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 HUMEThe 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.
More David Hume Quotes
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Heaven and Hell suppose two distinct species of men, the good and bad.
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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.
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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?
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no testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle, unless the testimony be of such a kind, that its falsehood would be more miraculous, than the fact, which it endeavors to establish.
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How can we satisfy ourselves without going on in infinitum? And, after all, what satisfaction is there in that infinite progression?
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It is, therefore, a just political maxim, that every man must be supposed a knave.
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Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions.
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Beauty is no quality in things themselves: It exists merely in the mind which contemplates them; and each mind perceives a different beauty.
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Generally speaking, the errors in religion are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous.
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Carelessness and in-attention alone can afford us any remedy. For this reason I rely entirely upon them.
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It is possible for the same thing both to be and not to be.
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If subjects must never resist, it follows that every prince, without any effort, policy, or violence, is at once rendered absolute and uncontrollable.
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A wise man apportions his beliefs to the evidence.
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I may venture to affirm of the rest of mankind, that they are nothing but a bundle or collection of different perceptions, which succeed each other with an inconceivable rapidity, and are in a perpetual flux and movement.
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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