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
Enthusiasm produces the most cruel disorders in human society; but its fury is like that of thunder and tempest, which exhaust themselves… — David Hume Copy Share Image
That the corruption of the best thing produces the worst, is grown into a maxim, and is commonly proved, among other instances,… — David Hume Copy Share Image
How could politics be a science, if laws and forms of government had not a uniform influence upon society? Where would be… — David Hume Copy Share Image
The best taxes are such as are levied upon consumptions, especially those of luxury; because such taxes are least felt by the… — David Hume Copy Share Image
To consider the matter aright, reason is nothing but a wonderful and unintelligible instinct in our souls, which carries us along a… — David Hume Copy Share Image
... if you insist that the inference is made by a chain of reasoning, I desire you to produce that reasoning. The… — 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
If nature has been frugal in her gifts and endowments, there is the more need of art to supply her defects. If… — 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
