Your instincts are wrong.

“Your instincts are wrong.” is the governing assertion of a passage in The Abstainer’s Handbook (second edition), where civilized behavior is defined by suppressing instinct rather than obeying it. When Helen Radley repeats the Handbook’s principle to Peter Radley as they discuss what to do with a body, the expression becomes more than advice: it is a plea to choose deliberate, human conduct in a moment when instinct might dictate otherwise.

Meaning and Source

The Handbook presents animals as dependent on instinct for survival, then draws a boundary between animal impulse and human civilization: “We are not beasts. We are not lions or sharks or vultures.” Its conclusion is social as well as personal. Readers are told that civilization works only when people suppress their “dark desires” and ignore them for society’s sake. The expression therefore labels instinct not simply as unreliable, but as something that must be actively restrained to preserve a shared moral order.

Helen’s Appeal to Peter

In a later conversation, Helen insists that they should take the body and bury it, choosing what she calls “The human way.” When Peter reacts with disbelief, she grounds her appeal in the Handbook: “We are civilized, and civilization only works if instincts are suppressed.” She asks him to remember its teaching, making the maxim a practical argument for burial rather than an abstract rule recited out of context.

The repetition gives the phrase immediate weight. Helen does not merely describe the ideal of self-restraint; she uses language Peter can recognize to steady their decision. The Handbook’s formal instruction becomes intimate persuasion between the two of them, as she urges him to act according to a principle they have both been taught.

Narrative Function

The expression’s force lies in the gap between its confident rule and the pressure of the scene in which Helen recalls it. The Handbook speaks broadly about civilization and society; Helen applies that doctrine to a specific choice about a body. Her appeal makes the conflict between instinct and restraint concrete, while “the human way” names the conduct she wants Peter to choose. The repeated maxim thus connects the book’s stated code of self-denial to a consequential act of concealment and burial, showing how its moral language can guide behavior when impulse threatens to take over.