Instinct (original) (raw)

Instinct or innate behavior is the inherent inclination of a living organism toward a particular behavior.

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Quotes are arranged alphabetically by author

• Instinct is untaught ability.
  • Alexander Bain, The Senses and the Intellect (1855), p. 256; in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 397-98.
• I would rather trust a woman's instinct than a man's reason.
  • Stanley Baldwin, quoted in: Charles Phillips (2006), Brain Box, p. 110.
• Reasoning at every step he treads,
  Man yet mistakes his way,
  While meaner creatures, whom instinct leads,
  Are rarely known to stray.
  • William Cowper, The Doves (1780), line 1.
• Good instincts usually tell you what to do long before your head has figured it out.
  • Michael Burke, quoted in: Steven Aitchison (2009), 100 Ways to Develop Your Mind: The Psychology of the Mind, p. 74.
• Instinct is the nose of the mind.
  • Madame De Girardin, quoted in: Maturin Murray Ballou (1899), Edge-tools of speech, p. 44.
• Ein guter Mensch in seinem dunkeln Drange
  Ist sich des rechten Weges wohl bewusst.
  • A good man, through obscurest aspirations,
    Has still an instinct of the one true way.
  • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust, Prolog im Himmel, Der Herr, line 88; in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 397-98.
• Nous n'écoutons d'instincts que ceux qui sont les nôtres.
  Et ne croyons le mal que quand il est venu.
  • 'Tis thus we heed no instincts but our own,
    Believe no evil, till the evil's done.
  • Jean de La Fontaine, Fables, I. 8; in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 397-98.
• The Savage interrupted him. "But isn't it natural to feel there's a God?"

"You might as well ask if it's natural to do up one's trousers with zippers," said the Controller sarcastically. "You remind me of another of those old fellows called Bradley. He defined philosophy as the finding of bad reason for what one believes by instinct. As if one believed anything by instinct! One believes things because one has been conditioned to believe them. Finding bad reasons for what one believes for other bad reasons–that's philosophy. People believe in God because they've been conditioned to.

• • Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, ch. 17
• A fierce unrest seethes at the core
  Of all existing things:
  It was the eager wish to soar
  That gave the gods their wings.
  * * * * *
  There throbs through all the worlds that are
  This heart-beat hot and strong,
  And shaken systems, star by star,
  Awake and glow in song.
  • Don Marquis, Unrest; in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 397-98.
• Great thoughts, great feelings, came to them,
  Like instincts, unawares.
  • Richard Monckton Milnes, The Men of Old; in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 397-98.
• But honest instinct comes a volunteer;
  Sure never to o'er-shoot, but just to hit,
  While still too wide or short in human wit.
  • Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man (1733-34), Epistle III, line 85; in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 397-98.
• How instinct varies in the grov'lling swine,
  Compar'd, half-reasoning elephant, with thine!
  'Twixt that and reason what a nice barrier!
  Forever sep'rate, yet forever near!
  • Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man (1733-34), Epistle I, line 221; in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 397-98.
• Instinct and reason how can we divide?
  'Tis the fool's ignorance, and the pedant's pride.
  • Matthew Prior, Solomon on the Vices of the World, Book I, line 231; in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 397-98.
• Instinct is a great matter; I was a coward on instinct.
  • William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part I (c. 1597), Act II, scene 4, line 299; in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 397-98.
• Instinct is intelligence incapable of self-consciousness.
  • John Sterling, "Thoughts and Images", Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (1838), Vol. XLIV, p. 201; Essays and Tales (1848), Vol. II, p. 146.
• Trust your own instinct. Your mistakes might as well be your own, instead of someone else's.
  • Billy Wilder, quoted in: John Mason (2000), Know Your Limits-Then Ignore Them, p. 76.
• Great bodies of people are never responsible for what they do. They are driven by instincts that are not within their control.
  • Virginia Woolf, "A Room of One's Own - Virginia Woolf [Audiobook ENG]". (quote at 1:17:21 of 4:02:10 in audio; quote from Section 2 of 1929 original)
• A few strong instincts and a few plain rules.
  • William Wordsworth, Alas! What Boots the Long Laborious Quest?; in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 397-98.
• Intuition
• Subconscious

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