Generally speaking, the errors in religion are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous.
DAVID HUMEAs 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.
More David Hume Quotes
-
-
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 -
Beauty is no quality in things themselves: It exists merely in the mind which contemplates them; and each mind perceives a different beauty.
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 -
I weigh the one miracle against the other and according to the superiority which I discover, I pronounce my decision.
DAVID HUME -
We should never know how to adjust means to ends, or to employ our natural powers in the production of any effect. There would be an end at once of all action, as well as of the chief part of speculation.
DAVID HUME -
Be a philosopher; but, amidst all your philosophy, be still a man.
DAVID HUME -
When suicide is out of fashion we conclude that none but madmen destroy themselves.
DAVID HUME -
How can we satisfy ourselves without going on in infinitum? And, after all, what satisfaction is there in that infinite progression?
DAVID HUME -
There is nothing to be learnt from a Professor, which is not to be met with in Books.
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 -
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 -
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 -
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 -
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 -
Heaven and Hell suppose two distinct species of men, the good and bad.
DAVID HUME -
Liberty of any kind is never lost all at once
DAVID HUME -
To philosophers and historians, the madness and imbecile wickedness of mankind ought to appear ordinary events.
DAVID HUME -
It is possible for the same thing both to be and not to be.
DAVID HUME -
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 -
No man ever threw away life while it was worth keeping.
DAVID HUME -
It is difficult for a man to speak long of himself without vanity.
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 -
To be a philosophical Sceptic is the first and most essential step towards being a sound, believing Christian.
DAVID HUME -
A purpose, an intention, a design, strikes everywhere even the careless, the most stupid thinker.
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.
DAVID HUME -
Revolutions of government cannot be effected by the mere force of argument and reasoning.
DAVID HUME