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 HUMEWhen suicide is out of fashion we conclude that none but madmen destroy themselves.
More David Hume Quotes
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As 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.
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A miracle is a violation of the laws of nature.
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All sentiment is right; because sentiment has a reference to nothing beyond itself, and is always real, wherever a man is conscious of it.
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A wise man apportions his beliefs to the evidence.
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When men are most sure and arrogant they are commonly most mistaken, giving views to passion without that proper deliberation which alone can secure them from the grossest absurdities.
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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.
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Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions.
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The truth springs from arguments amongst friends.
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We make allowance for a certain degree of selfishness in men; because we know it to be inseparable from human nature, and inherent in our frame and constitution. By this reflexion we correct those sentiments of blame, which so naturally arise upon any opposition.
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To philosophers and historians, the madness and imbecile wickedness of mankind ought to appear ordinary events.
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There is nothing to be learnt from a Professor, which is not to be met with in Books.
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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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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.
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I weigh the one miracle against the other and according to the superiority which I discover, I pronounce my decision.
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He is happy whose circumstances suit his temper, but he is more excellent who can suit his temper to his circumstance.
DAVID HUME