where there's no sense there's no feeling

English

Proverb

where there's no sense there's no feeling

1. A living thing of little or no intelligence does not feel pain or other negative sensations.
   • 1945, Flora Thompson, Lark Rise to Candleford:

     'Where there's no sense there's no feeling,' they would say when they had hurt some creature by accident or through carelessness. By sense they meant wits or understanding, and these they imagined purely human attributes.

   • 1948, Audrey Lillian Barker, Innocents: Variations on a Theme, page 96:

     Mrs. Hooper says where there's no sense there's no feeling, but I do feel it. It hurts.

   • 2011, Phil Fletcher, Living in Fear of My Next Nadir, page 306:

     They say where there's no sense there's no feeling; that would make the clods and oafs round here among the most insensitive, unfeeling air and noise polluters in the western world.

Usage notes

• Sometimes humorously used to suggest that a foolish human being is immune to physical harm. Where sense is played on as one of the five human senses, the sensation of touch and feel, as well as common sense and intellect.