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 HUMEIt is, therefore, a just political maxim, that every man must be supposed a knave.
More David Hume Quotes
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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.
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A miracle is a violation of the laws of nature.
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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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A wise man apportions his beliefs to the evidence.
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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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The gazing populace receive greedily, without examination, whatever soothes superstition and promotes wonder.
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To be a philosophical Sceptic is the first and most essential step towards being a sound, believing Christian.
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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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Beauty in things exists in the mind which contemplates them
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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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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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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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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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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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What a peculiar privilege has this little agitation of the brain which we call ‘thought’
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The bigotry of theologians is a malady which seems almost incurable.
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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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The 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.
DAVID HUME -
Where am I, or what? From what causes do I derive my existence, and to what condition shall I return?
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The science of man is the only solid foundation for the other sciences.
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But the greatest part of mankind float between vice and virtue.
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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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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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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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All knowledge degenerates into probability.
DAVID HUME