Self Preservation Quotes

“It’s not an act of bitterness. It’s an act of self-preservation. There’s simply no way to carry on with my life as it is now if I have to remember how much better things used to be.”
― Andy Marr, A Matter of Life and Death

“You're not going to want to see him. Not tonight, Sorrengail.' Garrick warns with a grimace. 'Self-preservation is a thing. Notice we're not with him, and we're his best friends.'

'Yeah, well, I'm his...' I open my mouth and shut it a few times because... fuck if I know what I am to him. But the longing that holds my heart hostage, this driving need to be at his side because I know he's suffering, no matter if it means throwing myself headfirst into uncertainty... I can't deny what he is to me. I kick off the leather slippers of my dress uniform- they're more of a hazard than anything, and in this wind? Well, we'll see how it goes. 'I'm just... his.”
― Rebecca Yarros, Fourth Wing

“Child, it's a very bad thing for a woman to face the worst that can happen to her, because after she's faced the worst she can't ever really fear anything again. And it's very bad for a woman not to be afraid of something... ...that's been fifty years ago, as I said, and since that time I've never been afraid of anything or anybody because I'd known the worst that could happen to me. And that lack of fear has gotten me into a lot of trouble and cost me a lot of happiness. God intended women to be timid and frightened creatures and there's something unnatural about a woman who isn't afraid... Scarlett, always save something to fear - even as you save something to love...”
― Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind

“Child, it's a very bad thing for a woman to face the worst that can happen to her, because after she's faced the worst she can't ever really fear anything again. And it's very bad for a woman not to be afraid of something . . . that's been fifty years ago, as I said, and since that time I've never been afraid of anything or anybody because I'd known the worst that could happen to me. And that lack of fear has gotten me into a lot of trouble and cost me a lot of happiness. God intended women to be timid and frightened creatures and there's something unnatural about a woman who isn't afraid... Scarlett, always save something to fear - even as you save something to love...”
― Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind

“When we give away our boundaries, we give away our life.”
― W. Allen Morris, All In: How to Risk Everything for Everything that Matters

“Ethics has to recognize the truth, recognized in unethical thought, that egoism comes before altruism. The acts required for continued self-preservation, including the enjoyment of benefits achieved by such acts, are the first requisites to universal welfare. Unless each duly cares for himself, his care for all others is ended by death; and if each thus dies, there remain no others to be cared for.”
― Herbert Spencer, The Principles of Ethics, Vol 1

“Hammer the Poles until they despair of living [...] I have all the sympathy in the world for their situation, but if we want to exist we have no choice but to wipe them out: wolves are only what God made them, but we shoot them all the same when we can get at them.”
― Otto von Bismarck, Bismarck's Speeches and Letters

“It can all end in a moment. Take for yourself now what tomorrow might not give you.”
― Guillermo del Toro, Falling Down

“The best strategy is to avoid becoming entangled with a psychopath in the first place.”
― Robert D. Hare, Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us

“Sometimes it is okay to simply do nothing. Put down the to-do list, cancel your plans, and just sit there and relax.

You deserve to be present without worrying about, "what's next?". Save those thoughts for another time.”
― Robin S. Baker

“In all of my desperate attempts to preserve myself am I in reality doing exactly the opposite?”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough

“I denied myself happiness, denied myself love and passion and devotion, out of fear of losing. Out of fear of being abandoned again.”
― Milena McKay, A Whisper of Solace

“Why is it that people are always trying to kill you?' His voice was low, on the edge of something deadly. 'You need to be more careful.'

'How is this my fault?'

'You have no sense of self-preservation.' Archer took another angry step. 'If someone labelled a bottle poison, you would drink it. You take warnings as invitations. You can seem to stay away from all the things that will hurt you.'

Like me.”
― Stephanie Garber, A Curse for True Love

“It is a law, doubtless, but a law neither more nor less normal than that of destruction even self-destruction. Is it possible that the normal law of humanity is contained in this sentiment of self preservation?”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Idiot

“I saw with colourless interest that the rocks of the basin ... were all veined and splattered with gold, that here and there bosses of rounded and wrinkled gold projected from among the litter. What did that matter now? ... Then I supposed I should exert myself, obeying that unreasonable imperative that urges a man before all things to preserve and defend his life, albeit he may preserve it only to die more painfully in a little while.”
― H.G. Wells, The First Men in the Moon

“At what point will I realize that a commitment to self-preservation is in reality an act of self-suffocation?”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough

“No matter how much of a giver you are, never give away your happiness.”
― Gift Gugu Mona, Dear Daughter: Short and Sweet Messages for a Queen

“Self-preservation is the death of faith for the Church.”
― Robby Dawkins, Identity Thief: Exposing Satan's Plan to Steal Your Purpose, Passion and Power

“Mamá Teté comes to my mind: “Our powers exist so we can preserve our power and take back and protect what is ours.”
― Lorraine Avila, The Making of Yolanda la Bruja

“When self-preservation is not applied with discernment, it becomes the Devil’s tool or we can choose to take a chance on people after applying the lessons taught by Adversity’s storms. Let our triggers teach us.”
― Reena Doss

“To preserve yourself is to preserve the opportunity to serve others.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Answers from the Heart Publisher: Parallax Press

“But one thought does break through.
It has the echo of something familiar.
The thought is: I don’t need to come back to this elevator at all, do I? I don’t need to ever come back to this hotel. I could just leave. I could set up this bank account and leave. Leave my life. What if I just disappeared? Just left Mark in a hotel room in Geneva. I could slip off now, bag in hand, and melt away. Never even go to the bank. No one would really miss me, really, would they? Would they? Life goes on. Life always just goes on. I’m sure I’d make a good life for myself, somewhere. They never find me——Mark, our friends, the plane people, the police. They’d never find me or the money, or our unborn child.”
― Catherine Steadman, Something in the Water

“Loyalty remains just as crucial as self-preservation.”
― DON SANTO

“The essence of self-preservation were the months that I had to visit the darkened soul, with no torch to search / no artificial light to face the ultimate bedrock of sheer vulnerability. It was deep down to unconditionally learn more about the rawness of a dejected self - in honesty and fairness of who I was, want to be, will be, can / could be... without judgement, prejudice and / or fear.”
― Vernon Chalmers

“You never talk about your past with anyone. Talking just releases memories into the air, and they aren't really yours anymore, or they become changed or other people capture them and hold them prisoner. You want to keep them. The bad ones might infect someone.”
― Jeff VanderMeer, Dead Astronauts

“There's one important rule: never turn your back on crazy.”
― James Irwin, Nina's Friends

“She who fights and runs away, may live to cower another day!”
― Daniel Thorman, The Zodiac Quest: A LitRPG Adventure

“Fantasizing was a matter of self-preservation.”
― Genevieve Wheeler, Adelaide

“We have to take the same sort of pre-cautions as a lion tamer. If he has the misfortune, before going in the cage, to cut himself while shaving, what a feast for the creatures ... I realized that all at once. On the day when suspicion arrived that, perhaps, I was not such an admirable man. Since then, I have become weary. If I bled a little, then all was lost: they would devour me.”
― Albert Camus

“Learn to walk away from doors with the potential to destroy you. Learn self-preservation as soon as possible.”
― Gift Gugu Mona, Beyond the Closed Door: Unique Keys to Unlock Destinies