“He was gifted with the sly, sharp instinct for self-preservation that passes for wisdom among the rich.”

—  Evelyn Waugh , book Scoop

Scoop (1938)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "He was gifted with the sly, sharp instinct for self-preservation that passes for wisdom among the rich." by Evelyn Waugh?
Evelyn Waugh photo
Evelyn Waugh 123
British writer 1903–1966

Related quotes

Boris Sidis photo

“Human institutions depend for their existence and stability on the impulse of self-preservation and its close associate, — the fear instinct.”

Boris Sidis (1867–1923) American psychiatrist

Source: Nervous Ills their Cause and Cure (1922), p. 311

Isaac Mashman photo
Baruch Spinoza photo
Wojciech Jaruzelski photo

“The self-preservation instinct of the nation must be heard. Adventurists must have their hands tied before they push the homeland into the abyss of fratricide.”

Wojciech Jaruzelski (1923–2014) Polish military officer and politician

Source: Excerpts of Martial law speech (14 December 1981)

“The world is, and has long been, in flames because races, nations and cultures are forced to violate their Nature ordained instincts for self-preservation.”

David Lane (white nationalist) (1938–2007) American white supremacist, convicted felon

Race to Extinction
Focus Fourteen

John Adams photo

“The preservation of the means of knowledge among the lowest ranks is of more importance to the public than all the property of all the rich men in the country.”

John Adams (1735–1826) 2nd President of the United States

1760s, A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law (1765)

Georgette Heyer photo
Dennis Lehane photo
Albert Einstein photo

“He uses the highest gift, his mind, only ten percent, and his emotions and instincts ninety percent.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

Source: Attributed in posthumous publications, Einstein and the Poet (1983), p. 31
Spoken on hearing German marchers singing war songs. On p. 474 of Alice Calaprice's The Ultimate Quotable Einstein, she lists "we only use 10 percent of our brain" as a quote "misattributed to Einstein", perhaps this is the source of the misquote? Einstein seems to be speaking metaphorically here, not endorsing the myth http://www.snopes.com/science/stats/10percent.asp that science has shown 90 percent of the neurons in our brain lie dormant. And the myth dates back to before this interview, for example the book Mind Myths: Exploring Popular Assumptions About the Mind and Brain, edited by Sergio Della Salla, has a chapter by Barry L. Beyerstein titled "Whence Cometh the Myth that We Only Use 10% of our Brains?" which shows on p. 11 an advertisement from the 1929 World Almanac containing the line "There is NO LIMIT to what the human brain can accomplish. Scientists and psychologists tell us we use only about TEN PER CENT of our brain power."
Context: What a betrayal of man's dignity. He uses the highest gift, his mind, only ten percent, and his emotions and instincts ninety percent.

Related topics