David Hume Quotes - Page 4

Quotes about:

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

  David Hume

  Optimistic, Men

  David Hume (2006). “Essays: Moral, Political and Literary”, p.595, Cosimo, Inc.

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• 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.

  David Hume

  Selfless, Sun, Tomorrow

  David Hume (2016). “An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding: Revision of Great Book”, p.19, VM eBooks

  24 Copy quote

• Great pleasures are much less frequent than great pains.

  David Hume

  Pain, Pleasure

  David Hume (1825). “Essays and treatises on several subjects: essays, moral, political and literary”, p.3

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• Eloquence, when in its highest pitch, leaves little room for reason or reflection.

  David Hume

  Reflection, Littles, Rooms

  David Hume (1826). “The Philosophical Works: Including All the Essays, and Exhibiting the More Important Alterations and Corrections in the Successive Ed. Publ. by the Author”, p.137

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• What we call a mind is nothing but a heap or collection of different perceptions, united together by certain relations and supposed, though falsely, to be endowed with a perfect simplicity and identity.

  David Hume

  Perfect, Simplicity, Perception

  David Hume (2015). “A Treatise of Human Nature: Top Philosophy Collections”, p.163, 谷月社

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• But, historians, and even common sense, may inform us, that, however specious these ideas of perfect equality may seem, they are really, at bottom, impracticable; and were they not so, would be extremely pernicious to human society. Render possessions ever so equal, men's different degrees of art, care, and industry will immediately break that equality. Or if you check these virtues, you reduce society to the most extreme indigence; and instead of preventing want and beggary in a few, render it unavoidable to the whole community.

  David Hume

  Art, Men, Ideas

  David Hume (2013). “Essays and Treatises on Philosophical Subjects”, p.290, Broadview Press

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• In this sullen apathy neither true wisdom nor true happiness can be found.

  David Hume

  Empathy, Apathy, Sullen

  David Hume (1870). “Essays, Literary, Moral, and Political”, p.88

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• The richest genius, like the most fertile soil, when uncultivated, shoots up into the rankest weeds.

  David Hume

  Weed, Genius, Soil

  David Hume (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of David Hume (Illustrated)”, p.664, Delphi Classics

  9 Copy quote

• Self-denial is a monkish virtue.

  David Hume

  Self, Denial, Virtue

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• And what is the greatest number? Number one.

  David Hume

  Philosophical, Numbers, Competition

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• When we reflect on the shortness and uncertainty of life, how despicable seem all our pursuits of happiness.

  David Hume

  Happiness, Uncertainty Of Life, Pursuit

  David Hume, Geoffrey Sayre-McCord “Moral Philosophy”, Hackett Publishing

  13 Copy quote

• 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.

  David Hume

  Reflection, Understanding, Desire

  "An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding". Book by David Hume. Section 10: "Of Miracles", Part 2, 1758.

  85 Copy quote

• Of all the animals with which this globe is peopled, there is none towards whom nature seems, at first sight, to have exercised more cruelty than towards man, in the numberless wants and necessities with which she has loaded him, and in the slender means which she affords to the relieving these necessities.

  David Hume

  Nature, Mean, Animal

  A Treatise upon Human Nature bk. 3 (1739)

  27 Copy quote

• Moving from an objective statement of fact to a subjective statement of value does not work, because it leaves open questions that have not been answered.

  David Hume

  Moving, Doe, Facts

  23 Copy quote

• There is an universal tendency among mankind to conceive all beings like themselves, and to transfer to every object, those qualities, with which they are familiarly acquainted, and of which they are intimately conscious. We find human faces in the moon, armies in the clouds; and by a natural propensity, if not corrected by experience and reflection, ascribe malice or good-will to every thing, that hurts or pleases us.

  David Hume

  Hurt, Army, Moon

  David Hume (1957). “The Natural History of Religion”, p.29, Stanford University Press

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

  David Hume

  Philosophy, Passion, Slave

  A Treatise upon Human Nature bk. 2 (1739)

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• Truth is disputable, not human taste.

  David Hume

  Taste, Truth Is, Humans

  7 Copy quote

• Justice is a moral virtue, merely because it has that tendency to the good of mankind, and indeed is nothing but an artificial invention to that purpose. The same may be said of allegiance, of the laws of nations, of modesty, and of good manners. All these are mere human contrivances for the interest of society.

  David Hume

  Law, Justice, Good Man

  David Hume (2015). “A Treatise of Human Nature”, p.984, David Hume

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• The heights of popularity and patriotism are still the beaten road to power and tyranny.

  David Hume

  Peace, War, Philosophical

  Adam Ferguson, David Hume, David R. Raynor (1982). “Sister Peg: A Pamphlet Hitherto Unknown by David Hume”, p.19, Cambridge University Press

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• The Crusades - the most signal and most durable monument of human folly that has yet appeared in any age or nation.

  David Hume

  Age, Signals, Crusades

  David Hume (2016). “The History of England, vol. 1~6, Completed: Revision of Great Book”, p.234, VM eBooks

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• 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

  Running, Believe, Silly

  David Hume (1965). “David Hume: Philosophical Historian”, Indianapolis : Bobbs-Merrill

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• 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.

  David Hume

  Vivid Imagination, Able, Belief

  David Hume, Tom L. Beauchamp (2000). “An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding: A Critical Edition”, p.39, Oxford University Press

  30 Copy quote

• From causes which appear similar, we expect similar effects. This is the sum total of all our experimental conclusions.

  David Hume

  Causes, Conclusion, Effects

  An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding Section IV (p. 35)

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• When I shall be dead, the principles of which I am composed will still perform their part in the universe, and will be equally useful in the grand fabric, as when they composed this individual creature. The difference to the whole will be no greater betwixt my being in a chamber and in the open air. The one change is of more importance to me than the other; but not more so to the universe.

  David Hume

  Air, Differences, Principles

  David Hume (1875). “Essays Moral, Political, and Literary”, p.412

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• I am apt to suspect the Negroes to be naturally inferior to the Whites. There scarcely ever was a civilization of their complexion, nor even any individual, eminent either in action or speculation.

  David Hume

  Race, Civilization, Action

  David Hume (2007). “Essays: Moral, Political and Literary”, p.213, Cosimo, Inc.

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