Stercus accidit.
David Hume
Men are much oftener thrown on their knees by the melancholy than by the agreeable passions.
David Hume
Men often act knowingly against their interest.
David Hume
Nothing endears so much a friend as sorrow for his death. The pleasure of his company has not so powerful an influence.
David Hume
Philosophy would render us entirely Pyrrhonian, were not nature too strong for it.
David Hume
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.
David Hume
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.
David Hume
The heights of popularity and patriotism are still the beaten road to power and tyranny.
David Hume
The law always limits every power it gives.
David Hume
The rules of morality are not the conclusion of our reason.
David Hume
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.
David Hume
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.
David Hume
Epicurus’s old questions are still unanswered: Is he (God) willing to prevent evil, but not able? then he is impotent. Is he able, but not willing? then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? then whence evil?
David Hume
No man ever threw away life while it was worth keeping.
David Hume
Reading and sauntering and lounging and dosing, which I call thinking, is my supreme Happiness.
David Hume
Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions.
David Hume
A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence.
David Hume
The bigotry of theologians [is] a malady which seems almost incurable.
David Hume
Any pride or haughtiness, is displeasing to us, merely because it shocks our own pride, and leads us by sympathy into comparison, which causes the disagreeable passion of humility.
David Hume
All sentiment is right; because sentiment has a reference to nothing beyond itself, and is always real, wherever a man is conscious of it. But all determinations of the understanding are not right; because they have a reference to something beyond themselves, to wit, real matter of fact; and are not always conformable to that standard.
David Hume
As every inquiry which regards religion is of the utmost importance, there are two questions in particular which challenge our attention, to wit, that concerning its foundation in reason, and that concerning it origin in human nature.
David Hume
We make allowance for a certain degree of selfishness in men; because we know it to be inseparable from human nature, and inherent in our frame and constitution. By this reflexion we correct those sentiments of blame, which so naturally arise upon any opposition.
David Hume
The feelings of our heart, the agitation of our passions, the vehemence of our affections, dissipate all its conclusions, and reduce the profound philosopher to a mere plebeian
David Hume
To be a philosophical Sceptic is the first and most essential step towards being a sound, believing Christian.
David Hume
All that belongs to human understanding, in this deep ignorance and obscurity, is to be sceptical, or at least cautious, and not
to admit of any hypothesis whatever, much less of any which is supported by no appearance of probability.
David Hume
A purpose, an intention, a design, strikes everywhere even the careless, the most stupid thinker.
David Hume
The sweetest and most inoffensive path of life leads through the avenues of science and learning; and whoever can either remove any obstructions in this way, or open up any new prospect, ought so far to be esteemed a benefactor to mankind.
David Hume
Carelessness and in-attention alone can afford us any remedy. For this reason I rely entirely upon them.”
David Hume
In public affairs men are often better pleased that the truth, though known to everybody, should be wrapped up under a decent cover than if it were exposed in open daylight to the eyes of all the world.
David Hume
To philosopher and historian the madness and imbecile wickedness of mankind ought to appear ordinary events.
David Hume
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.
David Hume
Be a philosopher, but amid all your philosophy be still a man.
David Hume
The identity that we ascribe to things is only a fictitious one, established by the mind, not a peculiar nature belonging to what we’re talking about.
David Hume
Tis not unreasonable for me to prefer the destruction of the whole world to the scratching of my finger.
David Hume
Here then we are first to consider a book, presented to us by a barbarous and ignorant people, written in an age when they were still more barbarous, and in all probability long after the facts which it relates, corroborated by no concurring testimony, and resembling those fabulous accounts, which every nation gives of its origin.
David Hume
A wise man apportions his beliefs to the evidence.
David Hume
[Rousseau is] the person whom I most revere both for the Force of [his] Genius and the Greatness of [his] mind […]”
David Hume
Men’s views of things are the result of their understanding alone. Their conduct is regulated by their understanding, their temper, and their passions.
David Hume
No conclusion can be more agreable to scepticism than such as make discoveries concerning the weakness and narrow limites of human reason and capacity
David Hume
[R]evolutions of government cannot be effected by the mere force of argument and reasoning.
David Hume
[T]he Old Testament, […] if considered as a general rule of conduct, would lead to consequences destructive of all principles of humanity and morality.
David Hume
It’s seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once.
David Hume
When men are most sure and arrogant, they are commonly the most mistaken, and have then giver views to passion, without that proper deliberation and suspense which can alone secure them from the grossest absurdities.
David Hume
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.
David Hume
The virtues of valor and love of liberty; the only virtues which can have place among an uncivilized people, where justice and humanity are commonly neglected.”
David Hume
The fact that different cultures have different practices no more refutes [moral] objectivism than the fact that water flows in different directions in different places refutes the law of gravity.
David Hume
The Crusades – the most signal and most durable monument of human folly that has yet appeared in any age or nation.
David Hume
I never knew anyone, that examined and deliberated about nonsense, who did not believe it before the end of his enquiries.
David Hume
When principles are so absurd and so destructive of human society, it may safely be averred, that the more sincere and the more disinterested they are, they only become the more ridiculous and the more odious.
David Hume
[I]f subjects must never resist, it follows that every prince, without any effort, policy, or violence, is at once rendered absolute and uncontrollable.
David Hume
Thomas Hobbes’s politics are fitted only to promote tyranny, and his ethics to encourage licentiousness.
David Hume
Governments too steady and uniform, as they are seldom free, so are they, in the judgment of some attended with another sensible inconvenience: they abate the active powers of men; depress courage, invention, and genius; and produce a universal lethary in the people.
David Hume
