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 HUMEReason 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.
More David Hume Quotes
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Be a philosopher; but, amidst all your philosophy, be still a man.
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To be a philosophical Sceptic is the first and most essential step towards being a sound, believing Christian.
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Carelessness and in-attention alone can afford us any remedy. For this reason I rely entirely upon them.
DAVID HUME -
The gazing populace receive greedily, without examination, whatever soothes superstition and promotes wonder.
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 -
The victory is not gained by the men at arms, who manage the pike and the sword; but by the trumpeters, drummers, and musicians of the army.
DAVID HUME -
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 -
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 -
In public affairs men are often better pleased that the truth, though known to everybody, should be wrapped up under a decent cover than if it were exposed in open daylight to the eyes of all the world.
DAVID HUME -
Tis not unreasonable for me to prefer the destruction of the whole world to the scratching of my finger.
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 -
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 -
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 -
But the greatest part of mankind float between vice and virtue.
DAVID HUME -
Beauty in things exists in the mind which contemplates them
DAVID HUME