Home › I › Instinct

Instinct: Quotations from Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations

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.— POPE — Essay on Man. Ep. III. L. 85.

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!— POPE — Essay on Man. Ep. I. L. 221.

Instinct and reason how can we divide? 'Tis the fool's ignorance, and the pedant's pride.— PRIOR — Solomon on the Vices of the World. Bk. I. L. 231.

Instinct is a great matter; I was a coward on instinct.— Shakespeare — Henry IV. Pt. I. Act II. Sc. 4. L. 299.

A few strong instincts and a few plain rules.— WORDSWORTH — Alas! What Boots the

Long Laborious Quest?

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.— LA FONTAINE — Fables. I. 8,

P. 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.— GOETHE — Faust. Prolog im Himmel. Der Herr. L. 88.