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Life Quotes by David Hume

48 Life quotes by David Hume

All Life quotes David Hume’s page

David Hume reminds us that a single life is as small to the universe as an oyster’s. He argues that our strongest inclination shapes all other desires, and that custom, not reason, usually guides our actions. He also points out that recognizing life’s shortness makes many quests for happiness seem trivial.

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Custom is the great guide to human life.

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While we are reasoning concerning life, life is gone.

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It is not reason which is the guide of life, but custom.

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No man ever threw away life while it was worth keeping.

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The life of man is of no greater importance to the universe than that of an oyster.

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The first ideas of religion arose, not from contemplation of the works of nature, but from a concern with regard to the…

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“What age or period of life is the most addicted to superstition? The weakest and most timid. What sex? The same answer…

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The great subverter of Pyrrhonism or the excessive principles of scepticism is action, and employment, and the occupations of common life.

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But it is a miracle that a dead man should come to life; because that has never been observed in any age…

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“But the life of a man is of no greater importance to the universe than that of an oyster.”

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When we reflect on the shortness and uncertainty of life, how despicable seem all our pursuits of happiness.

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

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For the purposes of life and conduct, and society, a little good sense is surely better than all this genius, and a…

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The sweetest path of life leads through the avenues of learning, and whoever can open up the way for another, ought, so…

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We may well ask, What causes induce us to believe in the existence of body? but 'tis vain to ask. Whether there…

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In all the events of life, we ought still to preserve our scepticism. If we believe that fire warms, or water refreshes,…

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

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“The sweetest and most inoffensive path of life leads through the avenues of science and learning; and whoever can either remove any…

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Almost every one has a predominant inclination, to which his other desires and affections submit, and which governs him, though perhaps with…

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“Do you imagine that I repine at Providence, or curse my creation, because I go out of life, and put a period…

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“The confusion, in which impressions are sometimes involved, proceeds only from their faintness and unsteadiness, not from any capacity in the mind…

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..all arguments concerning existence are founded on the relation of cause and effect; that our knowledge of that relation is derived entirely…

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Learning has been as great a Loser by being shut up in Colleges and Cells, and secluded from the World and good…

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When anyone tells me that he saw a dead man restored to life, I immediately consider with myself whether it be more…

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We can conceive a thinking being to have either many or few perceptions. Suppose the mind to be reduced even below the…

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Nothing is demonstrable, unless the contrary implies a contradiction. Nothing, that is distinctly conceivable, implies a contradiction. Whatever we conceive as existent,…

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

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“The sweetest and most inoffensive path of life leads through the avenues of science and learning; and whoever can either remove any…

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“Man, it is true, can, by combination, surmount all his real enemies, and become master of the whole animal creation: but does…

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“Where am I, or what? From what causes do I derive my existence, and to what condition shall I return? ... I…

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

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Let us fix our attention out of ourselves as much as possible; let us chase our imagination to the heavens, or to…

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There is only one vice, which may be found in life with as strong features, and as high a colouring as needs…

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Where is the reward of virtue? and what recompense has nature provided for such important sacrifices as those of life and fortune,…

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Nothing is pure and entire of a piece. All advantages are attended with disadvantages. A universal compensation prevails in all conditions of…

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“We must therefore glean up our experiments in this science from a cautious observation of human life, and take them as they…

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Tis evident that all reasonings concerning matter of fact are founded on the relation of cause and effect, and that we can…

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

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Luxury, or a refinement on the pleasures and conveniences of life, had long been supposed the source of every corruption in government,…

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“If my life be not my own, it were criminal for me to put it in danger, as well as to dispose…

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More by David Hume

“Beauty in things exists in the mind that contemplates them.”

“It is impossible for us to think of any thing, which we have not antecedently felt, either by our external or internal senses.”

All morality depends upon our sentiments; and when any action or quality of the mind pleases us after a certain manner we say it…

And indeed nothing but the most determined scepticism, along with a great degree of indolence, can justify this aversion to metaphysics. For if truth…

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

That the sun will not rise tomorrow is no less intelligible a proposition, and implies no more contradiction, than the affirmation, that it will…

We may conclude, therefore, that, in order to establish laws for the regulation of property, we must be acquainted with the nature and situation…

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

The religious hypothesis, therefore, must be considered only as a particular method of accounting for the visible phenomena of the universe: but no just…

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…

We may observe that, in displaying the praises of any humane, beneficent man, there is one circumstance which never fails to be amply insisted…

“The most perfect happiness, surely, must arise from the contemplation of the most perfect object.”

“They all make up new species of crime and bring unhappiness in their train. When I hear a man is religious , I conclude…

There is not to be found, in all history, any miracle attested by a sufficient number of men, of such unquestioned good sense, education…

“But though there be naturally a wide difference in point of delicacy between one person and another, nothing tends further to encrease and improve…