On Mahatma Gandhi<!-- p. 506 (1949) / p. 310 (1961) -->
Autobiography (1936; 1949; 1958)
Context: I knew that Gandhiji usually acts on instinct (I prefer to call it that than the "inner voice" or an answer to prayer) and very often that instinct is right. He has repeatedly shown what a wonderful knack he has of sensing the mass mind and of acting at the psychological moment. The reasons which he afterward adduces to justify his action are usually afterthoughts and seldom carry one very far. A leader or a man of action in a crisis almost always acts subconsciously and then thinks of the reasons for his action.
“…conditioning usually reinforces instinct rather than overrides it.”
Source: The Red Queen (1993), Ch. 6
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Matt Ridley 65
economist 1958Related quotes
“To be a poet is a condition rather than a profession.”
Reply to questionnaire, "The Cost of Letters" in Horizon (September 1946).
General sources
In operant conditioning we "strengthen" an operant in the sense of making a response more probable or, in actual fact, more frequent.
Science and Human Behavior (1953)
“Inspiration usually comes during work, rather than before it.”
The Summer of the Great-Grandmother (1974), p. 143
“Usually, if we hate, it is the shadow of the person that we hate, rather than the substance.”
"Hate Is Rarely a Personal Matter"
The Best of Sydney J. Harris (1975)
Context: Usually, if we hate, it is the shadow of the person that we hate, rather than the substance. We may hate a person because he reminds us of someone we feared and disliked when younger; or because we see in him some gross caricature of what we find repugnant in ourself; or because he symbolizes an attitude that seems to threaten us.
Source: The End of the American Era (2002), Chapter six: "The Limits of American Internationalism—Looking Ahead"
“What we call inspiration in poetry is usually a visitation of words and rhythms rather than ideas.”
Poetry Quotes
Source: Information, The New Language of Science (2003), Chapter 24, Bits, Bucks, Hits and Nuts, Information theory beyond Shannon, p. 221