#survival

Every stress leaves an indelible scar, and the organism pays for its survival after a stressful situation by becoming a little older. ↗

— Hans Selye

#becoming #every #indelible #leaves #little

These are the intensities that one cannot live with, that he has to outgrow if he wants to survive. But who can help grieving for them? If the blood vessels could hold them, how much better to keep those early loves with us? ↗

— Tennessee Williams

#intensity #outgrow #survival #love

As long as it’s an every man for himself kind of world, men will always be for themselves. - Mayor Bentley in 'Tilt ↗

— Ashley Chappell

#survival #men

It's all in the reflexes. ↗

— "Jack Burton" (Kurt Russell)

#prescience #reflexes #survival #survival-instinct #movies

With savages, the weak in body or mind are soon eliminated; and those that survive commonly exhibit a vigorous state of health. We civilised men, on the other hand, do our utmost to check the process of elimination; we build asylums for the imbecile, the maimed, and the sick; we institute poor-laws; and our medical men exert their utmost skill to save the life of every one to the last moment. There is reason to believe that vaccination has preserved thousands, who from a weak constitution would formerly have succumbed to small-pox. Thus the weak members of civilised societies propagate their kind. No one who has attended to the breeding of domestic animals will doubt that this must be highly injurious to the race of man. It is surprising how soon a want of care, or care wrongly directed, leads to the degeneration of a domestic race; but excepting in the case of man himself, hardly any one is so ignorant as to allow his worst animals to breed. The aid which we feel impelled to give to the helpless is mainly an incidental result of the instinct of sympathy, which was originally acquired as part of the social instincts, but subsequently rendered, in the manner previously indicated, more tender and more widely diffused. Nor could we check our sympathy, if so urged by hard reason, without deterioration in the noblest part of our nature. The surgeon may harden himself whilst performing an operation, for he knows that he is acting for the good of his patient; but if we were intentionally to neglect the weak and helpless, it could only be for a contingent benefit, with a certain and great present evil. Hence we must bear without complaining the undoubtedly bad effects of the weak surviving and propagating their kind; but there appears to be at least one check in steady action, namely the weaker and inferior members of society not marrying so freely as the sound; and this check might be indefinitely increased, though this is more to be hoped for than expected, by the weak in body or mind refraining from marriage. ↗

— Charles Darwin

#darwinism #eugenics #natural-selection #planned-parenthood #population-control

If theft is advantageous to everyone who succeeds at it, and adultery is a good strategy, at least for males, for increasing presence in the gene pool, why do we feel they are wrong? Shouldn't the only morality that evolution produces be the kind Bill Clinton had - being sorry you got caught? ↗

— Robert J. Sawyer

#darwinism #evolution #infidelity #macro-evolution #macroevolution

You're not half the male you could be because of what was done to you. You're twice what anyone else is because you survived. ↗

— J.R. Ward

#survival

What I learned with Cecil Taylor was strategy and survival and how to resist temptations and resist getting discouraged. ↗

— Steve Lacy

#discouraged #getting #how #i #learned

Stand-up is like a row boat: it's fun and romantic when you're choosing to do it. But if you have no other choice than to be in a row boat it's not as enjoyable; that's survival. ↗

— Demetri Martin

#choice #choosing #enjoyable #fun #like

Through the evolutionary process, those who are able to engage in social cooperation of various sorts do better in survival and reproduction. ↗

— Robert Nozick

#better #cooperation #engage #evolutionary #process