Original artwork, not a still
Horace · 1640
A first impulse was never a crime.
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
The speaker argues that an instinctive first reaction is not a wrongdoing in itself. An urge that arises unbidden deserves some mercy, and any blame belongs to what a person chooses to do with it afterward, not to the flash of feeling that came first.
Context reviewed
