DHDavid Hume

61 collected words

David Hume

Dates not recorded

Author attribution printed in a contributor-provided reference. Basic identity; lifetime and independent quotation authenticity are not established here.

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Quotations and sayings

01Undated

Man is a reasonable being. Nothing is freer than the imagination. Human body complexity is beyond our comprehension. Liberty is a power of acting or not acting according to the determination of our will. When your opinion leads to absurdities, it is certainly false. Actions are, by their very nature, temporary and perishing. The actions themselves can be blamable, but the person is not answerable to them. The Christian religion not only was at first attended with miracles, but also even at this day cannot be believed by any reasonable person without one. Poets…..though liars by profession, always endeavor to give an air of truth to their fictions. Beauty in things exists in the mind, which contemplates them. Everyone has observed how much more dogs are animated when they hunt in a pack, than when they pursue their game apart. We might, perhaps, be at a loss to explain this phenomenon, if we had not experience of a similar in ourselves. Does a man of sense run after every silly tale of hobgoblins or fairies, and canvass particularly the evidence? I never knew anyone that examined and deliberated about nonsense who did not believe it before the end of his enquiries. For the purposes of life, conduct, and society, a little good sense is surely better than all this genius and a little good humor than this extreme sensibility.

David Hume / quote

02Undated

Liberty is essential to morality, morality implies free choice. Inferring effects from causes cannot be trusted to uncertain process of reasoning. A wise man proportions his believes to the evidence. Friendship is the chief joy of human life, and moderation the only source of tranquility and happiness. Eloquence addresses itself to the fancy of the affections, captivates the willing ears, and subdues their understanding. Impressions and ideas – the difference betwixt these consists in the degrees of force and liveliness, with which they strike upon the mind, and make their way in our thought and consciousness. If something is absurd in fact and reality, it is absurd as an idea. This is universally allowed that the capacity of the mind is limited, and can never attain a full and adequate conception of infinity. The answer is unsatisfactory; not because it contains any falsehood, but because it discovers not all the truth. This is also certain that every perception or object is supposed to have a continued uninterrupted being, and neither be annihilated by our absence, nor to be brought into existence by our presence. Heaven and hell suppose of two distinct species of men, the good and the bad; but the greatest part of mankind float betwixt vice and virtue.

David Hume / quote

03Undated

Generally speaking, the errors in religion are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous.

David Hume / quote

04Undated

Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions.

David Hume / quote

05Undated

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.

David Hume / quote

06Undated

It is impossible for us to think of any thing, which we have not antecedently felt, either by our external or internal senses.

David Hume / quote

07Undated

No man ever threw away life while it was worth keeping.

David Hume / quote

08Undated

It is an absurdity to believe that the Deity has human passions, and one of the lowest of human passions, a restless appetite for applause

David Hume / quote

09Undated

When anyone tells me that he saw a dead man restored to life, I immediately consider with myself whether it be more probable that this person should either deceive or be deceived or that the fact which he relates should really have happened. I weigh the one miracle against the other and according to the superiority which I discover, I pronounce my decision. Always I reject the greater miracle. If the falsehood of his testimony would be more miraculous than the event which he relates, then and not till then, can he pretend to command my belief or opinion.

David Hume / quote

10Undated

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 / quote

11Undated

To be a philosophical Sceptic is the first and most essential step towards being a sound, believing Christian.

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12Undated

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 / quote

13Undated

How can we satisfy ourselves without going on in infinitum? And, after all, what satisfaction is there in that infinite progression? Let us remember the story of the Indian philosopher and his elephant. It was never more applicable than to the present subject. If the material world rests upon a similar ideal world, this ideal world must rest upon some other; and so on, without end. It were better, therefore, never to look beyond the present material world.

David Hume / quote

14Undated

Liberty of any kind is never lost all at once.

David Hume / quote

15Undated

I am apt, however, to entertain a Suspicion, that the World is still too young to fix any general stable Truths in Politics, which will remain true to the latest Posterity. We have not as yet had Experience of above three thousand Years; so that not only the Art of Reasoning is still defective in this Science, as well as in all others, but we even want sufficient Materials, upon which we can reason. 'Tis not sufficiently known, what Degrees of Refinement, either in Virtue or Vice, human Nature is susceptible of; nor what may be expected of Mankind from any great Revolution in their Education, Customs, or Principles.

David Hume / quote

16Undated

I began to entertain a suspicion, that no man in this age was sufficiently qualified for such an undertaking; and that whatever any one should advance on that head would, in all probability, be refuted by further experience, and be rejected by posterity. Such mighty revolutions have happened in human affairs, and so many events have arisen contrary to the expectation of the ancients, that they are sufficient to beget the suspicion of still further changes.

David Hume / quote

17Undated

Of all sciences there is none, where first appearances are more deceitful than in politics.

David Hume / quote

18Undated

Explanation is where the mind rests.

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19Undated

Indulge your passion for science…but let your science be human, and such as may have a direct reference to action and society. Be a philosopher; but amidst all your philosophy, be still a man.

David Hume / quote

20Undated

Does a man of sense run after every silly tale of hobgoblins or fairies, and canvass particularly the evidence? I never knew anyone, that examined and deliberated about nonsense who did not believe it before the end of his enquiries.

David Hume / quote

21Undated

A man who has cured himself of all ridiculous prepossessions, and is fully, sincerely, and steadily convinced, from experience as well as philosophy, that the difference of fortune makes less difference in happiness than is vulgarly imagined; such a one does not measure out degrees of esteem according to the rent-rolls of his acquaintance. He may, indeed, externally pay a superior deference to the great lord above the vassal; because riches are the most convenient, being the most fixed and determinate, source of distinction. But his internal sentiments are more regulated by the personal characters of men, than by the accidental and capricious favours of fortune.

David Hume / quote

22Undated

When suicide is out of fashion we conclude that none but madmen destroy themselves; and all the efforts of courage appear chimerical to dastardly minds ... Nevertheless, how many instances are there, well attested, of men, in every other respect perfectly discreet, who, without remorse, rage, or despair, have quitted life for no other reason than because it was a burden to them, and have died with more composure than they lived?

David Hume / quote

23Undated

If my life be not my own, it were criminal for me to put it in danger, as well as to dispose of it; nor could one man deserve the appellation of hero, whom glory or friendship transports into the greatest dangers, and another merit the reproach of wretch or misereant who puts a period to his life, from the same or like motives.

David Hume / quote

24Undated

Nothing is more usual than for philosophers to encroach upon the province of grammarians; and to engage in disputes of words, while they imagine that they are handling controversies of the deepest importance and concern.

David Hume / quote