What peculiar privilege has this little agitation of the brain which we call thought, that we must thus make it the model… — David Hume Copy Share Image
In all determinations of morality, this circumstance of public utility is ever principally in view; and wherever disputes arise, either in philosophy… — David Hume Copy Share Image
It is certain that the easy and obvious philosophy will always, with the generality of mankind, have preference above the accurate. — David Hume Copy Share Image
“When we run over libraries, persuaded of these principles, what havoc must we make? If we take in our hand any volume… — David Hume Copy Share Image
Philosophy would render us entirely Pyrrhonian, were not nature too strong for it. — David Hume Copy Share Image
“metaphysics by showing that these theories are not just false, but unintelligible.” — David Hume Copy Share Image
“There is no method of reasoning more common, and yet none more blameable, than, in philosophical disputes, to endeavour the refutation of… — David Hume Copy Share Image
And though the philosopher may live remote from business, the genius of philosophy, if carefully cultivated by several, must gradually diffuse itself… — David Hume Copy Share Image
“There are instances, indeed, wherein men shew a vanity in resembling a great man in his countenance, shape, air, or other minute… — David Hume Copy Share Image
“I am first affrighted and confounded with that forelorn solitude, in which I am plac'd in my philosophy, and fancy myself some… — David Hume Copy Share Image
The most perfect philosophy of the natural kind only staves off our ignorance a little longer: as perhaps the most perfect philosophy… — David Hume Copy Share Image
“At present they [philosophers] seem to be in a very lamentable condition, and such as the poets have given us but a… — David Hume Copy Share Image
“Thomas Hobbes's politics are fitted only to promote tyranny, and his ethics to encourage licentiousness.” — David Hume Copy Share Image
The chief benefit, which results from philosophy, arises in an indirect manner, and proceeds more from its secret, insensible influence, than from… — David Hume Copy Share Image
“Abstruse thought and profound researches I prohibit, and will severely punish, by the pensive melancholy which they introduce, by the endless uncertainty… — David Hume Copy Share Image
“I am first affrighted and confounded with that forelorn solitude, in which I am plac'd in my philosophy, and fancy myself some… — David Hume Copy Share Image
The whole is a riddle, an enigma, an inexplicable mystery. Doubt, uncertainty, suspence of judgment appear the only result of ourmost accurate… — David Hume Copy Share Image
Reasoning from the common course of nature, and without supposing any new interposition of the Supreme Cause, which ought always to be… — 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
“study of human nature was in a sorry state. While he had reservations about the ancient philosophers for depending ‘more on Invention… — David Hume Copy Share Image
Accurate and just reasoning is the only catholic remedy, fitted for all persons and all dispositions; and is alone able to subvert… — David Hume Copy Share Image
How can we satisfy ourselves without going on in infinitum? And, after all, what satisfaction is there in that infinite progression? Let… — David Hume Copy Share Image
If we take in our hand any volume; of divinity or school metaphysics, for instance; let us ask, Does it contain any… — 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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
...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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
“The most perfect happiness, surely, must arise from the contemplation of the most perfect object.” — David Hume Copy Share Image
