Morals excite passions, and produce or prevent actions. Reason of itself is utterly impotent in this particular. The rules of morality, therefore,… — David Hume Copy Share Image
When men are most sure and arrogant they are commonly most mistaken, giving views to passion without that proper deliberation which alone… — David Hume Copy Share Image
Any pride or haughtiness, is displeasing to us, merely because it shocks our own pride, and leads us by sympathy into comparison,… — David Hume Copy Share Image
It is an absurdity to believe that the Deity has human passions, and one of the lowest of human passions, a restless… — David Hume Copy Share Image
Jealousy is a painful passion; yet without some share of it, the agreeable affection of love has difficulty to subsist in its… — David Hume Copy Share Image
It is a certain rule that wit and passion are entirely incompatible. When the affections are moved, there is no place for… — David Hume Copy Share Image
“There is no craving or demand of the human mind more constant and insatiable than that for exercise and employment, and this… — David Hume Copy Share Image
Delicacy of taste has the same effect as delicacy of passion; it enlarges the sphere both of our happiness and our misery. — David Hume Copy Share Image
“Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to… — David Hume Copy Share Image
The great charm of poetry consists in lively pictures of the sublime passions, magnanimity, courage, disdain of fortune; or thoseof the tender… — David Hume Copy Share Image
Vanity is so closely allied to virtue, and to love the fame of laudable actions approaches so near the love of laudable… — David Hume Copy Share Image
Nothing appears more surprising to those, who consider human affairs with a philosophical eye, than the easiness with which the many are… — David Hume Copy Share Image
Friendship is a calm and sedate affection, conducted by reason and cemented by habit; springing from long acquaintance and mutual obligations, without… — David Hume Copy Share Image
It cannot reasonably be doubted, but a little miss, dressed in a new gown for a dancing-school ball, receives as complete enjoyment… — David Hume Copy Share Image
Avarice, the spur of industry, is so obstinate a passion, and works its way through so many real dangers and difficulties, that… — David Hume Copy Share Image
Truth is disputable; not taste: what exists in the nature of things is the standard of our judgement; what each man feels… — David Hume Copy Share Image
But the most common species of love is that which first arises from beauty, and afterwards diffuses itself into kindness and into… — David Hume Copy Share Image
“There is an universal tendency amongst mankind to conceive all beings like themselves, and to transfer to every object those qualities, with… — David Hume Copy Share Image
Reason, in a strict sense, as meaning the judgment of truth and falsehood, can never, of itself, be any motive to the… — David Hume Copy Share Image
I say then, that belief is nothing but a more vivid, lively, forcible, firm, steady conception of an object, than what the… — David Hume Copy Share Image
The minds of men are mirrors to one another, not only because they reflect each other's emotions, but also because those rays… — David Hume Copy Share Image
Avarice, or the desire of gain, is a universal passion which operates at all times, at all places, and upon all persons. — David Hume Copy Share Image
The feelings of our heart, the agitation of our passions, the vehemence of our affections, dissipate all its conclusions, and reduce the… — David Hume Copy Share Image
Nothing can be more unphilosophical than to be positive or dogmatical on any subject; and even if excessive scepticism could be maintained… — David Hume Copy Share Image
Every movement of the theater by a skilful poet is communicated, as it were, by magic, to the spectators; who weep, tremble,… — David Hume Copy Share Image
Nothing more powerfully excites any affection than to conceal some part of its object, by throwing it into a kind of shade,… — David Hume Copy Share Image
If morality had naturally no influence on human passions and actions, it were in vain to take such pains to inculcate it;… — David Hume Copy Share Image
“It is impossible for us to think of any thing, which we have not antecedently felt, either by our external or internal senses.” — David Hume Copy Share
All morality depends upon our sentiments; and when any action or quality of the mind pleases us after a certain manner we say it… — David Hume Copy Share
And indeed nothing but the most determined scepticism, along with a great degree of indolence, can justify this aversion to metaphysics. For if truth… — David Hume Copy Share
...virtue is attended by more peace of mind than vice, and meets with a more favourable reception from the world. I am sensible, that,… — David Hume Copy Share
That the sun will not rise tomorrow is no less intelligible a proposition, and implies no more contradiction, than the affirmation, that it will… — David Hume Copy Share
We may conclude, therefore, that, in order to establish laws for the regulation of property, we must be acquainted with the nature and situation… — David Hume Copy Share
The observation of human blindness and weakness is the result of all philosophy, and meets us at every turn, in spite of our endeavours… — David Hume Copy Share
The religious hypothesis, therefore, must be considered only as a particular method of accounting for the visible phenomena of the universe: but no just… — David Hume Copy Share
Manufacturers...gradually shift their places, leaving those countries and provinces which they have already enriched, and flying to others, whether they are allured by the… — David Hume Copy Share
We may observe that, in displaying the praises of any humane, beneficent man, there is one circumstance which never fails to be amply insisted… — David Hume Copy Share
“The most perfect happiness, surely, must arise from the contemplation of the most perfect object.” — David Hume Copy Share
“They all make up new species of crime and bring unhappiness in their train. When I hear a man is religious , I conclude… — David Hume Copy Share
There is not to be found, in all history, any miracle attested by a sufficient number of men, of such unquestioned good sense, education… — David Hume Copy Share
“But though there be naturally a wide difference in point of delicacy between one person and another, nothing tends further to encrease and improve… — David Hume Copy Share
