Painterly brass compass lying on torn pale parchment against deep blue.

Original artwork, not a still

Noel Coward

Trust your instincts. If you have no instincts, trust your impulses.

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

The speaker urges reliance on gut feeling, then adds a dry fallback: anyone lacking instincts should follow sudden urges instead. The joke lowers the standard of guidance from wisdom to whim, so the advice sounds both encouraging and gently mocking.

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