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.
DAVID HUMEThe 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.
More David Hume Quotes
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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.
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Revolutions of government cannot be effected by the mere force of argument and reasoning.
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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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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 Crusades – the most signal and most durable monument of human folly that has yet appeared in any age or nation.
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Heaven and Hell suppose two distinct species of men, the good and bad.
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A wise man apportions his beliefs to the evidence.
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But the greatest part of mankind float between vice and virtue.
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No man ever threw away life while it was worth keeping.
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It is, therefore, a just political maxim, that every man must be supposed a knave.
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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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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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It is difficult for a man to speak long of himself without vanity.
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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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I weigh the one miracle against the other and according to the superiority which I discover, I pronounce my decision.
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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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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
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The bigotry of theologians is a malady which seems almost incurable.
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It is possible for the same thing both to be and not to be.
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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.
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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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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.
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All knowledge degenerates into probability.
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What a peculiar privilege has this little agitation of the brain which we call ‘thought’
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Where am I, or what? From what causes do I derive my existence, and to what condition shall I return?
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Reason 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.
DAVID HUME