Martin Luther King, Jr.
Civil Rights Leader
"The great issue of life is to harness the drum major instinct."
Instinct quotes
Instinct
446 quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Marilyn Monroe
Actress, Model
"A woman knows by intuition, or instinct, what is best for herself."
Leo Tolstoy
Novelist, Philosopher
"Her maternal instinct told her Natasha had too much of something, and because of this she would not be happy"
Emma Watson
Actress, Activist
"All I can do is follow my instincts, because I'll never please everyone."
Claude Monet
Painter
"Listening only to my instincts, I discovered superb things."
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Topics related to Instinct
Browse quotes that often appear alongside instinct — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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Instinct quotes (page 1 of 23)
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"Man is primarily governed by passion and instinct."
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"Speaking as a builder, if you start something, you must have a vision of the thing which arises from your instinct about preserving and enhancing what is there."
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"Such simple instincts as bees making a beehive could be sufficient to overthrow my whole theory."
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"Instinct of love toward an object demands a mastery to obtain it, and if a person feels they can't control the object or feel threatened by it, they act negatively toward it."
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"Women, with their sure instincts, realized that my intention was to make them not just more beautiful but also happier."
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"Feelings are much stronger than thoughts. We are all led by instinct, and our intellect catches up later"
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"Impressionism is only direct sensation. All great painters were less or more impressionists. It is mainly a question of instinct, and much simpler than [John Singer] Sargent thinks."
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"Learn to let your intuition-gut instinct-tell you when the food, the relationship, the job isn't good for you (and conversely, when what you're doing is just right)."
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"There is in us an instinct for newness, for renewal, for a liberation of creative power. We seek to awaken in ourselves a force which really changes our lives from within. And yet the same instinct tells us that this change is a recovery of that which is deepest, most original, most personal in ourselves. To be born again is not to become somebody else, but to become ourselves."
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"Experience is a question of instinct about life."
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"I will follow my instincts, be myself for good or ill, and see what will be the upshot."
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"A solitary being is by instinct a wanderer."
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"I work on instinct. It's my best adviser."
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"Nature's creative power is far beyond man's instinct of destruction."
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"When blended with sexuality, the death instinct is transformed into more harmless impulses expressed in sadism or masochism."
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"If you're not comfortable with a strong woman you're not comfortable with your own feminine instincts. You're not comfortable, period. You're going to be threatened by everything that's not exactly like you are ... and that is the measure any man."
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"Those who have gone through the high school of reporterdom have acquired a new instinct by which they see and hear only that which can create a sensation, and accordingly their report becomes not only a careless one, but hopelessly distorted."
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"What you intuitively desire, that is possible to you."
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"I go by the gut. I might not appear to have any talent but I've got plenty of gut instinct."
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"How we act with each other really reveals our most animal instincts."
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