Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Humans are animals who spend their lives hiding their natural instincts behind civilized appearances.
In plain terms
We are animals trying to hide our true nature.
What can you take from it?
Civilization masks our primal instincts.

Where it applies

  • understanding behavior
  • self-reflection
  • exploring identity

Putting it to work

  • explore instincts
  • question norms
  • accept nature

Questions to consider

  • Are we truly civilized?
  • What instinct hides under your mask?

Another view

It simplifies complex human behavior.

More from Barbara Kingsolver

  1. Her body moved with the frankness that comes from solitary habits. But solitude is only a human presumption. Every quiet step is thunder to beetle life underfo…

    Permalink to quote #5
  2. Close the door. Write with no one looking over your shoulder. Don't try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say.…

    Permalink to quote #7
  3. A wife is the earth itself, changing hands, bearing scars.

    Permalink to quote #4

Related quotes

  1. We must recognise the essential underlaying savagery in the animal called man, and return to older and sounder principles of national life and defense. We must…

    H. P. LovecraftH. P. Lovecraft quote #23
  2. In vain we call old notions fudge, And bend our conscience to our dealing; The Ten Commandments will not budge, And stealing will continue stealing.

    James Russell LowellJames Russell Lowell quote #31
  3. The most beautiful as well as the most ugly inclinations of man are not part of a fixed biologically given human nature, but result from the social process whi…

    Erich FrommErich Fromm quote #93