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 HUMEIn 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.
More David Hume Quotes
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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.
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 -
Where am I, or what? From what causes do I derive my existence, and to what condition shall I return?
DAVID HUME -
Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions.
DAVID HUME -
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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It is, therefore, a just political maxim, that every man must be supposed a knave.
DAVID HUME -
I never knew anyone, that examined and deliberated about nonsense, who did not believe it before the end of his enquiries.
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What a peculiar privilege has this little agitation of the brain which we call ‘thought’
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When suicide is out of fashion we conclude that none but madmen destroy themselves.
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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.
DAVID HUME -
I weigh the one miracle against the other and according to the superiority which I discover, I pronounce my decision.
DAVID HUME -
Reading and sauntering and lounging and dosing, which I call thinking, is my supreme Happiness.
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Be a philosopher; but, amidst all your philosophy, be still a man.
DAVID HUME -
A wise man apportions his beliefs to the evidence.
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