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David Hume [1711-1776] Scottish

David Hume was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist, who is best known today for his highly influential system of radical philosophical empiricism, skepticism, and naturalism.

Alone, Beauty, Knowledge, Learning, Men, Religion, Death, Design, Fear, Great, History, Hope, Imagination, Patriotism, Power, Respect, Society, Truth

Quote	Tags	Rank
Nothing is more surprising than the easiness with which the many are governed by the few.		101
The rules of morality are not the conclusion of our reason.		102
Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them.		103
It's when we start working together that the real healing takes place... it's when we start spilling our sweat, and not our blood.		104
The life of man is of no greater importance to the universe than that of an oyster.		105
It is a just political maxim, that every man must be supposed a knave.		106
The law always limits every power it gives.	Power	107
A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence.		108
What a peculiar privilege has this little agitation of the brain which we call 'thought'.		109
Scholastic learning and polemical divinity retarded the growth of all true knowledge.	Knowledge, Learning	110
The Christian religion not only was at first attended with miracles, but even at this day cannot be believed by any reasonable person without one.	Religion	111
Belief is nothing but a more vivid, lively, forcible, firm, steady conception of an object, than what the imagination alone is ever able to attain.	Alone, Imagination	112
Heaven and hell suppose two distinct species of men, the good and the bad. But the greatest part of mankind float betwixt vice and virtue.	Great, Men	113
That the sun will not rise tomorrow is no less intelligible a proposition, and implies no more contradiction, than the affirmation, that it will rise.		114
Beauty in things exists in the mind which contemplates them.	Beauty	115
Truth springs from argument amongst friends.	Truth	116
A propensity to hope and joy is real riches; one to fear and sorrow real poverty.	Fear, Hope	117
A purpose, an intention, a design, strikes everywhere even the careless, the most stupid thinker.	Design	118
A man acquainted with history may, in some respect, be said to have lived from the beginning of the world, and to have been making continual additions to his stock of knowledge in every century.	History, Knowledge, Respect	119
Philosophy would render us entirely Pyrrhonian, were not nature too strong for it.		120
This avidity alone, of acquiring goods and possessions for ourselves and our nearest friends, is insatiable, perpetual, universal, and directly destructive of society.	Alone, Society	121
Nothing endears so much a friend as sorrow for his death. The pleasure of his company has not so powerful an influence.	Death	122
No testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle, unless the testimony be of such a kind, that its falsehood would be more miraculous than the fact which it endeavors to establish.		123
Beauty, whether moral or natural, is felt, more properly than perceived.	Beauty	124
The chief benefit, which results from philosophy, arises in an indirect manner, and proceeds more from its secret, insensible influence, than from its immediate application.		125
To be a philosophical sceptic is, in a man of letters, the first and most essential to being a sound, believing Christian.		126
Custom is the great guide to human life.		201
The heights of popularity and patriotism are still the beaten road to power and tyranny.	Patriotism	202
Everything in the world is purchased by labor.		203
Avarice, the spur of industry.		204
Be a philosopher but, amid all your philosophy be still a man.		205
Generally speaking, the errors in religion are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous.	Religion	206
I have written on all sorts of subjects... yet I have no enemies; except indeed all the Whigs, all the Tories, and all the Christians.		207
Men often act knowingly against their interest.	Men	208
Every wise, just, and mild government, by rendering the condition of its subjects easy and secure, will always abound most in people, as well as in commodities and riches.		209
There is a very remarkable inclination in human nature to bestow on external objects the same emotions which it observes in itself, and to find every where those ideas which are most present to it.		210
Men are much oftener thrown on their knees by the melancholy than by the agreeable passions.		211
He is happy whom circumstances suit his temper; but he Is more excellent who suits his temper to any circumstance.		212
Character is the result of a system of stereotyped principals.		213
And what is the greatest number? Number one.		214
Eloquence, at its highest pitch, leaves little room for reason or reflection, but addresses itself entirely to the desires and affections, captivating the willing hearers, and subduing their understanding.		215
It is not reason which is the guide of life, but custom.		216
It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once.		217
It is not contrary to reason to prefer the destruction of the whole world to the scratching of my finger.		218
There is not to be found, in all history, any miracle attested by a sufficient number of men, of such unquestioned good sense, education and learning, as to secure us against all delusion in themselves.	Learning	219
Human Nature is the only science of man; and yet has been hitherto the most neglected.		220
To hate, to love, to think, to feel, to see; all this is nothing but to perceive.		221
The corruption of the best things gives rise to the worst.		222
Any person seasoned with a just sense of the imperfections of natural reason, will fly to revealed truth with the greatest avidity.		223
The advantages found in history seem to be of three kinds, as it amuses the fancy, as it improves the understanding, and as it strengthens virtue.		224
Accuracy is, in every case, advantageous to beauty, and just reasoning to delicate sentiment. In vain would we exalt the one by depreciating the other.		225
No advantages in this world are pure and unmixed.		226

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