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David Hume
David Hume (May 7, 1711 - August 25, 1776) Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist
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- Art may make a suit of clothes: but nature must produce a man.
- Beauty is no quality in things themselves: It exists merely in the mind which contemplates them.
- Variant: Beauty in things exist in the mind which contemplates them.
- Essays: Moral, Political and Literary
- It is not reason which is the guide of life, but custom.
- Variant: Custom, then, is the great guide of human life.
- An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
- 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.
- In all ages of the world, priests have been enemies of liberty.
- Essays, Moral, Political and Literary
- In all determinations of morality, this circumstance of public utility is ever principally in view; and wherever disputes arise, either in philosophy or common life, concerning the bounds of duty, the question cannot, by any means, be decided with greater certainty, than by ascertaining, on any side, the true interests of mankind.
- An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, Sect. II, Pt. II
- It is not contrary to reason to prefer the destruction of the whole world to the scratching of my finger.
- A Treatise Upon Human Nature
- Methinks that I am like a man, who having struck on many shoals, and having narrowly escap'd ship-wreck in passing a small firth, has yet the temerity to put to sea in the same leaky weather-beaten vessel, and even carries his ambition so far as to think of compassing the globe under this disadvantageous circumstances... Fain wou'd I run into the crowd for shelter and warmth; but cannot prevail with myself to mix with such deformity. I call upon others to join me, in order to make a company apart, but no one will harken to me. Everyone keeps a distance, and dreads that storm that beats upon me from every side. I have expos'd myself to the enmity of all metaphysicians, logicians, mathematicians, and even theologians; and can I wonder at the insults I must suffer?... Can I be sure that in leaving all establish'd opinions I am following the truth?
- A Treatise Upon Human Nature
- Nothing is more dangerous to reason than the flights of the imagination and nothing has been the occasion of more mistakes among philosophers. Men of bright fancies may in this respect be compared to those angels whom the scripture represents as covering their eyes with their wings.
- A Treatise of Human Nature, Book 1, Section 4, p.225
- 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.
- A Treatise Upon Human Nature
- The most perfect philosophy of the natural kind only staves off our ignorance a little longer: as perhaps the most perfect philosophy of the moral or metaphysical kind serves only to discover larger portions of it.
- An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
- Be a philosopher; but, amidst all your philosophy, be still a man.
- An Enquiry concerning Human Understanding
Attributed
- A propensity to hope and joy is real riches; one to fear and sorrow real poverty.
- A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence.
- And what is the greatest number? Number one.
- Avarice, the spur of industry.
- Character is the result of a system of stereotyped principles.
- 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.
- Everything in the world is purchased by labor.
- Generally speaking, the errors in religion are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous.
- He is happy whom circumstances suit his temper; but he is more excellent who suits his temper to any circumstance.
- It is a just political maxim, that every man must be supposed a knave.
- It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once.
- Nothing appears more surprising to those who consider human affairs with a philosophical eye, than the ease with which the many are governed by the few.
- Variant: Nothing is more surprising than the easiness with which the many are governed by the few.
- 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.
- The richest genius, like the most fertile soil, when uncultivated, shoots up into the rankest weeds.
- The rules of morality are not the conclusion of our reason.
- The slaving poor are incapable of any principles.
- Truth springs from argument amongst friends.
- What a peculiar privilege has this little agitation of the brain which we call 'thought'.
- When men are most sure and arrogant they are commonly most mistaken, giving views to passion without that proper deliberation which alone can secure them from the grossest absurdities.
- Where ambition can cover its enterprises, even to the person himself, under the appearance of principle, it is the most incurable and inflexible of passions.
- Nothing, indeed, can be a stronger presumption of falsehood than the approbation of the multitude.
Quotes of others about Hume
- In every page of David Hume, there is more to be learned than from Hegel's, Herbart's and Schleiermacher's complete philosophical works. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer
- Rousseau was mad but influential; Hume was sane but had no followers. ~ Bertrand Russell
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