Humans Quotes by David Hume

History is the discovering of the principles of human nature.

— David Hume

The great end of all human industry is the attainment of happiness

— David Hume

Truth is disputable, not human taste.

— 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

It is an absurdity to believe that the Deity has human passions, and one of the lowest of human passions, a restless…

— David Hume

Never literary attempt was more unfortunate than my Treatise of Human Nature. It fell dead-born from the press.

— David Hume

Human happiness seems to consist in three ingredients: action, pleasure and indolence.

— David Hume

No human testimony can have such force as to prove a miracle, and make it a just foundation for any such system…

— David Hume

There is nothing, in itself, valuable or despicable, desirable or hateful, beautiful or deformed; but that these attributes arise from the particular…

— David Hume

...virtue is attended by more peace of mind than vice, and meets with a more favourable reception from the world. I am…

— David Hume

As every inquiry which regards religion is of the utmost importance, there are two questions in particular which challenge our attention, to…

— David Hume

Nothing appears more surprising to those, who consider human affairs with a philosophical eye, than the easiness with which the many are…

— David Hume

All that belongs to human understanding, in this deep ignorance and obscurity, is to be sceptical, or at least cautious, and not…

— David Hume

Mankind are so much the same, in all times and places, that history informs us of nothing new or strange in this…

— David Hume

Among the arts of conversation no one pleases more than mutual deference or civility, which leads us to resign our own inclinations…

— David Hume

Custom, then, is the great guide of human life. It is that principle alone, which renders our experience useful to us, and…

— David Hume

If we confine ourselves to a general and distant reflection on the ills of human life, that can have no effect to…

— David Hume

The whole is a riddle, an enigma, an inexplicable mystery. Doubt, uncertainty, suspence of judgment appear the only result of ourmost accurate…

— David Hume

[The sceptic] must acknowledge, if he will acknowledge any thing, that all human life must perish, were his principles to prevail.All discourse,…

— David Hume

Let us become thoroughly sensible of the weakness, blindness, and narrow limits of human reason: Let us duly consider its uncertainty and…

— David Hume

The great end of all human industry is the attainment of happiness. For this were arts invented, sciences cultivated, laws ordained, and…

— David Hume

It seems certain, that though a man, in a flush of humour, after intense reflection on the many contradictions and imperfections of…

— David Hume

There is an universal tendency among mankind to conceive all beings like themselves, and to transfer to every object, those qualities, with…

— David Hume

The most perfect philosophy of the natural kind only staves off our ignorance a little longer: as perhaps the most perfect philosophy…

— David Hume

In all determinations of morality, this circumstance of public utility is ever principally in view; and wherever disputes arise, either in philosophy…

— David Hume

The observation of human blindness and weakness is the result of all philosophy, and meets us at every turn, in spite of…

— David Hume

No conclusions can be more agreeable to scepticism than such as make discoveries concerning the weakness and narrow limits of human reason…

— David Hume

We make allowance for a certain degree of selfishness in men; because we know it to be inseparable from human nature, and…

— David Hume

No quality of human nature is more remarkable, both in itself and in its consequences, than that propensity we have to sympathize…

— David Hume

I do not think a philosopher who would apply himself so earnestly to the explaining the ultimate principles of the soul, would…

— David Hume

Everything is sold to skill and labor; and where nature furnishes the materials, they are still rude and unfinished, till industry, ever…

— David Hume

The whole of natural theologyresolves itself into one simple, though somewhat ambiguous proposition, That the cause or causesof order in the universe…

— David Hume

If morality had naturally no influence on human passions and actions, it were in vain to take such pains to inculcate it;…

— David Hume

Enthusiasm produces the most cruel disorders in human society; but its fury is like that of thunder and tempest, which exhaust themselves…

— David Hume

Justice is a moral virtue, merely because it has that tendency to the good of mankind, and indeed is nothing but an…

— David Hume

No one can doubt, that the convention for the distinction of property, and for the stability of possession, is of all circumstances…

— David Hume

I shall venture to affirm, that there never was a popular religion, which represented the state of departed souls in such a…

— David Hume

But, historians, and even common sense, may inform us, that, however specious these ideas of perfect equality may seem, they are really,…

— David Hume

A too great disproportion among the citizens weakens any state. Every person, if possible, ought to enjoy the fruits of his labour,…

— David Hume

All the sciences have a relation, greater or less, to human nature; and...however wide any of them may seem to run from…

— David Hume