoning. This observation highlights the primal nature of instinct as a crucial component of human and animal behavior, suggesting that our instincts can compel us to act in certain ways without deliberation or conscious reasoning.
Themes
InstinctReasonBehaviorNatureDecision
In practice
Example use cases
During a discussion about the nature of decision-making, one might quote Darwin to emphasize the role of instinct.
More from Charles Darwin
All quotes βThe highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts.
Charles DarwinRead
I am quite conscious that my speculations run beyond the bounds of true science....It is a mere rag of an hypothesis with as many flaw[s] & holes as sound parts.
Charles DarwinRead
We cannot fathom the marvelous complexity of an organic being; but on the hypothesis here advanced this complexity is much increased. Each living creature must be looked at as a microcosm--a little universe, formed of a host of self-propagating organisms, inconceivably minute and as numerous as the stars in heaven.
Charles DarwinRead
I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term of Natural Selection.
Charles DarwinRead
we are always slow in admitting any great change of which we do not see the intermediate steps
Charles DarwinRead
Similar quotes
To the philosophers of India, however, Relativity is no new discovery, just as the concept of light years is no matter for astonishment to people used to thinking of time in millions of kalpas, (A kalpa is about 4,320,000 years). The fact that the wise men of India have not been concerned with technological applications of this knowledge arises from the circumstance that technology is but one of innumerable ways of applying it.
Alan WattsRead
An evil-speaker differs from an evil-doer only in the want of opportunity.
QuintilianRead
I am still raw. I say I may be back. You know what lies are for. Even in your Zen heaven we shan't meet.
Sylvia PlathRead
Mind precedes all phenomena, mind matters most, everything is mind-made. If with an impure mind, you speak or act, then suffering follows you as the cartwheel follows the foot of the draft animal. If with a pure mind, you speak or act, then happiness follows you as a shadow that never departs
Gautama BuddhaRead
If time is not real, then the dividing line between this world and eternity, between suffering and bliss, between good and evil, is also an illusion.
Hermann HesseRead
A man of humanity is one who, in seeking to establish himself, finds a foothold for others and who, in desiring attaining himself, helps others to attain.
ConfuciusRead