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instinct quotes

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“Instinct is a marvellous thing . . . It can neither be explained nor ignored.” Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles
“To live is like to love—all reason is against it, and all healthy instinct for it.” Samuel Butler, The Note-Books of Samuel Butler
“I rely far more on gut instinct than researching huge amounts of statistics.” Richard Branson, Losing My Virginity
“Trust the instinct to the end, though you can render no reason.” Ralph Waldo Emerson, Intellect
“The inquiry leads us to that source, at once the essence of genius, of virtue, and of life, which we call Spontaneity or Instinct.” Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance
“But it is essential to every inquiry about duty that we keep before our eyes how far superior man is by nature to cattle and other beasts: they have no thought except for sensual pleasure and this they are impelled by every instinct to seek;” Marcus Tullius Cicero, On Duties
“The more knowledge you have, the more you’re free to rely on your instincts.” Arnold Schwarzenegger, Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story
“Although Oliver had been brought up by philosophers, he was not theoretically acquainted with the beautiful axiom that self-preservation is the first law of nature.” Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist
“And when a man is that special, you know it sooner than you think possible. You recognize it instinctively, and you’re certain that no matter what happens, there will never be another one like him.” Nicholas Sparks, The Lucky One
“Our flesh shrinks from what it dreads and responds to the stimulus of what it desires by a purely reflex action of the nervous system. Our eyelid closes before we are aware that the fly is about to enter our eye.” James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
“There are some situations which men understand by instinct, but which reason is powerless to explain; in such cases the greatest poet is he who gives utterance to the most natural and vehement outburst of sorrow.” Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo
“When a man writes on a wall, his instinct leads him to write about the level of his own eyes.” Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet
“My dear Watson, you were born to be a man of action. Your instinct is always to do something energetic.” Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles
“No, it was more than that; his wartime experience had taught him to trust his instincts, even though he’d never been sure where they’d come from.” Nicholas Sparks, The Lucky One
“Life is like music, it must be composed by ear, feeling and instinct, not by rule.” Samuel Butler, The Note-Books of Samuel Butler

Related topics

knowledge trust reason love life man feeling explanation genius duty music uniqueness nature experience philosophy desire war action writing sorrow

Related authors

Ralph Waldo Emerson (2)
Samuel Butler (2)
James Joyce (1)
Alexandre Dumas (1)
Nicholas Sparks (2)
Arthur Conan Doyle (2)
Agatha Christie (1)
Charles Dickens (1)
Arnold Schwarzenegger (1)
Richard Branson (1)
Marcus Tullius Cicero (1)

Related sources

The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (2)
The Lucky One (2)
Intellect (1)
Self-Reliance (1)
The Count of Monte Cristo (1)
Oliver Twist (1)
On Duties (1)
A Study in Scarlet (1)
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1)
The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1)
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1)
Losing My Virginity (1)
Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story (1)