Locke on experience

"Let us then suppose the mind to be, as we say, white paper, void of all characters, without any ideas; how comes it to be furnished? To this I answer, in one word, from experience: in that all our knowledge is founded, and from that it ultimately derives itself."

This is tough. I agree that we learn so much from experience and experience shapes our lives. Without trying something you will never know what you are capable of. You grow from past experiences and they teach you for future experiences. At the same time, I also believe that you are born with instincts that tell you to do certain things. People always talk about a mother's maternal instinct. You have a child and you would do anything to protect that child not because you've seen other mothers do that, but because its instilled in you to be "motherly". Also, you ever realize how little kids never know what to say or what not to say because they tell it like they see it? Well, doesn't that mean that telling the truth is inborn in them? You learn to lie by growing older and seeing other people lie, being lied to, lying to stay out of trouble, or lying to protect someones feelings.