Definitions HQ

Instinct (n.) in ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠animals stops seeming miraculous once we see that our own reasoning from experience is an instinct too.

Instinct (n.) like ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠hunger, lust and the wish to see our enemies punished do not arise from good and evil — they produce good and evil.

Instinct (n.) builds ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠every bird's nest alike in every age; men build houses differently in every place — and there you see reason and custom instead.

Instinct (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠trusted by nature with our inferences from cause to effect, not reason — reason being slow, absent in infancy, and liable to error; as she taught us our limbs without teaching us the muscles.

Instinct (n.) for ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠property would need ten thousand instincts, each knowing inheritance, contract and prescription — which a hundred volumes of laws and a thousand of commentators have failed to define.