Quote — Innate
February 7th, 2006
Innate, adj. Natural, inherent - as innate ideas, that is to say, ideas that we are born with, having them previously imparted to us. The doctrine of innate ideas is one of the most admirable faiths of philosophy, being itself an innate idea and therefore inaccessible to disproof [....] Among innate ideas may be mentioned the belief in one’s ability to conduct a newspaper, in the greatness of one’s country, in the superiority of one’s civilization, in the importance one one’s personal affairs and in the interesting nature of one’s diseases.
–Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary, 1906(?)