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Nature Quotes by David Hume

45 Nature quotes by David Hume

All Nature quotes David Hume’s page

David Hume notes that making rules about property requires knowing how people naturally behave. He calls miracles violations of nature’s steady laws, and says all knowledge is really about probability. He also observes that even the simplest natural creations can outshine the finest human art.

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Art may make a suite of clothes, but nature must produce a man.

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History is the discovering of the principles of human nature.

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Which is more likely: that the whole natural order is suspended, or that a jewish minx should tell a lie?

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.. the voice of nature and experience seems plainly to oppose the selfish theory.

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[A persons] utmost art and industry can never equal the meanest of nature's productions, either for beauty or value.

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Philosophy would render us entirely Pyrrhonian, were not nature too strong for it.

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Human Nature is the only science of man; and yet has been hitherto the most neglected.

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“study of human nature was in a sorry state. While he had reservations about the ancient philosophers for depending ‘more on Invention…

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Convulsions in nature, disorders, prodigies, miracles, though the most opposite of the plan of a wise superintendent, impress mankind with the strongest…

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Such is the nature of novelty that where anything pleases it becomes doubly agreeable if new; but if it displeases, it is…

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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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Happy the man whom indulgent fortune allows to pay to virtue what he owes to nature, and to make a generous gift…

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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…

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There is a very remarkable inclination in human nature to bestow on external objects the same emotions which it observes in itself,…

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Few enjoyments are given from the open and liberal hand of nature; but by art, labor and industry we can extract them…

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

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

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Truth is disputable; not taste: what exists in the nature of things is the standard of our judgement; what each man feels…

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Reasoning from the common course of nature, and without supposing any new interposition of the Supreme Cause, which ought always to be…

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Of all the animals with which this globe is peopled, there is none towards whom nature seems, at first sight, to have…

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It is a great mortification to the vanity of man, that his utmost art and industry can never equal the meanest of…

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A pleasant comedy, which paints the manners of the age, and exposes a faithful picture of nature, is a durable work, and…

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“A miracle is a violation of the laws of nature; and as a firm and unalterable experience has established these laws, the…

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“How little is requisite to supply the necessities of nature? And in a view to pleasure, what comparison between the unbought satisfaction…

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Look round this universe. What an immense profusion of beings, animated and organized, sensible and active! You admire this prodigious variety and…

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“Hume is indeed sceptical about the possibility of metaphysical insights that go deeper than science can, he is not at all sceptical…

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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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If nature has been frugal in her gifts and endowments, there is the more need of art to supply her defects. If…

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

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“A miracle is a violation of the laws of nature; and because firm and unalterable experience has established these laws, the case…

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

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

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But I would still reply, that the knavery and folly of men are such common phenomena, that I should rather believe the…

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“While Newton seemed to draw off the veil from some of the mysteries of nature, he showed at the same time the…

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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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While Newton seemed to draw off the veil from some of the mysteries of nature, he showed at the same time the…

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We find in the course of nature that though the effects be many, the principles from which they arise are commonly few…

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To consider the matter aright, reason is nothing but a wonderful and unintelligible instinct in our souls, which carries us along a…

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“And while the body is confined to one planet, along which it creeps with pain and difficulty; the thought can in an…

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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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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…