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Portrait of David Hume

David Hume

(1711–1776) Librarian United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

487 quotes in 1710 categories

Hume’s sharp analytical mind and measured skepticism emerge in these 487 passages, offering concise reflections on knowledge, morality, and human nature. Each line beckons a thoughtful pause.

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David Hume was a librarian from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, best known for Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion.

Quick Facts About David Hume

Born: May 7, 1711
Died: August 25, 1776
Nationality: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
Profession: Librarian
Notable works: Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion

About David Hume

David Hume was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist and essayist who is known for his highly influential system of empiricism, philosophical scepticism and metaphysical naturalism. Beginning with A Treatise of Human Nature (1739–40), Hume strove to create a naturalistic science of man that examined the psychological basis of human nature. Following John Locke, Hume rejected the existence of innate ideas, holding that all our ideas derive ultimately from impressions, but in his fork he distinguished relations of ideas, known a priori, from matters of fact, whose knowledge rests on experience. This places him in the empiricist tradition of Locke and George Berkeley, while drawing his experimental method from Francis Bacon.

Biography source: Wikipedia

Quotes by David Hume

“The truth springs from arguments amongst friends.”

Arguments

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Custom is the great guide to human life.

Culture

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All knowledge degenerates into probability.

Degenerates

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Self-denial is a monkish virtue.

Denial

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Truth is disputable, not human taste.

Humans

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Time is a perishable commodity.

Commodity

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The law always limits every power it gives.

Law

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A man posing for a painting.

Artist

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

Art

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To hate, to love, to think, to feel, to see; all this is nothing but to perceive.

Hate

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When men are most sure and arrogant they are commonly most mistaken.

Arrogance

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It is... a just political maxim, that every man must be supposed a knave.

Every man

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I never asserted such an absurd thing as that things arise without a cause.

Absurd

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Eloquence, when in its highest pitch, leaves little room for reason or reflection.

Eloquence

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History is the discovering of the principles of human nature.

Discovering

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“metaphysics by showing that these theories are not just false, but unintelligible.”

Metaphysics

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The Christian religion not only was at first attended with miracles, but even at this day cannot be believed by any reasonable…

Christian

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A man acquainted with history may, in some respect, be said to have lived from the beginning of the world, and to…

Century

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“[T]he Old Testament, [...] if considered as a general rule of conduct, would lead to consequences destructive of all principles of humanity…

Bible

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Your corn is ripe today; mine will be so tomorrow. 'Tis profitable for us both, that I should labour with you today,…

Aids

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Nothing endears so much a friend as sorrow for his death. The pleasure of his company has not so powerful an influence.

Business

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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…

Education

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The more instances we examine, and the more care we employ, the more assurance shall we acquire, that the enumeration, which we…

Assurance

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Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to…

Obey

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“Governments too steady and uniform, as they are seldom free, so are they, in the judgment of some attended with another sensible…

Courage

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A wise man's kingdom is his own breast: or, if he ever looks farther, it will only be to the judgment of…

Applause

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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…

Life

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Liberty is a blessing so inestimable, that, wherever there appears any probability of recovering it, a nation may willingly run many hazards,…

Blessing

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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…

Contradiction

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The slaving Poor are incapable of any Principles: Gentlemen may be converted to true Principles, by Time and Experience. The middling Rank…

Curiosity

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It seems to me, that the only Objects of the abstract Sciences or of Demonstration is Quantity and Number, and that all…

Abstract

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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…

Custom

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“Your corn is ripe today; mine will be so tomorrow. 'Tis profitable for us both, that I should labour with you today,…

Collaboration

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Your corn is ripe today, mine will be so tomorrow. 'Tis profitable for us both that I should labor with you today,…

Accounts

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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…

Argument

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A man who has cured himself of all ridiculous prepossessions, and is fully, sincerely, and steadily convinced, from experience as well as…

Acquaintance

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The conduct of a man, who studies philosophy in this careless manner, is more truly sceptical than that of any one, who…

Accounts

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“This world, for aught he knows, is very faulty and imperfect, compared to a superior standard; and was only the first rude…

Deity

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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…

Action

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“I am first affrighted and confounded with that forelorn solitude, in which I am plac'd in my philosophy, and fancy myself some…

Business

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David Hume by topic

Men (78) Philosophy (53) Life (48) Reason (46) Humans (46) Nature (45) May (44) Religion (43) Ifs (35) Character (29) Science (28) Psychology (28) Passion (28) Mind (27) Morality (26) Mankind (24) Love (24) Virtue (22) Sentiments (22) Principles (22) Objects (22) World (21) Nature of man (21) Learning (21) Beauty (21)