It is, therefore, a just political maxim, that every man must be supposed a knave.
DAVID HUMEWe 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.
More David Hume Quotes
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But the life of a man is of no greater importance to the universe than that of an oyster.
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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.
DAVID HUME -
If subjects must never resist, it follows that every prince, without any effort, policy, or violence, is at once rendered absolute and uncontrollable.
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.
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To be a philosophical Sceptic is the first and most essential step towards being a sound, believing Christian.
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 -
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 -
He is happy whose circumstances suit his temper, but he is more excellent who can suit his temper to his circumstance.
DAVID HUME -
The truth springs from arguments amongst friends.
DAVID HUME -
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.
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 -
Beauty in things exists in the mind which contemplates them
DAVID HUME -
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.
DAVID HUME -
It is difficult for a man to speak long of himself without vanity.
DAVID HUME -
Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions.
DAVID HUME -
Carelessness and in-attention alone can afford us any remedy. For this reason I rely entirely upon them.
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 -
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 -
Revolutions of government cannot be effected by the mere force of argument and reasoning.
DAVID HUME -
A miracle is a violation of the laws of nature.
DAVID HUME -
The Crusades – the most signal and most durable monument of human folly that has yet appeared in any age or nation.
DAVID HUME -
Heaven and Hell suppose two distinct species of men, the good and bad.
DAVID HUME -
When suicide is out of fashion we conclude that none but madmen destroy themselves.
DAVID HUME -
Reading and sauntering and lounging and dosing, which I call thinking, is my supreme Happiness.
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 -
I never knew anyone, that examined and deliberated about nonsense, who did not believe it before the end of his enquiries.
DAVID HUME