A Quote by Theodore Sturgeon

Morals: They're nothing but a coded survival instinct!

Theodore Sturgeon

Quote Topics

Instinct Morals Nothing Survival Survival Instinct

Quote Author

Theodore Sturgeon
American - Writer
February 26, 1918 - May 8, 1985

Morals - all correct moral laws - derive from the instinct to survive. Moral behavior is survival behavior above the individual level.

Robert A. Heinlein

Generosity is revolutionary, counter-instinctual. Our survival instinct is to care only for ourselves and our loved ones. But we can transform our relationship to that survival instinct by constantly asking ourselves, ‘How can I use my life’s energy to benefit all living beings?

Noah Levine

I have one instinct stronger than any other thing in life, and that is the instinct for survival.

Karl Lagerfeld

Everything. A letter may be coded, and a word may be coded. A theatrical performance may be coded, and a sonnet may be coded, and there are times when it seems the entire world is in code. Some believe that the world can be decoded by performing research in a library. Others believe that the world can be decoded by reading a newspaper. In my case, the only thing that made sense of the world was you, and without you the world will seem as garbled and tragic as a malfunctioning typewrit9.

Daniel Handler

Morals consist of political morals, commercial morals, ecclesiastical morals, and morals.

Mark Twain

Corruption of politics has nothing to do with the morals, or the laxity of morals, of various political personalities. Its cause is altogether a material one.

Emma Goldman

The balance of private good and general welfare is at the bottom of civilized morals; but the morals of the Heroic Age are founded on individuality, and on nothing else.

Lascelles Abercrombie

The balance of private good and general welfare is at the bottom of civilized morals but the morals of the Heroic Age are founded on individuality, and on nothing else.

Lascelles Abercrombie

Protagoras did not know if the gods exist, but he held in any case they ought to be worshiped. Philosophy, according to him, had nothing edifying to teach, and for the survival of morals we must rely upon the thoughtlessness of the majority and their willingness to believe what they had been taught.