David Hume Quotes - Page 7

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• There has been a controversy started of late, much better worth examination, concerning the general foundation of Morals; whether they be derived from Reason, or from Sentiment; whether we attain the knowledge of them by a chain of argument and induction, or by an immediate feeling and finer internal sense; whether, like all sound judgement of truth and falsehood, they should be the same to every rational intelligent being; or whether, like the perception of beauty and deformity, they be founded entirely on the particular fabric and constitution of the human species.

  David Hume

  Intelligent, Perception Of Beauty, Judgement

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• The minds of men are mirrors to one another, not only because they reflect each other's emotions, but also because those rays of passions, sentiments and opinions may be often reverberated, and may decay away by insensible degrees.

  David Hume

  Passion, Men, Mirrors

  David Hume (1874). “A Treatise on Human Nature: Being an Attempt to Introduce the Experimental Method of Reasoning Into Moral Subjects; and Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion”, p.152

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• If we take in our hand any volume; of divinity or school metaphysics, for instance; let us ask, Does it contain any abstract reasoning concerning quantity or number? No. Does it contain any experimental reasoning concerning matter of fact and existence? No. Commit it then to the flames: for it can contain nothing but sophistry and illusion.

  David Hume

  School, Math, Numbers

  An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding sec. 12, pt. 3 (1748)

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• 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

  Passion, Humility, Pride

  David Hume (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of David Hume (Illustrated)”, p.522, Delphi Classics

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• Any person seasoned with a just sense of the imperfections of natural reason, will fly to revealed truth with the greatest avidity.

  David Hume

  Imperfection, Reason, Natural

  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.548

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• God is an ever-present spirit guiding all that happens to a wise and holy end.

  David Hume

  Faith, Wise, Spirit

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• Rousseau was mad but influential; Hume was sane but had no followers.

  David Hume

  Mad, Followers, Influential

  "A History of Western Philosophy". Book by Bertrand Russell, Book Three, Part I, Chapter 17. Hume, 1945.

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• Morals and criticism are not so properly objects of the understanding as of taste and sentiment.

  David Hume

  Understanding, Criticism, Taste

  David Hume (1826). “And the human understanding. An inquiry concerning the principles of morals. Appendix. The natural history of religion”, p.192

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• Obscurity, indeed, is painful to the mind as well as to the eye; but to bring light from obscurity, by whatever labour, must needsbe delightful and rejoicing.

  David Hume

  Eye, Light, Mind

  David Hume (2012). “An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding”, p.15, tredition

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• 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

  Talking, Mind, Identity

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• 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. ... his internal sentiments are more regulated by the personal characters of men, than by the accidental and capricious favors of fortune.

  David Hume

  Philosophy, Character, Men

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• The simplest and most obvious cause which can there be assigned for any phenomena, is probably the true one.

  David Hume

  Words Of Wisdom, Causes, Obvious

  David Hume (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of David Hume (Illustrated)”, p.1189, Delphi Classics

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• And as this is the obvious appearance of things, it must be admitted, till some hypothesis be discovered, which by penetrating deeper into human nature, may prove the former affections to be nothing but modifications of the latter. All attempts of this kind have hitherto proved fruitless, and seem to have proceeded entirely from that love of simplicity which has been the source of much false reasoning in philosophy.

  David Hume

  Philosophy, Simplicity, Words Of Wisdom

  David Hume (1758). “Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects”, p.402

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• All morality depends upon our sentiments; and when any action or quality of the mind pleases us after a certain manner we say it is virtuous; and when the neglect or nonperformance of it displeases us after a like manner, we say that we lie under an obligation to perform it.

  David Hume

  Lying, Mind, Quality

  David Hume (2010). “Moral and Political Philosophy”, p.142, Simon and Schuster

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• Character is the result of a system of stereotyped principals.

  David Hume

  Philosophical, Character, Results

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• Truth is disputable; not taste: what exists in the nature of things is the standard of our judgement; what each man feels within himself is the standard of sentiment. Propositions in geometry may be proved, systems in physics may be controverted; but the harmony of verse, the tenderness of passion, the brilliancy of wit, must give immediate pleasure. No man reasons concerning another's beauty; but frequently concerning the justice or injustice of his actions.

  David Hume

  Passion, Men, Giving

  David Hume (2016). “An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding: Revision of Great Book”, p.131, VM eBooks

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• Philosophy would render us entirely Pyrrhonian, were not nature too strong for it.

  David Hume

  Strong, Philosophy, Philosophical

  David Hume (1999). “An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding”, p.39, Open Court

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• In our reasonings concerning matter of fact, there are all imaginable degrees of assurance, from the highest certainty to the lowest species of moral evidence. A wise man, therefore, proportions his belief to the evidence.

  David Hume

  Wise, Men, Facts

  David Hume (1784). “Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects”, p.118

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• Poets themselves, tho' liars by profession, always endeavour to give an air of truth to their fictions.

  David Hume

  Liars, Air, Giving

  'A Treatise upon Human Nature' (1739) bk. 1, pt. 3

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• If ... the past may be no Rule for the future, all Experience becomes useless and can give rise to no Inferences or Conclusions.

  David Hume

  Future, Science, Past

  David Hume (1758). “Essays and Treatises on several subjects, etc. New edition”, p.305

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• Reason, in a strict sense, as meaning the judgment of truth and falsehood, can never, of itself, be any motive to the will, and can have no influence but so far as it touches some passion or affection. Abstract relations of ideas are the object of curiosity, not of volition. And matters of fact, where they are neither good nor evil, where they neither excite desire nor aversion, are totally indifferent, and whether known or unknown, whether mistaken or rightly apprehended, cannot be regarded as any motive to action.

  David Hume

  Truth, Passion, Ideas

  David Hume, Tom L. Beauchamp (2007). “A Dissertation on the Passions: The Natural History of Religion : a Critical Edition”, p.24, Oxford University Press

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• ... superstitions, which, being unable to defend themselves on fair ground, raise these intangling brambles to cover and protect their weakness. Chased from the open country, these robbers fly into the forest, and lie in wait to break in upon every unguarded avenue of the mind, and overwhelm it with religious fears and prejudices. ... The idea of God, as meaning an infinitely intelligent, wise and good Being, arises from reflecting on the operations of our own mind, and augmenting, without limit, those qualities of goodness and wisdom.

  David Hume

  Wise, Country, Religious

  David Hume (1779). “An inquiry concerning human understanding. A dissertation on the passions. An inquiry concerning the principles of morals. The natural history of religion”, p.10

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• The consequence of a very free commerce between the sexes, and of their living much together, will often terminate in intrigues and gallantry.

  David Hume

  Sex, Men, Together

  David Hume (1758). “Essays and Treatises on several subjects, etc. New edition”, p.487

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• Men are much oftener thrown on their knees by the melancholy than by the agreeable passions.

  David Hume

  Passion, Men, Knees

  David Hume, Tom L. Beauchamp (2007). “A Dissertation on the Passions: The Natural History of Religion : a Critical Edition”, p.42, Oxford University Press

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• Your corn is ripe today; mine will be so tomorrow. 'Tis profitable for us both, that I should labour with you today, and that you should aid me tomorrow.

  David Hume

  Collaboration, Corn, Today

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