Every time you don’t follow your inner guidance, you feel a loss of energy, loss of power, a sense of spiritual deadness.
—Shakti Gawain (b.1948) American Author, Environmentalist
People who lean on logic and philosophy and rational exposition end by starving the best part of the mind.
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) Irish Poet, Dramatist
A true history of human events would show that a far larger proportion of our acts are the results of sudden impulses and accident than of that reason of which we so much boast.
—Peter Cooper
The heart has reasons which reason cannot understand.
—Blaise Pascal (1623–62) French Mathematician, Physicist, Theologian
Ideas pull the trigger, but instinct loads the gun.
—Don Marquis (1878–1937) American Humorist, Journalist, Author
Once you get rid of the idea that you must please other people before you please yourself, and you begin to follow your own instincts—only then can you be successful. You become more satisfied, and when you are other people tend to be satisfied by what you do.
—Raquel Welch (b.1940) American Actress, Singer
Trust your own instinct. Your mistakes might as well be your own, instead of someone else’s.
—Billy Wilder (1906–2002) American Filmmaker
Some of the finest moral intuitions come to quite humble people. The visiting of lofty ideas doesn’t depend on formal schooling. Think of those Galilean peasants.
—Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) English Mathematician, Philosopher
Our real duty is always found running in the direction of our worthiest desires.
—Randolph Bourne (1886–1918) American Writer, Scholar
Statistics are no substitute for judgment.
—Henry Clay (1777–1852) American Politician
How, then, find the courage for action? By slipping a little into unconsciousness, spontaneity, instinct which holds one to the earth and dictates the relatively good and useful … By accepting the human condition more simply, and candidly, by dreading troubles less, calculating less, hoping more.
—Henri Frederic Amiel (1821–81) Swiss Moral Philosopher, Poet, Critic
The intellect is always fooled by the heart.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
There are no rules. Just follow your heart.
—Robin Williams (b.1951) American Actor, Comedian
Decisions, particularly important ones, have always made me sleepy, perhaps because I know that I will have to make them by instinct, and thinking things out is only what other people tell me I should do.
—Lillian Hellman (1905–84) American Playwright, Dramatist, Memoirist
I make all my decisions on intuition. I throw a spear into the darkness. That is intuition. Then I must send an army into the darkness to find the spear. That is intellect.
—Ingmar Bergman (1918–2007) Swedish Film and Stage Director
Modern man’s besetting temptation is to sacrifice his direct perceptions and spontaneous feelings to his reasoned reflections; to prefer in all circumstances the verdict of his intellect to that of his immediate intuitions.
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English Humanist, Pacifist, Essayist, Short Story Writer, Satirist
We should chiefly depend not upon that department of the soul which is most superficial and fallible (our reason), but upon that department that is deep and sure, which is instinct.
—Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914) American Philosopher, Logician, Mathematician
When a man begins to reason, he ceases to feel.
—French Proverb
Life is not governed by will or intention. Life is a question of nerves, and fibers, and slowly built-up cells in which thought hides itself and passion has its dreams.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
A man should not strive to eliminate his complexes but to get into accord with them, for they are legitimately what directs his conduct in the world.
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian Psychiatrist, Psychoanalytic
Some other faculty than the intellect is necessary for the apprehension of reality.
—Henri Bergson (1859–1941) French Philosopher, Evolutionist
All our progress is an unfolding, like the vegetable bud. You have first an instinct, then an opinion, then a knowledge, as the plant has root, bud, and fruit. Trust the instinct to the end, though you can render no reason.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Just be what you are and speak from your guts and heart—it’s all a man has.
—Hubert Humphrey (1911–78) American Head of State, Politician
By learning to contact, listen to, and act on our intuition, we can directly connect to the higher power of the universe and allow it to become our guiding force.
—Shakti Gawain (b.1948) American Author, Environmentalist
A mind all logic is like a knife all blade. It makes the hand bleed that uses it.
—Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) Bengali Poet, Polymath
Nothing reaches the intellect before making its appearance in the senses.
—Latin Proverb
All of our reasoning ends in surrender to feeling.
—Blaise Pascal (1623–62) French Mathematician, Physicist, Theologian
Life is one long struggle between conclusions based on abstract ways of conceiving cases, and opposite conclusions prompted by our instinctive perception of them.
—William James (1842–1910) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician
Intuition is given only to him who has undergone long preparation to receive it.
—Louis Pasteur (1822–95) French Biologist
None of us can estimate what we do when we do it from instinct.
—Luigi Pirandello (1867–1936) Italian Dramatist, Novelist, Short Story Writer, Author
It is the heart which experiences God, not the reason.
—Blaise Pascal (1623–62) French Mathematician, Physicist, Theologian
The thinker philosophizes as the lover loves. Even were the consequences not only useless but harmful, he must obey his impulse.
—William James (1842–1910) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician
We do not wish ardently for what we desire only through reason.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
Cherish your emotions and never undervalue them.
—Robert Henri (1865–1929) American Painter, Teacher
Passion and prejudice govern the world, only under the name of reason.
—John Wesley (1703–91) British Methodist Religious Leader, Preacher, Theologian
Calculation never made a hero.
—John Henry Newman (1801–90) British Theologian, Poet
Man is a passion which brings a will into play, which works an intelligence.
—Henri Frederic Amiel (1821–81) Swiss Moral Philosopher, Poet, Critic
Intuition comes very close to clairvoyance; it appears to be the extrasensory perception of reality.
—Alexis Carrel (1873–1944) American Surgeon, Biologist
Systems die; instincts remain.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American Jurist, Author
Great thoughts always come from the heart.
—Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–47) French Moralist, Essayist, Writer
Falling in love is one of the activities forbidden that tiresome person, the consistently reasonable man.
—Arthur Eddington (1882–1944) English Astronomer
Analysis kills spontaneity. The grain once ground into flour springs and germinates no more.
—Henri Frederic Amiel (1821–81) Swiss Moral Philosopher, Poet, Critic
When I do things without any explanation, but just with spontaneity … I can be sure that I am right.
—Federico Fellini (1920–93) Italian Filmmaker
Intuition is a spiritual faculty and does not explain, but simply points the way.
—Florence Scovel Shinn (1871–1940) American Illustrator, Spiritual Writer
But are not this struggle and even the mistakes one may make better, and do they not develop us more, than if we kept systematically away from emotions?
—Vincent van Gogh (1853–90) Dutch Painter
If you do not express your own original ideas, if you do not listen to your own being, you will have betrayed yourself.
—Rollo May (1909–94) American Philosopher
Common sense is instinct. Enough of it is genius.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
Pure logic is the ruin of the spirit.
—Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900–44) French Novelist, Aviator
The conclusions of passion are the only reliable ones.
—Soren Kierkegaard (1813–55) Danish Philosopher, Theologian
Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul. If either your sails or your rudder be broken, you can but toss and drift, or else be held at a standstill in mid-seas. For reason, ruling alone, is a force confining; and passion, unattended, is a flame that burns to its own destruction. Therefore let your soul exalt your reason to the height of passion, that it may sing; And let it direct your passion with reason, that your passion may live through its own daily resurrection, and like the phoenix rise above its own ashes.
—Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese-born American Philosopher, Poet, Painter, Theologian, Sculptor