David Hume Quotes

Men often act knowingly against their interest.

Be a philosopher but amid all your philosophy be still a man.

Explanation is where the mind rests.

It is an absurdity to believe that the Deity has human passions, and one of the lowest of human pass...

As every inquiry which regards religion is of the utmost importance, there are two questions in part...

I began to entertain a suspicion, that no man in this age was sufficiently qualified for such an und...

Of all sciences there is none, where first appearances are more deceitful than in politics.

When suicide is out of fashion we conclude that none but madmen destroy themselves; and all the effo...

If my life be not my own, it were criminal for me to put it in danger, as well as to dispose of it; ...

We choose our favourite author as we do our friend, from a conformity of humour and disposition. Mir...

Does a man of sense run after every silly tale of hobgoblins or fairies, and canvass particularly th...

[I]t must be owned, that liberty is the perfection of civil society; but still authority must be ack...

I am apt, however, to entertain a Suspicion, that the World is still too young to fix any general st...

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

To be a philosophical Sceptic is the first and most essential step towards being a sound, believing ...

How can we satisfy ourselves without going on in infinitum? And, after all, what satisfaction is the...

The corruption of the best things gives rise to the worst.

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

This avidity alone, of acquiring goods and possessions for ourselves and our nearest friends, is ins...

Beauty, whether moral or natural, is felt, more properly than perceived.

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

When anyone tells me that he saw a dead man restored to life, I immediately consider with myself whe...

A purpose, an intention, a design, strikes everywhere even the careless, the most stupid thinker.

He is happy whose circumstances suit his temper but he is more excellent who suits his temper to an...

This world, for aught he knows, is very faulty and imperfect, compared to a superior standard; and w...

Nothing is more usual than for philosophers to encroach upon the province of grammarians; and to eng...

Disputes with men, pertinaciously obstinate in their principles, are, of all others, the most irksom...

A man who has cured himself of all ridiculous prepossessions, and is fully, sincerely, and steadily ...

A miracle is a violation of the laws of nature; and because firm and unalterable experience has esta...

Here then we are first to consider a book, presented to us by a barbarous and ignorant people, writt...

Indulge your passion for science…but let your science be human, and such as may have a direct refere...

There is no method of reasoning more common, and yet none more blameable, than, in philosophical dis...

It is impossible for us to think of any thing, which we have not antecedently felt, either by our ex...

Be a philosopher; but, amidst all your philosophy, be still a man.

A body of ten ounces raised in any scale may serve as a proof, that the counterbalancing weight exce...

There are instances, indeed, wherein men shew a vanity in resembling a great man in his countenance,...

He is happy whose circumstances suit his temper but he is more excellent who can suit his temper to...

The heights of popularity and patriotism are still the beaten road to power and tyranny.

I am ready to reject all belief and reasoning and can look upon no opinion even as more probable or...

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

Generally speaking, the errors in religion are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous.

Belief is nothing but a more vivid, lively, forcible, firm, steady conception of an object, than wha...

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

Truth springs from argument amongst friends.

If Shakespeare be considered as a MAN born in a rude age and educated in the lowest manner, without ...

Beauty in things exists in the mind which contemplates them.

The most unhappy of all men is he who believes himself to be so.

The Christian religion not only was at first attended with miracles, but even at this day cannot be ...

There is not to be found, in all history, any miracle attested by a sufficient number of men, of suc...

Nothing is pure and entire of a piece. All advantages are attended with disadvantages. A universal c...

Epicurus's old questions are still unanswered: Is he (God) willing to prevent evil, but not able? th...

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

A propensity to hope and joy is real riches one to fear and sorrow real poverty.

Heaven and hell suppose two distinct species of men, the good and the bad. But the greatest part of ...

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

Any pride or haughtiness, is displeasing to us, merely because it shocks our own pride, and leads us...

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

Tis from the resemblance of the external actions of animals to those we ourselves perform, that we j...

Should a traveler, returning from a far country, bring us an account of men wholly different from an...

Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions.

Every wise, just, and mild government, by rendering the condition of its subjects easy and secure, w...

Scholastic learning and polemical divinity retarded the growth of all true knowledge.

A miracle is a violation of the laws of nature; and as a firm and unalterable experience has establi...

Liberty of any kind is never lost all at once.

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