A Quote by Ambrose Bierce

Behavior, n. Conduct, as determined, not by principle, but by breeding.

Ambrose Bierce

Quote Topics

Behavior Breeding Conduct Determined Principle

Quote Author

Ambrose Bierce
American - Journalist
June 24, 1842 - 1914

[the virtues] cannot exist without Prudence. A proof of this is that everyone, even at the present day, in defining Virtue, after saying what disposition it is [i.e. moral virtue] and specifying the things with which it is concerned, adds that it is a disposition determined by the right principle; and the right principle is the principle determined by Prudence.

Aristotle

I'm always very interested in breeding. Raising cacti is breeding. My lotus plant collection is breeding. The insects are breeding.

Takashi Murakami

The way one behaves and feels as a Dutchman and Dutchwoman is the result of a long development. It is by no means 'the natural way' or 'the human way' of behaving, it is a particular code of behavior which has developed over the years. And these people, the immigrant people, come from a group where different standards of conduct and behavior have developed. What clashes are these two standards of conduct and behavior.

Norbert Elias

...virtue is not merely a state in conformity with the right principle, but one that implies the right principle; and the right principle in moral conduct is prudence.

Aristotle

If the individuals who compose the purest circles of aristocracy in Europe, the guarded blood of centuries, should pass in review,in such manner as that we could, at leisure, and critically inspect their behavior, we might find no gentleman, and no lady; for, although excellent specimens of courtesy and high-breeding would gratify us in the assemblage, in the particulars, we should detect offence. Because, elegance comes of no breeding, but of birth.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Both thought and feeling are determinants of conduct, and the same conduct may be determined either by feeling or by thought.

William James

I have one underlying principle in mind: the principle of Muslim democracy. It is my belief that our salvation lies in following the golden rules of conduct set for us by our great lawgiver, the Prophet of Islam.

Muhammad Ali Jinnah

There are wholes, the behavior of which is not determined by that of their individual elements, but where the part-processes are themselves determined by the intrinsic nature of the whole. It is the hope of Gestalt theory to determine the nature of such wholes.

Max Wertheimer

When our systematic knowledge of human expressive behavior is more advanced, it will be possible to study the literary and historical documents of the past and to determine the expressed and implied views of personality that determined the behavior of our ancestors.

Timothy Leary

It only takes twenty generations of selective breeding to create large differences or appearance and behavior in other mammals.

Jonathan Haidt

I think I'm determined. And I think if you're determined, you're right. Your behavior is exactly the same when you're stubborn, except then you're wrong. And so, there's times when I'm wrong, and I'd say, "Well, you were the dark side of determined." But I think determination, you know, it's like have an idea, think about the idea, the risks involved. What does it take to get from here to there? And then once you make the choice, you just keep going.

Les Wexner

I have found in my experience that expediency, whether it is practical or not, is an unreliable guide for behavior. Human behavior must be guided by a higher principle. Practicality has its place but only within a framework of values, which all men of good will share.

King Hussein I

Good manners come, as we say, from good breeding or rather are good breeding; and breeding is acquired by habitual action, in response to habitual stimuli, not by conveying information.

John Dewey

Behavior is determined by its consequences.

B. F. Skinner

The synergetic integral of the totality of all principles is God, whose sum-total behavior in pure principle is beyond our comprehension and is utterly mysterious to us, because as humans--in pure principle--we do not and never will know all the principles